Pioneer Stories - David P. Kimball (A Rescuer)

This weeks thought is the story of one of the rescuers, David P. Kimball.

• Born: August 23, 1839 in Nauvoo, Illinois
• Age: 17
• Main Rescue Party

David P. Kimball

David Patton Kimball was the son of Heber C. and Vilate Kimball.1 He was named after David W. Patton, president of the Council of Twelve Apostles. David’s father was on his second mission to England when he was born, and his mother wrote the following poem to inform her husband of their new child:

Our darling little David P.
Is just as sweet as he can be;
He surely is the finest lad
That you and I have ever had.

His eyes are black, his skin is fair,
His features good, and brown his hair;
He’s just as fat as butter, too,
We therefore think that he will do.2

David came to Utah in September 1847, shortly after his eighth birthday, with his father as the captain of the wagon train. They had been driven from their homes in Nauvoo.

David was a member of a group known as the Minute Men. The “Nauvoo Legion” had been reorganized in Salt Lake, and many of the brethren served in it. But the ones who were the first to be called if trouble arose were the Minute Men. These were usually young single men in their late teens and early twenties. They were eager to help, full of courage and capable. Such was the case in 1856 when David left Salt Lake with the first group of rescuers on October 6 and 7. His father put his large family on short rations in order to send food to those who were destitute.

The Willie Company was reached first by rescuers on October 21.  After giving emergency relief, the rescue party was divided into two groups. A few stayed with the Willie Company to help them.  David’s brother, William H. Kimball, captained the Willie Company back to Salt Lake. The other rescuers continued east in search of the Martin, Hodgett and Hunt Companies. David Kimball went on with these to Devil’s Gate. Express riders Joseph A. Young, Abel W. Garr and Dan W. Jones were sent on from there to locate the companies. While David waited at Devil’s Gate, he cut wood and made other preparations.

On October 30, the express team reported they had found the three companies about 60 miles further east. David and the others in his group hurried forward. They helped bury the dead and led the handcart emigrants west to the Devil’s Gate area. Short supplies and severe weather soon forced them to seek shelter in a nearby cove. In order to reach the cove, the pioneers had to cross the icy Sweetwater River. The river was filled with floating ice. As the immigrants remembered their tragic and difficult crossing of the N. Platte River two weeks before, some sat down and wept. Their courage seemed to be lost with this new challenge. David and at least three other young men came to the rescue and carried many members of the Martin company across the river.

The Sweetwater River winds through the Sweetwater Valley of southern Wyoming. “Its beauty is beyond description,” wrote Solomon F. Kimball in his account of the rescue of the Willie and Martin Handcart Companies (“Belated Emigrants of 1856,” Improvement Era, Jan. 1914, 209). Devil’s Gate is the valley’s most spectacular landmark. Under most conditions, the first view of the walls of Devil’s Gate rising 400 feet above the river--with its 900-foot-long and 150-foot-wide chasm--awakens a sense of wonderment in the eyes of those who behold it.

But during the first few days of November 1856, amid the harsh winter snows, the starving and freezing survivors of the Martin Company had little strength left to react to nature’s beauty as they struggled to the site.

Rescue party leader Captain George D. Grant described the scene to President Young in a letter sent by courier on the morning of 3 November 1856: “You can imagine between five and six hundred men, women and children, worn down by drawing carts through mud and snow, fainting by the wayside, children crying with cold, their limbs stiffened, their feet bleeding, and some of them bare to the frost. The sight is too much for the stoutest of us, but we go on doing our duty, not doubting, nor despairing. Our party is too small to be of much of a help. … We have prayed without ceasing, and the blessings of the Lord have been with us” (as quoted in Improvement Era, Jan. 1914, 209).

Solomon F. Kimball continues: “Those of the handcart people who were unable to walk were crowded into the overloaded wagons, and a start was made; the balance of the company hobbling along behind with their carts as best they could.  When [they] came to the first crossing of the Sweetwater west of Devil’s Gate, they found the stream full of floating ice, making it dangerous to cross, on account of the strong current. However, the teams went over in safety. … When the people who were drawing carts came to the brink of this treacherous stream, they refused to go any further … , as the water in places was almost waist deep, and the river more than a hundred feet wide. … [They] remembered that nearly one-sixth of their number had already perished from the effects of crossing North Platte, eighteen days before. … They … cried mightily unto the Lord for help."

Patience Loader, a member of the Martin company, wrote: "Those brethren were in the water all day. We wanted to thank them but they would not listen to my dear mother who felt in her heart to bless them for their kindness. She said, “God bless you for taking me over this water,” and they said in such an awful rough way, “Oh, d–n that. We don’t want any of that. You are welcome. We have come to help you.” Mother turned to me, saying, “What do you think of that man, Patience? He is a rough fellow.” I told her, “That is Brother Kimball, I am told. They are all good men, but I dare say they are rather rough in their manners.” But we found that they all had good, kind hearts. This poor Brother David P. Kimball stayed so long in the water that he had to be taken out and packed to camp and he was a long time before he recovered as he was chilled through and in after life he was always afflicted with rheumatism."

