I was born in Tooele City, Tooele County, Utah, on December 3, 1875, the daughter and first child of Charles Kimber Jr. and Sarah Elizabeth Morgan Kimber. My parents were Latter-day Saints (or Mormons), and they taught me principles of the gospel of Jesus Christ, as taught by the Prophet Joseph Smith. I have tried all my life to live up to those teachings.

When I was one year old, we moved to Grouse Creek, Utah, being among the first settlers to locate in this part of the country. We located in the lower part of the valley on a small stream which was called Rose Creek, but afterwards known as Kimber Ranch.

When I was seven years old, I went to live with Benjamin F. and Mary Cooke, at Cooksville, twelve miles up the valley, so I could attend the school there. Philip Paskett was our teacher.

Cooksville was located in the flat by the old William C. Betteridge home. Afterwards it was called The Burg, but now known as Grouse Creek.

On May 3, 1885, I was baptized and confirmed a member of the Church by Brother William P. Paskett. That fall the family moved up to the Burg, and we lived in a house belonging to Rachel Lee, which was not far from the school.

We lived there about two years and then father took up a homestead about two miles up the valley to the north, where he built a log house and we moved into it. This was our home until the fall of 1890. (Today it is known as the William Ballingham home). From there we had to walk two miles to school, church and all socials.

The mail was brought into the valley once a week from Old Terrace, twenty-seven miles over the Southeast mountain to the home of Samuel H. Kimball, his wife being Post Mistress, the first one in the valley. It was about five miles down the valley on Red Butte Creek, afterwards known as Tom Thomas ranch.

I attended Sunday School meetings and all of the church organizations, having had a very good record of attendance and of working in the ward.

In the summer of 1890 father sold our home and we started for New Mexico or Arizona, and after a great amount of hardship and trouble, we arrived at Huntington, Emery County, Utah in November, about 300 miles east from our home in Grouse Creek. We stayed there that winter and in the spring decided to return to Grouse Creek. Father built another house where Uncle George Cook and Aunt Lizzie lived until they passed away.

On October 26, 1892 my dear mother, Sarah Elizabeth Morgan Kimber, passed away, leaving nine children (five boys and four girls). I was past seventeen years old, and being the oldest of the children, it fell to my lot to take the place of a mother to the rest of them. We managed very well for the next six months, when my father married Josie Laird of Huntington, Utah. This changed things and we moved back to Huntington to stay for the winter.

About the middle of December 1893, I met my future husband for the first time and on New Years Eve, December 31, he took me home from church and then he continued to court me until about the middle of August 1894, when he asked me to become his wife and when I said “yes,” he sang the following verse of a song to me:

My Heart is Full of Love for Thee

Now tell me darling if you”ll be

Forever faithful, fond and true

And think of the love I bear for thee,

And the promises I’ve made to you,

And when we join each heart and hand

To battle with life’s bitter woes,

Together we will firmly stand,

And share it’s troubles as it goes.

On October 15, 1894 we were re-baptized by Elder Joseph E. John, confirmed by Elder George Gull, Huntington, Utah

On October 24, 1894, we were married in the Manti Temple for time and all Eternity by President John D.L. McAlaster.

We lived in Huntington, Utah until April 23, 1896 and then we started for Grouse Creek, Box Elder County, Utah, in company with my father and family. After twenty-two days through rain or snow, nearly every day, we arrived at the Kimber Ranch on the 15th day of May. It was a very hard trip on horses and people.

(While in Huntington I worked in the Primary, Relief Society and was a teacher in the Second, Intermediate Class in Sunday School.)

We have lived in Grouse Creek most of the time since 1896, except we spent two winters in Huntington, Utah and myself and the children lived in Ogden during six winters so the children could go to High School there. My husband stayed at Grouse Creek to take care of the Post Office and to get the money for us to live on. He was Postmaster at Grouse Creek since March 1915, twenty-eight years.

I am the mother of eleven children, seven boys and four girls. All of them were born at Grouse Creek and all are alive at the present time (1936).

I was second counselor in the Relief Society at Grouse Creek for four years during the World War of 1914-1918. I was a Relief Society Teacher most of the time for twenty-five years. Also, I was a teacher in the Primary Association of that ward for several years.

Most of this sketch was written by Annie Elizabeth Kimber Wakefield for her youngest child, Leland Amos Wakefield about three and one half years before her death.

She was in ill health for many years but never complained and always had great faith in the power of the Priesthood and in the great hereafter.

She was a loving wife and mother and had many friends who mourned her death. She passed away at 3:30 a.m. on January 2, 1940 in the Dee Hospital, Ogden, Utah. She was laid to rest at Grouse Creek, Utah, on January 5, 1940.