Part 3

Under the wise management of the President, the society increased in numbers, great good was accomplished in the relief of the poor and afflicted, and means multiplied in the Treasury. A two story brick building has been erected by the society, part of which is rented for a store, and the upper story used for meetings. The society also own a good granary and a quantity of wheat. Mrs. Horne's success as a leader was so apparent and her course so consistent, President Young had such confidence in her, he gave her a very important mission among the sisters; this was called Retrenchment. In due time a meeting was held in the Fifteenth Ward Schoolhouse, and from there adjourned to the Fourteenth Ward Assembly Rooms, and from that time until the present, Mrs. Horne has presided at these regular semi-monthly meetings of the Ladies' General Retrenchment Associations. When President Young instructed Sister Eliza to go through the Territory and organize the young ladies into associations for mutual improvement, Mrs. Horne was called to assist. She has organized many of the Young Ladies Associations, also Primary Associations. At the time of the passage of the Cullom Bill in January, 1876, a grand Mass Meeting was called to convene in the Old Tabernacle, Salt Lake City. Mrs. Horne took an active part in the proceedings, being one of the committee to draft resolutions. In February following, the bill was passed, granting suffrage to the women of Utah. Mrs. Horne was one of a committee of ladies who waited upon Governor S. A. Mann to express the gratitude of Mormon women for his signing of the document. December 1877, Mrs. Horne was chosen to preside over the Relief Societies of this stake of Zion. She was elected a delegate from Salt Lake County, to the Territorial Convention held in this city, commencing October 9th, and was called upon to address them. Mrs. Horne was one of the committee appointed to wait upon the delegate nominated at the Convention, and inform him of the honor conferred upon him.

When Mrs. Horne was sixty years of age, upon the demise of her daughter-in-law, Mrs. Lydia Weiler Horne, she took the babe six weeks old to raise. This after rearing a family, and seeing each take honored places in the world.

Mrs. Horne has been an officer and worker in the silk industry from the beginning. At the organization of the board of officers for the Deseret Hospital, May 1882, Mrs. Horne was elected Chairman of the Executive Committee.

November 20th, 1882, was the forty-sixth anniversary of Mr. and Mrs. Horne's wedding day. At the reception they held, an elegant photograph album was presented from lady friends, each of whom was to contribute her picture. Congratulations from children, Mayor Jennings and Judge Miner, with loving and sincere good wishes from all, for the future, made this a day long to be remembered."

I am indebted to the pen of Emmeline B. Wells, editor of the "Woman's Exponent," for the points I have selected for this sketch, to whom the original referred me as possessing all I would wish to obtain. Perhaps, it would be no more than justice to the author, to quote also from the same source, the record her family have so far, made, thereby reflecting credit upon their noble parents. It will also give to the world the history in brief of _one_ Mormon family, reared in the teachings, examples and associations of Mormonism, not omitting the system of celestial marriage.

"By their fruits ye shall know them."

"Henry, the eldest son, was for eleven years Bishop in Paris, Idaho, in 1880, moved to Arizona, to assist in colonizing there.

"Joseph, when about twenty years of age, was called on a mission to Switzerland, where he obtained a thorough knowledge of the German language. Returned, and was for ten years Bishop of Gunnison, Sanpete Co., again called to Switzerland to preside over the Swiss and German missions and edit the _Stern_. In 1878, he was called to the Bishopric in Richfield, Sevier Co., is also mayor of that city.

"Richard is a teacher; was superintendent of Sunday-schools in Beaver, and has filled several home missions.

"John, the youngest son, was the first President of the Young Men's Mutual Improvement Association in the Fourteenth Ward. Her eldest daughter, Mrs. Elizabeth Webb, lives in Millard Co., a lady who might grace any society.

"Nora married George, son of Orson Spencer, somewhat famous in Church history for his valuable writings and great missionary work in America and Europe.

"Julia married Wm. Burton, and died one year after marriage, leaving a baby daughter. She was the first President of the Young Ladies Mutual Improvement Association of the Fourteenth Ward.

