Franklin was born on December 27, 1886 to Charles Jr. and Sarah Elizabeth Morgan Kimber and was the 7th child. The family eventually numbered nine children, four girls and five boys in the first family and twelve in the second family for a total of 21 children.

His brothers and sisters are: Annie Elizabeth, Charles William, George Edward, Elmer, Ellen, Evan Osborne, Louisa Caroline, and Sarah Elizabeth. Half brothers and sisters: Edith Cloe, Winfred Charles, Raymond Hugh, Joseph Edwin (Ted), Vera May, Rollo James, Oren LaGrande, Mary, Florence, Fern, Elsie, and Charles Junior.

Franklin’s Grandfather Charles Sr., was a member of the church before sailing from England with his parents and other members of the family. They pioneered to Tooele, Utah and homesteaded on Grouse Creek, settling on the property known as the Kimber ranch.

Hugh Roberts, Frank Kimber & Aubrey Roberts

The summer of 1891, Charles Jr. sold the house on the Ballingham property in Grouse Creek and moved his family to Huntington, Emery County, Utah, where he began the business of buying and selling horses. Franklin would have been a 4 year old boy traveling with his family by wagon and team via Grantsville and Tooele. En route, they stayed at Grandfather Kimber’s (Charles Sr.) ranch for a few days.

They lived in Huntington for a year and returned to Grouse Creek in the late summer of 1892 where they lived in a log house midway in the lane east of Blanthorn’s. They later moved to a house built by Charles Jr. on the property known as Aunt Lizzy Cook’s place.

They had been settled in Grouse Creek for about four months when on 9 October 1892, Sarah gave birth to a new baby daughter born at home. She didn’t recover after the birth and just seventeen days later, thirty-four year-old Sarah Elizabeth Morgan Kimber, passed away due to the complications of childbirth.

Sarah left behind her nine children to be raised by their father: Annie was almost 17, William (15), Edward (13), Elmer and Ellen (11), Oz (9), Frank (5), Louisa, (3) and a tiny baby daughter.

When Charles again left for Huntington, Utah, with his older boys, a few weeks after the death of his wife and baby daughter, it was under the care of his sister, Lizzie Cooke, that he left his children, Annie, Ellen and little Louisa; and Elmer, Oz and Frank as well. It is not known how long the older children lived with Aunt Lizzie, but she truly became a mother to the younger girls.

Not much is really known of Franklin, we can assume that he worked along with his brothers and father on the ranches and gathered the wild horses which seemed to be done by all the Kimbers. Charles J Kimber remembers that Frank was hired to dig a hole (or well) at the site of the school so that it could be used as a septic tank when the indoor plumbing was installed. The septic tank had to be dug through the sandstone so there was proper drainage. Charles remembers that Frank would go down the hole, set charges of dynamite and scramble back up the ladder out of the hole before the dynamite was set off.

Franklin married Ethel Me Munsee October 11, 1914. He was 28 years old. He and Ethel had no children.

The following was taken from a newspaper article concerning Frank:

Last Friday afternoon, Mr. Franklin Vaughn Kimber, while working on a lease at the Snyder mine in Mercur (near Bingham) had the misfortune to miss his footing while descending a ladder at the mine and fell a distance of 80 feet, resulting in a fractured 1st cervical vertebrae resulting in complete paralysis. He was taken to the Bingham Canyon hospital where he lived for one day. He died Saturday evening. He was 56 years old. Franklin died February 14, 1942.

Frank had followed mining all his life and the article also stated he was one of the most respected miners in the area. He lived in Park city, a mining town at that time. He was a charter member of the Mine union in Park city. He mined in Bingham (Kennecott Copper Mine and now Rio Tinto), Mercur, Alta and Park City. He was a known timber man.

He is buried in the Park City, Utah, Summit County Cemetery, Plot 219-4-3 beside his wife, Ethel.