# A Moses of the Mormons

PARKMAN CLUB PUBLICATIONS Nos. 15–16 Milwaukee, Wis., May 11, 1897
A MOSES OF THE MORMONS
Strang's City of Refuge and Island Kingdom
By Henry E. Legler
Printed for the Parkman Club by Edward Keogh
A Moses of the Mormons.
Strang's City of Refuge at Voree and His Kingdom on an Island in Lake Michigan.
Nestling between hills east of the city of La Crosse is the pleasant little valley known as Mormon coulée. Industrious Swiss and German farmers, who rigidly adhere to the severe orthodoxy of the Calvinistic creed, have reared on its wooded hillsides and beside the quiet little brook that meanders through, their comfortable cabins and farmhouses. Only the name of the coulée and a few crumbling ruins of masonry remain of what fifty years ago was a flourishing Mormon colony.
Half a century ago a prosperous community of 2,000 persons inhabited the city of Voree, on the edge of a prairie skirted by White river, in the fertile county of Walworth. It was a stake of Zion, heralded to fugitive Mormons as a city of refuge. To-day the site of this city of promise is as bare as if its soil had never borne the weight of human habitation.
​On the largest island of the Beaver archipelago, in Lake Michigan, there flourished about the middle of the present century, a community of several thousand Latter-Day Saints. They were ruled by a king for nearly seven years. Of his temple and his so-called castle, the only vestiges now are a few splinters in the collections of relic hunters. His subjects have been scattered far and wide, and ax and torch long ago reduced their habitations to heaps of cinders.
In the busy brain of James Jesse Strang was conceived the scheme of founding in Wisconsin an empire of Latter-Day Saints. When the great exodus from Nauvoo began, he sought to turn the steps of the wanderers to his city of refuge at Voree. It was questionable for a time whether he or Brigham Young would triumph. Other pretenders sought to don the fallen mantle of Joseph Smith, but Brigham Young feared none of them as he did Strang. In the end the dream of Strang faded away, and his life paid the penalty of his ambition. His vast plans were "dead sea fruit, that tempt the eye, but turn to ashes on the lips."
The settlement in Mormon coulée had but brief duration. When the Mormon temple at Nauvoo was planned, a party of Saints ascended the Mississippi to obtain lumber for the structure. Doubtless the snug little valleys behind the hills that skirt the prairie of La Crosse tempted them to there plant ​an isolated stake of Zion. At this time (1843) the prairie was a mere trading station, and its rough inhabitants regarded the Mormons as legitimate prey. There were frequent collisions, due in part to the rude attentions bestowed upon the Mormon women by the young men of the prairie. One night the eastern heavens were all aglow. The Mormons had secretly constructed rafts, removed their belongings to them under cover of night, and applied the torch to their deserted homes. Before the hostile inhabitants of the prairie could intercept or molest them, their rafts had floated them many miles away with the rapid current of the Mississippi.
The Mormon coulée settlement was governed by Elder Lyman Wight, who later became an aspirant for the leadership of the Church. Disappointed in his ambition, he led his adherents to Texas.
So closely is the story of Mormonism in Wisconsin and Michigan associated with James Strang, that its recital is largely biographical. Of his boyhood little is known, except that he was studious and ambitious—and likewise eccentric. After his death there was found among his papers the fragments of an autobiography covering the period of his life up to the age of 12. The writing comes to a sudden stop, as if the writer had been disturbed and had never cared, or perhaps had no opportunity, to resume the story of his life. In view of the later ​career of this strange man, the fragment is interesting as giving an insight into the unusual elements that tinctured his life and fashioned his character.
"My infancy was a period of continual sickness and extreme suffering," he wrote, "and I have understood that at one time I was so low as to be thought dead, and that preparations were made for my burial. All my early recollections are painful, and at this day I am utterly unable to comprehend the feeling of those who look back with pleasure on their infancy, and regret the rapid passing away of childhood. Till I had children of my own, happy in their infantile gambols, the recollection of those days produced a creeping sensation akin to terror."
