The Blood in Their Veins provides a fascinating history of the Kimballs

 

Review by Doug Gibson

I must say, immediately, that if you are one who pursues Mormon history, particularly its first century, "The Blood in Their Veins: The Kimballs, polygamy, and the Shaping of Mormonism," by Andrew Kimball, Signature Books, 2025, is a must have. (Amazon link here.)

It encompasses the extremely large family that early Mormon leader Heber C Kimball and spouse Vilate created with their marriage, conversion, embrace of polygamy, and journey to Utah. This is not a faith-promoting let's-leave-out-the-uncomfortable-bits books of the type that used to be the norm within The Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints. 

But its honesty and candor provide a greater benefit. Readers will feel much affection and admiration for  these pioneers of the faith. We grieve with the hardships and tragedies they endured. The resilence and devotion to the early Mormon faith nearly all -- depicted in the book -- strived for is inspiring. And their weaknesses and frailities can provide empathy.

Told through diaries, journals, letters, newspaper accounts, and other historical ledgers, "The Blood in Their Veins ..." underscores how difficult times were then. Regular occurrences were infants, and mothers, dying at birth. Nature was more cruel than it is today; toddlers regularly died in accidents; injured and sick adults would linger and die from illnesses and accidents not fatal today. Both Heber and Vilate died within months of each other. Heber from the effects of a buggy accident.

His death did not lead to wealth. His large family, while possessed of an historical prominence, did not enjoy material success, or at times even comfort. Sons went into various tasks, including farming an icy section of Cache County, Utah. Others attempted to be salesmen or business entrepreneurs. Others served as writers, farmhands, scribes, municipal government employees, laborers. 

A liability of polygamy was an inability for parents to devote time to their many children, or husbands to devote time for wives. We read how Heber was respected but often away on church assignments. His death, long before anticipated, resulted in having children and wives thrust into inconvenient life situations. 

Dozens of the Kimball family members are profiled. Some of the more interesting characters are Helen Mar Whitney, married to Joseph Smith at 14. She endured near-fatal illness to marry Horace Whitney and bear 11 children. Only six survived. She was a survivor of depression and frequent poor health. Her defense of the church and polgamy made her well known and highly esteemed in Utah. Daughter Alice Kimball, another survivor, endured a criminally loathsome husband and eventually married Church President Joseph F. Smith.

The diaries and letters in the books cover other issues besides polygamy. Readers will learn more about the 19th century practice of church "adoptions" in which members would attach themselves, as part of a spiritual family, to prominent church leaders. Also is detailed accounts of kidnappings of Mormons by Native Americans. Although these conflicts invariable escalated to bloodshed at times, sometimes ransoms would be paid to release the hostages.

Kimball sons were marrying wives long past the Wilfred Woodruff era and church leaders were both aware and sometimes participants. The book later details the gradual real elimination of polygamy in the early 20th century that led to prominent excommunications.

Missions to Europe and the southern United States are in the book. The dangers for missionaries in the deep U.S. south is described. One Kimball son who presided over the U.S. southern mission was eased out of his position because he preached a too austere lifestyle for the missionaries. Requirements included no pocket money and a rule that they had to beg a place to sleep every night.

The handcart rescues in 1856 are covered. The "Dream Mine" hoax, and its temptations, is covered. Squabbles with press, including the Salt Lake Tribune, rabidly anti-Mormon back then, are part of the book. 

I enjoyed detailed sections on J. Golden Kimball, the general authority known for his wit and candor, and apostle Orson F. Whitney. J. Golden's section is a bit bittersweet as we learn he dealt with depression, a tough often contrary family, and his brother Sol, who was frankly at times a control freak who bullied family members for monies to preserve the Kimball home and the family legacy. Yet J. Golden in this book is portrayed as a survivor, one who despite his feelings of frustration and inadequacy, worked hard to fulfill his church responsibilites.

One passage interesting to readers is when apostle Wilfred Woodruff assures Kimball son Abraham that he will represent the family in temporal and spiritual matters. But Woodruff is not -- then -- the prophet. Abe isn't convinced he's the family leader until Church Prophet John Taylor decrees it.

Orson F. Whitney was for a while a believer in reincarnation. This concerned church leaders. However, after a booster of the offbeat doctrine that Orson admired suddenly died, he cooled on the subject, and eventually became a church apostle.

Alcoholism was a problem for many of the Kimball sons. It's a reminder that the Word of Wisdom, while a doctrine in that era, was not practiced by many members considered observant. Kimball son William, who was one of the leaders on the 1856 handcart rescues, struggled with alcoholism and periods of rebellion to principles he was taught.

But I want to stress to readers to not look down on these saints. They were resilient, endured much, and overcame more. God is a much more merciful deity than some portray him as. I admire the Kimball family and their rich legacy in the church. This book is a realistic tribute to the family.

