Hallowed Ground, Sacred Journeys

BYU church history professor John Livingstone long had a vision of sharing the history and sites of the Restoration with people everywhere on the globe, and when videographer John Starrs moved into his Mormon ward, it seemed that both the right people and the right technologies were coming together to make it happen.

Along with their well-known co-writers Jeffrey Marsh, Lloyd Newell, Craig James Ostler and David Whitchurch, they’ve now released “Salt Lake City, Ensign to the Nations” in book form, on DVD, have a walking-tour guidebook for Salt Lake City and, perhaps most far-reaching, the new BYU Virtual Tours website with new information added each week.

Click here to hear our guests explain the origins and challenges of the project, tell of the prestigious award their creation recently won, and, most importantly, talk about the church history we are each called to be part of today.

That’s this week on The Cricket and Seagull…

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The Kimball-Whitney cemetery sits peacefully in the middle of the city block 
just north of the Church Office Building.
David M Whitchurch

A little over a week after arriving in the Salt Lake Valley, the Church leaders in the pioneer company selected inheritances surrounding the Temple Block.

Heber C. Kimball chose the block to the northeast. In addition to the homes that Heber built for his family, he constructed a mill, blacksmith shop, and foundry, all of which were powered by water from nearby City Creek.

Barns, gardens, orchards and a family cemetery occupied the rest of the property. Today, only the cemetery, where Heber C. Kimball himself was buried in 1868, remains.

The Plaque for Kimball-Whitney Cemetery was placed by the 
Central Company of Daughters of Utah Pioneers and reads: 
Heber C. Kimball, pioneer of 1847 and first counselor to Brigham Young, 
was allotted the land adjacent to this monument upon which to build homes for his family,
 the majority of whom arrived in 1848, he and Newel K. Whitney dedicated a plot of ground 
one-half block east as a private cemetery for both families. 
Buried therein are 33 Kimballs, 13 Whitneys and 10 others. 
Both Heber C. Kimball and Newel K. Whitney are interred in this sacred spot.
David M. Whitchurch

Kimball and Whitney Family Cemetery

Property originally owned by Heber C. Kimball and Newel K. Whitney and set aside as a cemetery in 1848, was the one of the first formally dedicated burial grounds within the Salt Lake Valley.

It sits in the middle of the block immediately north of the Church Office Building. Within three years of the Saints’ arrival in the Salt Lake Valley, Brother Whitney was laid to rest in this sacred spot. Eighteen years later, both Heber C. Kimball and his wife Vilate were buried here.

Downtown Salt Lake City property map showing blocks surrounding 
Temple Square selected by early pioneer leaders.
Brigham Young University

In total, fifty-six family members and friends were laid to rest in the tiny cemetery, the majority in unmarked graves. Of the deaths of Heber and Vilate, Orson F. Whitney wrote:
On the 22nd of October, 1867, there was gloom in the household of Heber C. Kimball. On that day died Vilate, the partner of his youth, the noble and unselfish sharer of his life’s joys and sorrows. In the sixty-second year of her age, after [a] . . . life of toil, heroism and self-sacrifice, God called her home to a glorious rest. . . . “I shall not be long after her,” was the sad prophecy that fell from [Heber C. Kimball’s] quivering lips, as he followed the remains of his beloved partner to the tomb. . . .

The walled Heber C. Kimball property was northeast of Temple Square.

Daughters of Utah Pioneers

Heber C. and Vilate Kimball

Heber and Vilate met when Heber passed by her home in Victor, New York, on a warm summer day. Being thirsty, he stopped by the house to ask Roswell Murray, who was working in the yard, for a drink of water. The man went to the well, and as he did so he called for his daughter, Vilate, to bring this young stranger a glass from the house. Heber was immediately impressed with the young girl and found that on a return journey through that area he became thirsty about the time that he reached that same house. When Mr. Murray obliged Heber’s request for a drink, Heber boldly announced that he would prefer to have Vilate serve him the glass of water. Soon they were married and became close friends with Brigham Young and his wife Miriam.

Elder Heber C. Kimball was a lifelong friend of Brigham Young. 
They joined the Church within days of each other and weathered many storms of trial and persecution together.
Utah State Historical Society

Both couples were seekers of religious truth, and when several missionaries from northern Pennsylvania passed through the community teaching about the Restoration of the fullness of the gospel, they received their testimony by the witness of the Holy Ghost, being baptized in April 1832.

Vilate Murray Kimball, the lifelong sweetheart and wife of Heber C. Kimball.
Daughters of Utah Pioneers

Following baptism, the two families moved to Kirtland, Ohio, to gather with the Saints. Heber faithfully served in Zion’s Camp, which was organized to help those that were driven from Jackson County, Missouri. In February 1835, he was selected and ordained to serve as a member of the first Quorum of Twelve Apostles. Within two years, he was called to be the first missionary to preach the gospel in Great Britain, returning two years later with other members of the Twelve. Heber was in the pioneer vanguard company that first came to the Salt Lake Valley. When the First Presidency was reorganized in Winter Quarters three years following the martyrdom of the Prophet Joseph Smith, Heber was called as President Brigham Young’s First Counselor, in which office he served until his death.

