The younger ones here know nothing of J Golden Kimball. Let's fix that.

Former senior president of the First Council of the Seventy, he was known as the swearing prophet. Here are some of the stories about him.

  • J. Golden was on a trip in September with Apostle Francis M. Lyman. . . . They came to Panaca, Nevada. We had not seen an apostle for twenty years, and it was Sunday, a fast day.

Meetings were begun in the morning and they kept them up all day, and we were fasting. I was starved and anxious to go at four o’clock. After four Brother Lyman said, “Now, Brother Kimball, get up and tell them about the Era.” He had done a good deal of talking himself about the Era. Golden got up and said, “All you men that will take the Era if we will let you go home, raise your right hand.” There was not a single man who did not raise his hand and subscribed and paid $2.00 cash for the Era. In that campaign, they got 400 subscribers. Golden said later, “I do not claim that was inspiration; it was good psychology. Really they paid $2.00 to get out.”

  • while on his mission there was a baptism on the rivers edge and a bunch of anti-mormons on the other side saw them and started being loud and threatening the Mormon worshippers.

J Golden yelled at them saying "boys, we're in the middle of a service here and it is hard to proceed with you making all of these idle threats. Let us finish in peace, then we'll tell you when we're done and you can come over and talk about it. Just remember that we're Mormons, we have horns and we'll gore the hell out of you."

  • One morning as J. Golden and his companion were walking in the Southern States Mission, they encountered a priest. As they approached, the priest sneered, “Good morning, you sons of the devil.” Without skipping a beat and with a smile on his face, J. Golden replied, “Why, good morning . . . father!”

  • An acquaintance met J. Golden [Kimball] on the street one day and in conversation asked, “Do you believe that Jonah was swallowed by the whale?”

“When I get to heaven I’ll ask Jonah,” J. Golden answered.

“But,” said the man, “what if Jonah is not there?”

“Then you will have to ask him."