In an oft-quoted magazine article from 1914, Solomon Kimball wrote “After … every apparent avenue of escape seemed closed, three eighteen-year-old boys belonging to the relief party came to the rescue; and to the astonishment of all who saw, carried nearly every member of that ill-fated handcart company across the snow-bound stream. The strain was so terrible, and the exposure so great, that in later years all the boys died from the effects of it. When President Brigham Young heard of this heroic act, he wept like a child, and later declared publicly, ‘That act alone will ensure C. Allen Huntington, George W. Grant, and David P. Kimball an everlasting salvation in the Celestial Kingdom of God, worlds without end.’ ” (Kimball, “Belated Emigrants of 1856,” Improvement Era, February 1914, 288.)

Although this statement may be incomplete and have some inaccuracies, it is still inspiring to recognize the sacrifices the rescue boys made in saving lives. Andrew D. Olsen, author of The Price We Paid, clarified: “Six years before this statement was published, the same author [Solomon Kimball] reported Brigham Young’s words somewhat differently: ‘When President Brigham Young heard of this heroic act, he wept like a child, and declared that this act alone would immortalize them.’ Perhaps one explanation for the difference in these accounts is that they were written in 1908 and 1914, more than 50 years after the rescue and 30 years after Brigham Young’s death. Regardless of the differences in these statements, what is most important remains undisputed: the heroic service of these rescuers and Brigham Young’s feelings of gratitude toward them.” (Olsen, The Price We Paid, 360-61) The statues near Martin’s Cove seem to have fulfilled Brigham Young’s prediction of “immortalizing” these rescue boys.

David returned to his home in Salt Lake and recovered from his river crossing experience. He married Caroline Marian Williams in April 1857. They had 10 or 11 children. David served as a missionary to Europe, and as President of the Bear Lake Stake for five years. He later moved to Arizona and assisted in developing that area. He died on November 21, 1883, in St. David, Arizona, at the age of 44.

Sources: Esshom, Frank E., Pioneers and Prominent Men of Utah, 1913; Glazier, Stewart E., Journal of the Trail, 1997; Recollections of Past Days: The Autobiography of Patience Loader Rozsa Archer, edited by Sandra Ailey Petree, 2006; Kimball, Solomon F. “Belated Emigrants of 1856,” Improvement Era, February 1914; Olsen, Andrew D., The Price We Paid, 2006.

1. David’s large family is said to have dwelt together in “peace and unity; while [the] children, especially the males, sons of various mothers, clung together with an affection all but clannish in its intensity. Woe betide the luckless wight, who, even in childhood’s days, imposed upon a ‘Kimball boy.’ The whole family of urchins would resent the insult, and that, too, with a pluckiness surpassing even their numbers.” (Whitney, Orson F. “The Life of Heber C. Kimball,” also quoted in Esshom, Pioneers and Prominent Men of Utah.)

2. As found in Glazier, Stewart, Journal of the Trail, 98.

3. Stephen W. Taylor and others are also recognized as giving this service.

Elder Quentin L. Cook said the following about the rescue: "Many of you have participated in treks to experience and appreciate the dramatic rescue of the Willie and Martin handcart companies. I first became aware of this rescue when I was a teenager. My mother gave me a book written by Orson F. Whitney, who would later be an Apostle. Elder Whitney’s book acquainted me with the heroic effort directed by Brigham Young to rescue the handcart companies. They had been overtaken by winter storms on the high plains of Wyoming. Some had died and many others were on the verge of death. Brigham Young became aware of their plight, and at the October 1856 general conference he instructed the Saints to drop everything and rescue those stranded on the plains.

The response was dramatic. Elder Whitney reported, “Brave men by their heroism--for it was at the peril of their own lives that they thus braved the wintry storms on the plains--immortalized themselves, and won the undying gratitude of hundreds who were undoubtedly saved by their timely action from perishing.”

One reason my mother had given me the book was Elder Whitney had made special mention of my great-grandfather David Patten Kimball, who had participated in the rescue when he was 17 years old. All the rescuers battled deep snow and freezing temperatures during much of the rescue of the handcart companies. At great personal sacrifice, David and his associates helped carry many of the pioneers across the freezing, ice-filled Sweetwater.

This true account greatly impressed me. I wanted to prove my devotion to the Lord through some dramatic act. However, in a visit with my grandfather, he explained that when President Brigham Young sent his father, David, and the other young men on their rescue mission, President Young instructed them to do everything they possibly could to save the handcart companies, even at the peril of their own lives. Their acts of bravery were specifically to “follow the prophet Brigham Young” and by so doing express their faith in the Lord Jesus Christ. My grandfather told me that consistent, faithful dedication to the counsel of a prophet is the real lesson I should learn from my great-grandfather’s service. As heroic as it was for David and his associates to help rescue the pioneers, it is also valiant today to follow the counsel of our prophet.

I love the tie from between listening to the Prophets counsel, (and hence reaching to be rescued) to also rescuing others. As we approach General Conference I am excited to hear what counsel our prophet has for us. 

Have a great week!

Sister McHood