"Cornelia was later made the President. Miss Cornelia was also for three or four years business manager of the _Woman's Exponent_. She is the wife of James Clayton.

"Minnie, her twin sister, was for several years Secretary of the Young Ladies Mutual Improvement Association and the Sunday-school. Since her marriage with Wm. James, she is President of the Seventh Ward Primary Association.

"Mattie is a counselor to the President of all the Young Ladies Mutual Improvement Associations of the Church. When the _Woman's Exponent_ was first published, Miss Mattie was the first girl to go into the printing office and learn type setting.

"Clara, the youngest, is accomplished, gifted spiritually, and an active worker. As her mother is often called from home by public duties, the charge of the home rests much of the time with her, a position she fills with dignity and ability."

Three babes died in infancy. And the mother of these children now honored among men and women, drove team hundreds of miles, not one journey, but many, and nearly always with a babe in her arms.

Resting now in the afternoon of life with comforts, honors and love surrounding her, Mrs. Horne must look back with satisfaction and gratitude upon her life. A few years ago, when I, a timid Secretary of the Fourteenth Ward Meetings, used to steal a look at her noble face, I used mentally to compare it to that of Washington, and I think still I was not mistaken; we, to-day, are struggling for "liberty to worship God according to the dictates of our own consciences," and the spirit of such as he and his co-laborers are with us and are ours, to counsel and to lead, through difficulties unto victory.

SARAH M. KIMBALL,

SECRETARY OF THE L. D. S. WOMEN'S ORGANIZATIONS.

"I am the daughter of Oliver Granger and Lydia Dibble Granger, was born December 29th, 1818, in the town of Phelps, Ontario Co., New York. Of my parents, eight children, only myself and two younger brothers, Lafayette and Farley, remain. My father, Oliver Granger, had an interesting experience in connection with the coming forth of the Book of Mormon. He obtained the book a few months after its publication, and while in the city of New York, at Prof. Mott's Eye Infirmary he had a 'heavenly vision.' My father was told of a personage who said his name was Moroni, that the Book of Mormon, about which his mind was exercised, was a true record of great worth, and Moroni instructed him (my father) to testify of its truth and that he should hereafter be ordained to preach the everlasting Gospel to the children of men. Moroni instructed my father to kneel and pray; Moroni and another personage knelt with him by the bedside. Moroni repeated words and instructed my father to repeat them after him. Moroni then stepped behind my father, who was still kneeling, and drew his finger over the three back seams of my father's coat, (which my father felt very perceptibly) and said, 'A time will come when the Saints will wear garments made without seams.' Moroni told my father that he might ask for what he most desired and it would be granted. He asked for an evidence by which he might know when he was approved of God. The evidence or sign was given, and remained with him until his dying hour, being more particularly manifest when engaged in prayer and meditation. I love the memory of my father. He died in Kirtland, Ohio, August 1843, aged forty-seven.

