Andrew returned home from his personal mission on April 24, 1887. The reunion of him and his patient wife, Ollie, and his three-year-old daughter Clare brought great joy, typically understated in his journal, “I found my wife and baby well and in good quarters with her mother Sister Woolley. was very glad to see them and they me.”95 The next morning he gave his mission report in person to the First Presidency and delivered a written version to the Deseret News. Then he looked for work. Right away he received an offer to return to work at the railroad shops and also an offer of a job clerking in Woolley, Young, Hardy and Co., a grocery store.96 He first accepted the grocery store job, but soon shifted to work for Hyde and Griffen as a clerk and as a traveling salesman. A year later he moved to Woolley, Lund and Judd, a dealer in farm implements,97 and then to Hyde and Griffen98 as a traveling salesman.99
In his job as a salesman, selling in Salt Lake City and as he traveled about the Utah-Idaho area over the next ten years, he frequently had contact with former missionaries from the Indian Territory and the families of missionaries then serving there. He also arranged farewells and reunions and received converts from the region who were gathering to Utah.100 Andrew continued to appoint elders to preside in the different districts of the mission and communicated by letter. He even undertook to recruit his own missionaries by suggesting names to the First Presidency.101 He helped men who had recently been called get prepared, set apart, and sent off, usually in pairs (unless to replace a missionary coming home for sickness). The numbers sent out were small at first, three or four a year, but later half a dozen, with a much larger number at the very end of his service when the mission had expanded to include four states.
While Andrew was absentee mission president and travelling salesman, his family grew with the addition of Gordon in 1888.
Andrew notified men who had been called to the Indian Territory that they would be expected to travel without purse or scrip and that they should not rely on the members in their area unnecessarily. He sent rather detailed instructions, for example, “Every elder must dress in black or dark Prince Albert suit with black dress hat to match.”102 One man reported that B. H. Roberts had told him that a cutaway coat was adequate. Andrew’s mission secretary responded, “Brother Roberts is not running this mission.”103 Andrew wrote the men already in the field: “It has come to my ears that Elders use coffee at times, using illness as an excuse. . . . we have labored for twelve years to establish confidence . . . [and should] keep the word of wisdom.” Andrew corresponded with the elders individually and received reports from them as they returned from the mission. Relationships were generally smooth, but in 1889 one of the elders criticized him and created some dissension.104
100. “Farewell at Kimball Home,” clipping dated September 19, 1889, in Andrew Kimball, Papers. One time a Lynch family of fourteen came. Andrew and Ollie gave temporary housing to some and arranged for others to be taken in until they got settled. In 1895 a dozen members arrived from the mission. See also, Andrew Kimball to Mrs. A. I. McDonald, August 4, 1895, Church History Library.
101. Andrew Kimball to First Presidency, February 17, 1896, Church History Library (thirteen names).
102. Andrew Kimball to newly called missionaries, September 7, 1896, Church History Library.
103. John Knight to Andrew Kimball, March 27, 1897, Church History Library. Missionaries serving in the Southern States Mission were likewise instructed to wear Prince Albert suits.