It was the claim of Strang that he was a descendant of Henry de l'Estrange, who accompanied the Duke of York on his expedition for the conquest of New Amsterdam. In his autobiography he notes that his father, Clement Strang, was the fifth son of Gabriel Strang. Coming originally of al Norman stock, "they have continually intermarried with the Dutch and German families of the Hudson, and therefore partake more of the German type than any other. Counting continually in the male line for ten generations back, our ancestors are Jews, but so large is the admixture of other blood that the Semitic type seems to be quite lost."
On his mother's side, Strang's ancestry was of the purest Yankee stock from Rhode Island. His mother's maiden name was James.
On a farm in the town of Scipio, N. Y., owned by his father. James Jesse Strang was born March 21, 1813. He was but 3 years of age when his parents removed to Hanover, in Chatauqua county, his life until manhood being passed there. The meager facilities of a country school were supplemented by a ​brief term at Fredonia Academy. Such details of his life at this period as are known indicate that he was an omniverous reader, and that he was noted for a remarkably retentive memory. In the local debating clubs he vanquished all opponents. While working on a farm he borrowed law books and eagerly read and digested them. He was admitted to the bar and began to practice in Mayville, later removing to Ellington. He became postmaster there, but he was of too restless a spirit to remain long in one place. Although married shortly after he was admitted to the bar, he began a roving life, going from one place to another and flitting from one occupation to another without particular motive, except to follow the bent of his nature. He taught a country school, edited a newspaper at Randolph, and then took the rostrum as a temperance lecturer. He was full of energy and ambition, and a remarkably ready and effective speaker.
Strang's wife was Mary Perce. Her brother resided at Burlington, in Racine county, Wis., and it was at his solicitation that the young man removed to this state. This was in 1843. Here he resumed the practice of law, forming a partnership with C. P. Barnes, who later became associated as a practitioner with Judge Wm. P. Lyon.
In the year following his removal to Wisconsin, there came to Burlington several itinerant missionaries from the Mormon Church at Nauvoo, seeking proselytes. Their talk appealed with peculiar fascination to the temperament of Strang. He threw himself heart and soul into the movement. It was a field that afforded his peculiar talents full play. Before six months had expired, Strang had developed from an humble convert to ​the self-styled head of the Church. It was in January, 1844, that his zeal was kindled. He visited Nauvoo, and on the 25th of February was baptized by the seer Joseph Smith into the communion of Latter-Day Saints. The prophet conceived a great regard for the young zealot from Wisconsin, and but a week after baptism Strang had been made an elder with authority to plant a stake of Zion in the immediate neighborhood of his Wisconsin home.
With restless energy and marvelous success, Strang began his propaganda and laid the foundation for the city of Voree. What his ideas were can only be conjectured in the light of his subsequent dream of empire. Intensely ambitious for power, versed in the arts that enable leadership of men, fired with religious fervor, keenly conscious of his own abilities, the example of Joseph Smith's success doubtless inspired him with great ambitions. He saw in Smith an uneducated man who from the humblest origin became in the course of but a few years the unchallenged prophet of many thousands of men and women. The possibilities of his own future dazzled him. Events at first conspired to bring to immediate realization the dreams of Strang. In June the prophet and his brother Hyrum were riddled with bullets by a mob at Carthage, in the state of Illinois. On whom should the mantle fall that the martyred seer had worn? Many sought the succession; but one of them possessed the energy or capacity to measure weapons for more than a brief period with the masterful craft of Brigham Young. That one was Strang. That Young feared Strang most ​is attested by the bitterness with which in pamphlets and in Mormon newspapers Strang was assailed, while the other pretenders were almost ignored as if unworthy of notice.
In the struggle that ensued between Brigham Young and James Jesse Strang, the former had all the advantage of an entrenched position. He was one of the all-powerful Council of Twelve, and at first fed the enmity of his colleagues towards outside aspirants by ingenuously suggesting to each individually hopes of personal aggrandizement. It was a shrewd scheme to first crush outside aspirants, and then narrow down rivalry at home by cajolery or intimidation till his own elevation became possible.