I was married in Kirtland, Orange Co., Ohio, by Warren Cowdery, Esq., September 23rd, 1840, to Hiram Kimball, eldest son of Phineas and Abigail Kimball, of West Fairley, Orange Co., Vermont. My parents had previously spent a year in Nauvoo, Hancock Co., Ill.; their present stay in Ohio was considered only temporary; my father sickened and died there the next year. I returned with my husband to his home in Nauvoo, Ill., three weeks after my marriage. We boarded six months in the family of Dr. Frederick Williams, then went to housekeeping. My eldest son was born in Nauvoo, November 22nd, 1841; when the babe was three days old a little incident occurred which I will mention. The walls of the Nauvoo Temple were about three feet above the foundation. The Church was in need of help to assist in raising the Temple walls. I belonged to the Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-Day Saints; my husband did not belong to the Church at that time. I wished to help on the Temple, but did not like to ask my husband (who owned considerable property) to help for my sake. My husband came to my bedside, and as he was admiring our three days' old darling, I said, "What is the boy worth?" He replied, "O, I don't know, he is worth a great deal." I said, "Is he worth a thousand dollars?" The reply was, "Yes, more than that if he lives and does well." I said, "Half of him is mine, is it not?" "Yes, I suppose so." "Then I have something to help on the Temple." He said pleasantly, "You have?" "Yes, and I think of turning my share right in as tithing." "Well, I'll see about that." Soon after the above conversation Mr. Kimball met the Prophet Joseph Smith, President of the Church, and said, "Sarah has got a little the advantage of me this time, she proposes to turn out the boy as Church property. "President Smith seemed pleased with the joke, and said, "I accept all such donations, and from this day the boy shall stand recorded, _Church property_." Then turning to Willard Richards, his secretary, he said, "Make a record of this, and you are my witness." Joseph Smith then said, "Major, (Mr. Kimball was major in the Nauvoo Legion) you now have the privilege of paying $500 and retaining possession, or receiving $500 and giving possession." Mr. Kimball asked if city property was good currency, President Smith replied that it was. Then said Mr. Kimball, "How will that reserve block north of the Temple suit?" President Smith replied, "It is just what we want." The deed was soon made out and transferred in due form. President Smith said to me, "You have consecrated your first born son, for this you are blessed of the Lord. I bless you in the name of the Lord God of Abraham, of Isaac and of Jacob. And I seal upon you all the blessings that pertain to the faithful. Your name shall be handed down in honorable remembrance from generation to generation.

"Your son shall live and be a blessing to you in time, and an honor and glory to you throughout the endless eternities (changes) to come. He shall be girded about with righteousness and bear the helmet and the breast-plate of war. You shall be a blessing to your companion, and the honored mother of a noble posterity. You shall stand as a savior to your father's house, and receive an everlasting salvation, which I seal upon you by the gift of revelation and by virtue and authority of the holy priesthood vested in me, in the name of Jesus Christ."

"Early in the year 1842, Joseph Smith taught me the principle of marriage for eternity, and the doctrine of plural marriage. He said that in teaching this he realized that he jeopardized his life; but God had revealed it to him many years before as a privilege with blessings, now God had revealed it again and instructed him to teach it with commandment, as the Church could travel (progress) no further without the introduction of this principle. I asked him to teach it to some one else. He looked at me reprovingly, and said, 'Will you tell me who to teach it to? God required me to teach it to you, and leave you with the responsibility of believing or disbelieving.' He said, 'I will not cease to pray for you, and if you will seek unto God in prayer you will not be led into temptation.'"

"In the summer of 1843, a maiden lady (Miss Cook) was seamstress for me, and the subject of combining our efforts for assisting the Temple hands came up in conversation. She desired to be helpful but had no means to furnish. I told her I would furnish material if she would make some shirts for the workmen. It was then suggested that some of our neighbors might wish to combine means and efforts with ours, and we decided to invite a few to come and consult with us on the subject of forming a Ladies' Society. The neighboring sisters met in my parlor and decided to organize. I was delegated to call on Sister Eliza R. Snow and ask her to write for us a constitution and by-laws, and submit them to President Joseph Smith prior to our next Thursday's meeting. She cheerfully responded, and when she read them to him he replied that the constitution and by-laws were the best he had ever seen. 'But,' he said, 'this is not what you want. Tell the sisters their offering is accepted of the Lord, and He has something better for them than a written constitution. I invite them all to meet me and a few of the brethren in the Masonic Hall over my store next Thursday afternoon, and I will organize the sisters under the priesthood after the pattern of the priesthood.' He further said, 'The Church was never perfectly organized until the women were thus organized.'" He wished to have Sister Emma Smith elected to preside in fulfillment of the revelation which called her an Elect Lady.

"In the wanderings and persecutions of the Church I have participated, and in the blessings, endowments and holy anointings and precious promises I have also received. To sorrow I have not been a stranger; but I only write this short sketch to instruct and happify, so I will skip to Salt Lake City, September, 1851, with my two sons, Hiram and Oliver, my widowed mother, Lydia Dibble Granger, Anna Robbins, a girl that lived with me nine years and married my youngest brother, and my two brothers, Lafayette and Farley B. Granger. My husband was detained in New York City, and had become financially much embarrassed. The next year he came to me financially ruined and broken in health. I engaged in school teaching in the Fourteenth Ward to sustain and educate my family. My salary was only $25.00 per month, but that was much to us at that time.

