CHAPTER IV.
HEBER EMBRACES MORMONISM—A BAPTISM OF FIRE—DEATH OF MIRIAM YOUNG—VILATE KIMBALL A MOTHER TO THE ORPHANS—HEBER ORDAINED AN ELDER—RESOLVES TO VISIT KIRTLAND.
Heber, be it remembered, was a potter, and, though fairly well-to-do in the world, continued to labor at his trade for a livelihood.
One day in April, of the spring following his visit to Pennsylvania, as he was working in his shop, in the act of forming a vessel on the wheel, Alpheus Gifford entered. This Elder was then on his second mission to those parts, in company with others of his brethren. The conversation turning on the subject of the gospel, Heber said: "Brother Alpheus, I am ready to go forward and be baptized."
What followed is thus graphically told. Says Heber: "I arose, pulled off my apron, washed my hands and started with him, with my sleeves rolled up to my shoulders, and went a distance of one mile, where he baptized me in a small stream in the woods. After I was baptized I kneeled down and he laid his hands upon my head and confirmed me a member of the Church of Jesus Christ, and said unto me, 'In the name of Jesus Christ, and by the authority of the holy Priesthood, receive ye the Holy Ghost;' and before I got up off my knees he wanted to ordain me an Elder; but I plead with him not to do it, for I felt myself unworthy of such a calling, and such an office."
This event, so important to Heber C. Kimball and his posterity, took place on Monday, the fifteenth of April, 1832. Brigham Young had been baptized the day before, by Elder Eleazer Miller. Two weeks later, Heber's wife, Vilate, was baptized by Joseph Young.
A branch was raised up in Mendon numbering over thirty souls; its members were as follows:
John Young, sen., and Mary his wife,
Brigham Young and Miriam his wife,
Phineas H. Young and Clarissa his wife,
Joseph Young,
Lorenzo D. Young and Persis his wife,
John P. Greene and Rhoda his wife and their children,
Joel Sanford and Louisa his wife,
William Stillson and Susan his wife,
Fanny Young,
Isaac Flummerfelt, wife and children,
Ira Bond and his wife Charlotte,
Heber C. Kimball and Vilate his wife,
Rufus Parks,
John Morton and Betsey his wife,
Nathan Tomlinson and his wife,
Israel Barlow with his mother, brothers and sisters.
The reception of the Holy Ghost was to Heber a veritable "baptism of fire." He thus describes his remarkable experience:
"Under the ordinances of baptism and the laying on of hands, I received the Holy Ghost, as the disciples did in ancient days, which was like a consuming fire. I felt as though I sat at the feet of Jesus, and was clothed in my right mind, although the people called me crazy.