one of the original petitioners to establish a Freemasonry lodge there. He served as Nauvoo Lodge U.D.'s first Junior Deacon. He remained active in Freemasonry throughout his stay in Nauvoo, but was not active once he moved to Utah Territory. There was no lodge in Utah in his lifetime that would admit Mormons. Early family life Several of Kimball's close family members died of tuberculosis within a few years: his mother in February 1824, his father in the spring of 1826, followed by his brother Charles C. and his brother's wife shortly thereafter. His son William Henry was born in Mendon, April 10, 1826; he was Kimball's first child to survive infancy. His daughter Helen Mar was born August 22, 1828. She was the only daughter to survive. Signs in the heavens Kimball claims to have witnessed a miraculous event on September 22, 1827. According to his autobiography, he subsequently learned that it "took place the same evening that Joseph Smith received the records of the Book of Mormon from the Angel Moroni." He had seen "a white smoke" arising on the horizon, growing "clear and transparent of a bluish cast" to reveal an army on the move "in platoons": We could see distinctly the muskets, bayonets, and knapsacks of the men, who wore caps and feathers like those used by the American soldiers in the last war with Britain; also their officers with their swords and equipage, and heard the clashing and jingling of their instruments of war and could discover the form and features of the men. The most profound order existed throughout the entire army, when the foremost man stepped, every man stepped at the same time: I could hear the step. When the front rank reached the Western horizon a battle ensued, as we could distinctly hear the report of the arms and the rush. No man could judge of my feelings when I beheld that army of men, as plainly as I ever saw armies of men in the flesh it seemed as though every hair of my head was alive. This scenery was gazed upon for hours, until it began to disappear. Joining the Latter Day Saint movement While in New York, Kimball joined the local Baptist Church and was eventually baptized. Three weeks later, three elders from The Church of Christ, the original name of the Latter Day Saint church founded by Joseph