Heber Kimball Campbell

Heber Kimball Campbell was the last of 13 children born to Benoni Campbell and Mary Leonard, both from New York.

As members of The Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints, the family Joined the Stephen Markham Company, leaving Iowa on June 20 to journey west to the Salt Lake Valley. Exhaustive travel conditions, disease, injury, lack of food and medicine, premature birth, and extreme weather were some of the greatest threats to pioneers. Cholera, a bacterial disease caused from contaminated water, infected many of the travelers.

A week into the trek, many of the pioneers in the company were stricken with cholera including Heber, as well as his mother and father.

A family history indicates that a woman in the camp was suffering from cholera and not expected to live. Mr. and Mrs. Campbell sent their son John to go ahead of the camp and dig a grave for her. While that woman didn’t die, by the time the company arrive at the site of the freshly dug grave, Heber’s mother passed away on June 30 and she was buried there. Heber’s father died a few days later on July 4 and is buried along the Momon Trail west. Then, five days later on July 9, 1850, 5-year-old Heber died from the dreaded disease and is buried by the Platte River.

One of Heber’s brothers documented, “Cholera broke out in the company and I lost my father and mother, and one brother. We buried them by the roadside. We lost eleven out of our company.”