Hiram Kimball's Wife Sarah and the Founding of Relief Society — Prophet Joseph Blesses Their Infant Son

Hiram S. Kimball (1806–1863) was a prosperous Nauvoo businessman. His wife, Sarah Granger Kimball, was a devout Latter-day Saint, while Hiram himself was not yet a member of the Church at the time of the Relief Society's founding in 1842.

When their son was three days old in November 1841, a remarkable scene unfolded. Sarah, wishing to contribute to the construction of the Nauvoo Temple, said to her husband: 'What is the boy worth?' Hiram replied that he was worth a great deal. She said: 'Half of him is mine, is it not?' When Hiram agreed, Sarah declared: 'Then I have something to help on the Temple. I think of turning my share right in as tithing.'

Hiram soon met the Prophet Joseph Smith and reported what Sarah had said. The Prophet seemed pleased and said: 'I accept all such donations, and from this day the boy shall stand recorded, Church property.' He then turned to Willard Richards: 'Make a record of this, and you are my witness.'

Joseph then blessed Sarah, saying: 'You have consecrated your first born son, for this you are blessed of the Lord. I bless you in the name of the Lord God of Abraham, of Isaac and of Jacob. And I seal upon you all the blessings that pertain to the faithful. Your name shall be handed down in honorable remembrance from generation to generation.'

In the summer of 1843, it was Sarah Granger Kimball who first proposed the idea of a women's charitable society — the very conversation that led to Joseph Smith organizing the Female Relief Society of Nauvoo, declaring: 'The Church was never perfectly organized until the women were thus organized.'

Sarah's father, Oliver Granger, had also received a heavenly vision in New York in which the angel Moroni appeared to him, bore testimony that the Book of Mormon was true, and knelt beside him in prayer.