Newel K. Whitney

Newel K. Whitney (1795–1850) was the owner of a successful mercantile business in Kirtland, Ohio. While studying the Bible, he and his wife, Elizabeth Ann, prayed that God would send prophets again on the earth. In November 1830, four missionaries traveling from New York to teach the American Indians in the western borders of Missouri stopped in the Kirtland area to visit with Sidney Rigdon, a pastor in a reformed Baptist movement. These missionaries were given permission to preach to Sidney’s congregation. Newel and Elizabeth heard the message about a living prophet and the Restoration of the gospel, felt it was true, and agreed to be baptized. In February 1831, the Prophet Joseph and his wife, Emma, arrived in a sleigh in front of the Whitney store. Previously, Joseph was shown in vision Newel and his wife pleading with the Lord that the Prophet might come to Kirtland. Joseph Smith entered their store and exclaimed:

“Newel K. Whitney! Thou art the man!” . . . extending his hand cordially, as if to an old and familiar acquaintance. “You have the advantage of me,” replied the one addressed, as he mechanically took the proffered hand—a half-amused, half mystified look overspreading his countenance— “I could not call you by name as you have me.” “I am Joseph, the Prophet,” said the stranger, smiling. “You’ve prayed me here; now what do you want of me?”

In December 1831, a little more than a year after his baptism, Newel was called as a bishop to minister to the Saints in the Ohio area. Consequent to consecrating his property to the work of the Lord, his store essentially became the bishop’s storehouse in Ohio. In addition, from 1832 to 1833, the upstairs office of the Whitney store served as the Church headquarters while the Prophet Joseph Smith and his family lived there. During that time, Newel participated in many important events connected with the Prophet Joseph Smith. He was a companion of the Prophet in many of Joseph’s journeys, traveling together west to Jackson County, Missouri, and east to New York City. During a return trip from Missouri in May 1832, Bishop Whitney caught his leg in a wagon wheel, breaking it in several places. After remaining together for nearly a month and waiting for the leg to heal, the Prophet Joseph Smith awoke one morning and instructed Newel that if he had the faith to be healed, it would be done. Accordingly,they were soon on their way home to Kirtland. On April 6, 1847, prior to the pioneer company leaving Winter Quarters for the Great Basin, Newel K. Whitney was called and sustained as Presiding Bishop of the Church, which calling he held until his death on September 23, 1850, in Salt Lake City.

Early Salt Lake City was once a single stake with nineteen wards.
Utah State Historical Society

The Seventeenth Ward then erected a more permanent building, also situated across the street, directly southwest of this building. In 1904, when the Salt Lake Stake was divided into four separate stakes, the Seventeenth Ward remained a part of the original Salt Lake Stake.

This window was made by Tiffany’s of New York, 
producer of some of the finest stained-glass in nineteenth-century America.
James Sherman

God the Father and Jesus Christ appeared to young Joseph Smith in the spring of 1820.
James Sherman

Detail of the stained-glass window depicting the First Vision, 
in which Joseph Smith saw God the Father and His Son, Jesus Christ.
James Sherman

The Mormon Tabernacle Choir in the Salt Lake Tabernacle.
© Intellectual Reserve, Inc.

The choir is seen and heard weekly “from the crossroads of the West” on its broadcast Music and the Spoken Word, carried internationally to some two thousand radio, television, and cable stations. The Tabernacle Choir is known and beloved worldwide for its more than 150 recordings.

The nineteenth floor of the Gateway West Tower offers a breathtaking view of 
Temple Square and especially the Tabernacle,
 which was updated in 2007 to meet seismic problems inherent to the 
Wasatch Fault to the east of Salt Lake City.
David M. Whitchurch

U.S. presidents have called the Tabernacle Choir “America’s Choir” and “one of America’s greatest treasures.”

The choir has performed at six presidential inaugurations and at other important national occasions, including the opening ceremonies for the 2002 Olympic Winter Games; the bicentennial celebration of the Constitution of the United States (1987); the American Bicentenary in Washington DC (July 4, 1976); nationwide radio memorial services for John F. Kennedy (November 24, 1963) and Franklin D. Roosevelt (April 12, 1945); and the first worldwide television satellite broadcast, transmitted from Mount Rushmore (1962).

The Tabernacle organ is a complex instrument. 
Organists control over 11,000 pipes and can communicate with technicians during performances, if necessary. 
Note how the organ sits on a circular platform that may be swiveled to 
allow audiences to see different views of the organist and the console.
© by Intellectual Reserve, Inc.

The choir has performed extensively in major concert halls throughout the world. Multiple tours have taken the choir to every part of the United States and Canada, Europe, Central America, the Far East, Brazil, Scandinavia, Japan, Australia and New Zealand, Central Europe, Israel, and the former Soviet Union. The choir has also performed at thirteen world’s fairs and expositions.

Only a few of the gold-leaf organ pipes in the Tabernacle actually “speak.” 
Regardless, their grandeur adds to the solemn majesty of the Tabernacle.
Richard Crookston

Five gold and two platinum records have been awarded to the choir, and the recording of “Battle Hymn of the Republic” with the Philadelphia Orchestra won a Grammy Award in 1959. The choir’s first radio broadcast took place July 15, 1929, making Music and the Spoken Word the longest continuous network broadcast in the world.

The choir has also been awarded the Peabody Award for service to American broadcasting (1944, 1962), an Emmy award, and the George Washington Medal of Freedom award from the Freedoms Foundation at Valley Forge.

An entrance to the Tabernacle.
Gary G. Memorial