Charles Shuster Zane was a fair judge Mormons loved to hate

Ever heard of Utah territorial Chief Justice Charles Shuster Zane? He’s one of those fascinating footnotes in history. Appointed in 1884 to administer justice in Utah, the New Jersey Quaker was a respected Illinois lawyer who rubbed shoulders in the same circles that Abraham Lincoln inhabited. Zane was a circuit judge when appointed to the Utah bench by President Chester A. Arthur. 

His tenure was stormy. The dominant Latter-day Saints disliked Zane because he thoroughly enforced the laws against polygamy. He imprisoned men and polygamous wives that he discovered were living “the Principle.” Zane also was heard to publicly proclaim polygamy an abomination. The judge was enforcing the Edmunds law, which was designed to go after Utah Mormons on the polygamy issue. 

According to an article on Zane in the fall 1966 issue of Utah Historical Quarterly, then-BYU professor Thomas G. Alexander cited the following negative assessment of Zane from LDS historians B.H. Roberts and Orson F. Whitney: “Judge Zane ... will stand classed ... in that history as sharing in responsibility for the cruelty and injustice of that regime, which marks the saddest period of Utah’s history. ... Judge Zane never divorced himself from his deepseated prejudice and vindictiveness against ... [the Mormon] offenders and their religious faith, ... his object was the overthrow of Mormonism as a religion.”

Those are harsh words, and they come from Roberts’ “Comprehensive History of the Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints” and Whitney’s “History of Utah.” But they’re also not true. In his Utah Historical Quarterly article, Alexander takes a long look at Zane’s judicial philosophy while in Utah, and discovers a tough but fair judge who was scrupulously following the law. In other words, Zane was not the judicial activist many Mormons had hoped would look the other way at laws designed to hamper their religious beliefs.

In fact, Zane made many lower-profile decisions that helped the Mormon church, which was constantly facing nuisance lawsuits from the energetic anti-Mormon “gentile” faction of Utah, which had as its mouthpiece “The Salt Lake Tribune.” For example, Zane ruled in favor of local, Mormon public schools receiving tax monies, rejecting lawsuits that they sectarian schools that taught treason. Zane was a big believer in public education, and the rights of local communities to make educational decisions. 

Also, Zane resisted efforts by gentiles in Utah to swing elections through malicious efforts. He sided with the People’s Party, an LDS party, in its accusation that members of the gentile Liberal Party had tried to stuff ballots in an 1890 school election. In fact, Zane even allowed, over gentile objections, voting by Mormon men who had engaged in obviously sham “spiritual divorces” from their polygamous wives. That shows a lot of tolerance for the Mormon religious mores.

In fact, when Zane finally jailed men and polygamous wives, it was only after every effort to prosecute, or resolve, the situation, had been attempted. There’s no doubt that Zane’s judicial decrees ailed many prominent Utah Mormons. Zane had the — perhaps — misfortune of assuming the bench when enforcement of the anti-polygamy laws was at its most intense. And he was determined to obey the letter of the law. Alexander adds that whenever a guilty plea came in, Zane was likely to fine, rather than jail the polygamist.

Another ruling, disliked by the LDS majority, was Zane’s decision to allow lawyers to question Mormons on naturalization, or citizenship, protests. As Alexander notes, this was a big issue as the Mormons were energetic missionaries overseas and the converts migrated to Utah. However, Zane did offer the Mormons an olive branch by requiring that the district attorney question prospective citizens, rather than anti-Mormon lawyers, explains Alexander.

After the 1890 Manifesto against polygamy, Zane’s attitude on the practice became more relaxed. Alexander recounts that he accepted the promise by LDS Church President Wilford W. Woodruff and later published an article in Forum magazine where he stated, according to Alexander, “that the Mormon problem (polygamy) was at an end because the Mormons had resolved to obey the law.”

The tenure of Zane was an example of a judge diligently following the law in a rugged, still frontier-like territory and angering both sides. Because the high-profile cases went against the majority Mormons, he was vilified long after his death in 1915. It would be fascinating to read a more in-depth look at his tenure as Utah territory’s chief justice.

--- Doug Gibson

-- Originally published at StandardNET

Orson F. Whitney biography captures the contradictions of faith

Orson F. Whitney, an apostle for The Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints for almost a quarter century in the early part of the 20th century, is perhaps best known today for a 1929 speech delivered a little more than a year before his death.

As Dennis Horne, author of the biography, “The Life of Orson F. Whitney,” Cedar Fort Inc., notes, at the April 1929 LDS General Conference, Whitney promised faithful parents that their wayward children would be saved if they, the parents, remained faithful to their spiritual covenants. “Pray for your careless and disobedient children; hold on to them with your faith. Hope on, trust on, ’till you see the salvation of God,” Whitney promised in his discourse.