"April 1st, 1854, my youngest son was born. I discontinued school three months, then opened school in my home. I taught eight years. I should have stated that on arriving here I sold our fitout (team, etc.) for a comfortable little home, this I have always considered providential. The Indian agent gave me a nine-year-old wild Indian girl, whom I educated and raised. She died at nineteen. I named her Kate.

"My mother who had lived with me twenty years, died in 1861, aged seventy-three. My husband was drowned March 1st, 1863, in the Pacific Ocean by the wreck of the steamer, _Ada Hancock_, off the coast of San Pedro, on his way to the Sandwich Islands; aged sixty-two.

"I was elected President of the Fifteenth Ward Relief Society February 7th, 1857. In December, 1865, a little girl was brought to me whom I adopted.

"November 13th, 1868, a silver trowel and mallet were furnished me and assisted by a Master Mason, and surrounded by an assemblage of people, I had the honor of laying the corner stone of the first Relief Society building erected in this dispensation."

Sister Sarah M. Kimball possesses a tall, commanding figure, a face of remarkable dignity and sincerity in expression. Her manner of speaking is original in its strength of reason, rare in its eloquence, precise and delicate in selection of words and tone of voice. A phrenologist once said of her, that "if she were seated in a railway carriage with parties on one hand discussing fashions, and politics to be heard on the other, she would turn to the discussion on politics." A statesman, a philanthropist, a missionary, in her very nature, she is none the less the noble mother and true, fond friend, to those who have known her longest and best.

PRESCENDIA L. KIMBALL.

In attempting a brief sketch of this noble woman's life, it is not necessary for me to state in regard to her ancestry, more than to say she is the elder sister of Mrs. Zina D. Young, the same genealogical references will suffice for both.

"Prescendia Lathrop Huntington was the fourth child of her parents, and was born in Watertown, Jefferson County, New York, September 10th, 1810. Mrs. Kimball is said to be the exact counterpart of the Eliza Huntington whose likeness is in the book, the record of the Huntingtons, as a type of the race. Sister Prescendia is a woman to see once, is to remember always. She reminds one of the dames of olden times, large, tall, grand and majestic in figure, dignified in manner, yet withal so womanly and sympathetic that she seems the embodiment of the motherly element to a degree that would embrace all who came under her influence."

"Prescendia Huntington was married at the age of seventeen to Mr. Norman Buell. Their first child, George, was born in Mannsville, December 12th, 1823. Soon after they moved to Pinbury, Lewis County, where they made a comfortable home. Here their second son was born, December 25th, 1831, and in November 1833, by an accident was so severely burned that he died. In 1835, her mother came to visit her, and brought her the first intelligence of the Prophet Joseph and the record from the hill Cumorah. They sold their property the following winter and by spring reached Kirtland, Ohio. June 1st, 1836, Sister Prescendia was baptized and confirmed by Oliver Cowdery, and on the 9th her husband received the same ordinance. April 24th, 1838, her first daughter was born in a tumble-down dwelling on the Fishing River, Clay County, Mo., but lived only four hours. Here on two occasions she without protection, encountered an armed mob, but was saved from their hatred; they left her. Her husband had by this time apostatized. The Huntingtons were obliged to leave Far West at the time of the driving of the Saints from Missouri in the spring of 1839, and Sister Prescendia felt entirely alone and forsaken. She says, 'there was not at this time, one Saint in Missouri, to my knowledge.' About this time was born her son Oliver, just after the dreadful outrages perpetrated against the Saints in Missouri. In the fall of 1840 Mrs. Buell moved from Missouri and settled between Quincy and Nauvoo. During the ensuing five or six years she made frequent visits to the Saints, among others the families of Joseph and Hyrum, and Father and Mother Smith. Joseph himself taught her the principle of plural marriage. The sisters who had entered into these covenants were in one sense separate and apart from all others. No tongue can describe, or pen portray the peculiar situation of these noble, self-sacrificing women, who through the providence of God helped to establish the principle of celestial marriage. The crisis came when the Prophet and Patriarch were foully murdered.

