History of Sheldon, (Franklin County) Vermont United States of America

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Heber Chase Kimball, Mormon apostle, was born in Sheldon, Vt., June 14, 1801. His father was a blacksmith, and removed to Bloomfield, N.Y., where the boy worked as a blacksmith and as a potter. With his brother he conducted pottery works at Mendon, N.Y. He was married in 1822. He was converted to the Mormon faith and was received in the Church of the Latter Day Saints at Victor, N.Y., being ordained an elder by Joseph Smith in 1832, and one of the twelve apostles, Feb. 14, 1835. In 1838 he was arrested in Missouri with Brigham Young and other leading Mormons by order of Governor Boggs, but his identity as a leader not being recognized, he was released, and with Brigham Young led the party of 130 Mormons back to Quincy, Ill., transferring the church to Nauvoo in September, 1839. He visited England with Orson Hyde and several elders; and by April, 1841, they had obtained 5184 converts and brought 800 with them to Nauvoo, which so strengthened the church that they decided to found a Zion in Utah, and with Brigham Young he led the first company of 142 men to the borders of the Great Salt Lake and established the church, July 24, 1847. He was made a counsellor of Brigham Young, Dec. 27, 1847, and as chief priest of the order of Melchizedek announced to his followers that Brigham Young was the visible God, as Joseph Smith had been before him. He died in Salt Lake City, Utah, June 22, 1868.

From: Twentieth Century Biographical Dictionary of Notable Americans, Johnson, Rossiter, editor

History of Sheldon, (Franklin County) Vermont

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