As Horne mentions, Whitney was certainly thinking of his eldest son, Horace “Race” Whitney, who had strayed from his parents’ faith. Race Whitney, a journalist and hopeful playwright, had been married and divorced twice -- to the same woman -- before he died of causes related to alcoholism at age 28.

Whitney is frankly more of a Wikipedia entry than a well-known historical figure of Mormonism.

Horne has affectionately focused on a life that bridged early Utah Mormonism to 20th century growth of the religion (1855-1930).

Using mostly the subject’s diary entries and autobiography, the author has constructed a life story interesting as much for its contradictions and secrets as for Whitney’s several-decades devotion to Mormonism. After a rocky start to adulthood, Whitney -- the son of Horace K. Whitney and Helen Mar Kimball, plural wife to Joseph Smith Jr. -- served a mission to Ohio and Pennsylvania at the age of 21. 

Now entrenched in his family faith, a new Salt Lake City bishop, Whitney married his first wife Zina Beal Smoot, and a year later, the new father was shipped to a second mission across the Atlantic Ocean to England where the first contradictions and secrets of Whitney’s life are revealed.

As Horne notes, Whitney was an emotional man, susceptible to praise and flattery. He also was a literary man, who would later write a four-volume History of Utah, two novel-size poems, and ghost write many articles for LDS leaders.

In England, Whitney entered a mission that was rife with dysfunctional behavior. The mission president, LDS apostle Albert Carrington, was later excommunicated for adultery while serving as mission leader and another missionary, Charles W. Stayner, was preaching a version of Mormonism that included reincarnation. During the mission, Whitney apparently made an energetic attempt to make a 16-year-old girl convert his plural wife, but was stymied by her mother’s objections.

As Horne relates, Whitney became a convert of Stayner’s theories for almost two decades, and was a driving force of a semi-secret Mormon group that discussed reincarnation and devised strategies to make Stayner the eventual prophet of the LDS Church. In fact, as his devotion to Stayner increased, Whitney partially supported his friend at the expense of his own family, and even lobbied LDS Church President Lorenzo Snow on reincarnation and Stayner.

During much of this time, Whitney was both a bishop and assistant church historian, as well as a noted author and poet in Utah. While it’s likely his long flirtation with reincarnation delayed his calling as an apostle, it never seemed close to harming his church membership, even as apostles and others publicly denounced the reincarnation doctrine.

It’s hard not to compare Whitney’s late 19th century obsession with changing the church’s position on reincarnation with the current Ordain Woman movement. The former, of course, did not lead to excommunication. Eventually Stayner, still a member of the church, died and soon afterward Whitney recanted his divergent beliefs, which essentially paved his way to an apostleship.

Horne’s biography is hampered because Whitney destroyed and edited large portions of his diary as he grew older. Examples of tampered diary entries include his relationships with Stayner, the English convert teen, some entries on reincarnation, and emotional affairs with some women (most notably Mary Laura Hickman) that Whitney would have clearly chosen as plural wives had he been allowed.

After the Second Manifesto of 1904, the LDS church hierarchy cracked down on polygamy, severely disciplining those who continued the principle. After he became an apostle in 1906, Horne notes that Whitney had the unpleasant task of disciplining longtime church members for polygamy, including former apostle and mentor John W. Taylor.

Whitney still believed in polygamy privately. There also is another confidante of Whitney’s, named “Dick,” who may have had the same Svengali-like effect on the apostle that Stayner once had. As with other potentially controversial aspects of his life, much of that subject was self-censored.

Before his first wife died in 1900, Whitney had one plural wife, Mary (May) Minerva Wells, the sister of a woman he had loved as a youth who had died. They had two children quickly but then were childless, although they stayed married until Whitney’s death. Frankly, there is not much of May in the diaries that Horne shares in his biography (Mary Laura Hickman is far more often on Whitney’s mind, for example) and one suspects that the couple’s relationship may have been strained.

Whitney’s health began to fail when he was called to be the LDS European Mission president in the early 1920s. The strain of dealing with a media assault on Mormonism in that country and added health problems to his prostate and kidney left him an invalid who could not even read by the time he returned to Utah. He regained his strength and served admirably as an apostle for the rest of his life.

In another example of his life of bridging generations, he was one of the first LDS leaders to often speak on KSL Radio. He died of pneumonia about a month after giving his final conference talk in April 1930.

Horne’s biography is an affectionate account of a man who deeply loved his religion and the men who led it. A bishop for three decades and apostle for 24 years, he expended all his talents, including writing and speaking, for his faith. As the book notes, he had failings and crisis of faith. That makes him real, and much preferable to the plaster saints that are sometimes constructed in hagiographies.

The biography is available here.

-- Doug Gibson

Originally published at StandardNET