"The time came for the performances of the ordinances in the Temple at Nauvoo. Sister Prescendia availed herself of the privilege to go and receive her blessings. Hereafter we recognize her as the wife of the Apostle, Heber C. Kimball. The next great event in the history of this people was the exodus from Nauvoo. The Saints had nearly all left for the West; Sister Prescendia felt as if she were at the mercy of the mob, and indeed, plans were laid to destroy her. As if in answer to her prayers, her brother, William, sent her a messenger telling her to leave all and come. On the 2nd of May, 1846, she walked out of her house leaving all behind her, taking her little boy who was sick and not able to be up but she was flying for her life. With the help of her son, George, she got away. She traveled all night, and reached a friend, Dr. Spurgeon, by daybreak. Took some refreshment and went into the woods with her little boy, staying all day, fasting and praying for deliverance. She says: 'I picked flowers for him and gave him water from the running stream. At night I went back to the doctor's, sleeping with my sick boy on a little bed on the floor. Next day I hid in a wagon. When we arrived at Nashville, I saw a man whom I knew, looking for me. I learned afterward he intended taking my child from me. My brother, Dimick, sent his sons to see me safely out of Illinois. I stayed in a deep ravine while some things were brought to me, and slept on a buffalo robe on the ground at night with my little child. No tongue can tell my feelings in those days of trial; but I had considered well, and felt I would rather suffer and die with the Saints, than live in Babylon as I had lived before. We arrived at Bonaparte. The excitement and exposure brought on fever and I was very ill. We at last arrived at Mt. Pisgah; there I found my father, my sister, Zina, and her children. They were in a log house without chimney or floor; sickness prevailed. Very soon men were sent by the Government to get volunteers to march to Mexico; to fight for a Government that had suffered us to be driven out at the point of the bayonet. * * I saw the five hundred men enrolled as volunteers to take up the line of march to Mexico. My brother, Dimick, brave-hearted and strong, with his family, among the number. His wife, Fanny, had a daughter born under most trying and painful circumstances. I was left behind at what was then called Cutler's Park. My father and Zina were at Mt. Pisgah. My brother, Dimick, in Mexico, my brother, William, in St. Louis, my brother, Oliver, on a mission in Europe; then came the news that my father had died at Pisgah; my friend, my counselor, my own dear parent, to whom I had looked for counsel for the future that stretched out before me like a great, unknown desert, unrelieved and barren. I had only my Heavenly Father left, and I reached out in faith to the One above to open the heavens for me and aid me in my loneliness. I was in a new, wild country without means. Joseph and Henry Woodmansee wanted me to keep house for them. As soon as I was settled their father wrote for them, and I was left in charge of their house. I started a school which was a great blessing to the children. The house was built of logs and covered with dirt and straw, with a little straw upon the floor.'

"Here Sister Prescendia toiled with scanty fare, teaching the children, and when school was closed for the night her voice would leave her, from weakness, but she loved the children and gained their affection. It was an ague country, provisions were scarce, lack of vegetables and fruit caused sickness. After a painful and dangerous illness, Sister Prescendia recovered her health. About this time three brethren who went with the Mormon Battallion, came back to Winter Quarters, having been sent on special business from Pueblo. Says Sister Prescendia, 'I never saw such a pitiful sight before as these poor, worn-out travelers presented. Their clothing hung in rags, their faces burned, and with sun and snow they were nearly blind. Their feet were wrapped in rawhide from the buffalo. I sat and heard them tell how fearfully they had suffered crossing the prairies in the dead of winter, and all this in defence of a Government that had driven us defenceless women and children into a strange wilderness. I could not refrain from weeping when I looked upon these my brethren and realized how they had suffered.'