Despite the hostility of the combined Council of Twelve, Strang made a vigorous and resourceful campaign to secure the prophetic succession. Joseph Smith's Nauvoo followers had not recovered from the shock of their leader's assassination before Strang was in their midst exhorting them to follow him to the city of promise in Wisconsin. He exhibited a letter purporting to have been written by the seer just before his assassination, prophesying that he would soon wear "the double crown of martyr and king in a heavenly world," and appointing James Strang as his successor:
"And now behold my servant, James J. Strang, hath come to thee from far for truth when he knew it not, and hath not ​rejected it, but had faith in thee, the Shepherd and Stone of Israel, and to him shall the gathering of the people be, for he shall plant a stake of Zion in Wisconsin, and I will establish it; and there shall my people have peace and rest and shall not be moved, for it shall be established on the prairie on White river, in the lands of Racine and Walworth; and behold my servants James and Aaron shall plant it, for I have given them wisdom, and Daniel shall stand in his lot on the hill beside the river looking down on the prairie, and shall instruct my people and shall plead with them face to face.
"Behold my servant James shall lengthen the cords and strengthen the stakes of Zion, and my servant Aaron shall be his counselor, for he hath wisdom in the gospel and understandeth the doctrines and erreth not therein.
"And I will have a house built unto me there of stone, and there will I show myself to my people by many mighty works, and the name of the city shall be called Voree, which is, being interpreted, garden of peace; for there shall my people have peace and rest and wax fat and pleasant in the presence of their enemies.
"But I will again stretch out my arm over the river of waters, and on the banks thereof shall the house of my choice be. But now the city of Voree shall be a stronghold of safety to my people, and they that are faithful and obey me, I will there give them great prosperity, and such as they have not had before; and unto Voree shall be the gathering of my people, and there shall the oppressed flee for safety and none shall hurt or molest them."
The Council of Twelve made a furious onslaught on the pretensions of Strang; denounced his letter as a forgery, and threatened with the thunders of the Church all who would ​uphold the pretender. The Brighamites started the story that the postmark on the letter was black, whereas all Nauvoo letters were stamped in red. Strang produced the letter and showed a red postmark. He claimed that the letter was received at Burlington by regular course of mail, through the Chicago distributing office; that it bore the Nauvoo postmark of June 19, the day following its date, and that C. P. Barnes, a well-known Burlington lawyer, took the letter out of the post-office and delivered it to Strang July 9. It was also claimed by the Brighamites that no proper entry of the mailing of such a letter could be found in the register of "mails sent" from Nauvoo. When it was sought to verify Strang's claim that the proper entry was there, the register had mysteriously disappeared.
With much shrewdness, the Council of Twelve spread abroad among the people the doctrine that the martyred prophet could have no successor, and their united opposition disposed of the pretensions of several claimants, among them Sidney Rigdon, Lyman Wight and William Smith. The most vigorous claimant was Strang. Fortified with the letter alleged to have been sent him by Joseph Smith, and loudly proclaiming its genuineness among the Nauvooites, he soon gathered a considerable following. The twelve apostles summoned a conference. With much force and logic Strang defended his position, citing liberally from the Bible, the Book of Mormon and the Book of Doctrines and Covenants. The apostles contended that no man could assume the prophetic succession and hold the keys of authority which Joseph had obtained from the hands of angels. Their official organs, published at Nauvoo and Liverpool, had before this proclaimed in no uncertain words the doctrine that to take Joseph's place as seer, revelator and prophet was mere usurpation.
​"Let no man presume for a moment his place will be filled by another," were the words reiterated in the "Times and Seasons" and in the "Millennial Star," whose columns were controlled by the twelve and their abettors. In the face of the sentiment thus created, Strang made a hopeless appeal for recognition. His pretensions were rejected, and with the usual formulas of the Church ritual, he was "given over to the buffetings of Satan."
Strang was not so easily disposed of, however. With a body of recusant Mormons whom his remarkable powers of oratory had attached to his cause, he returned to Voree and began to build up his city of refuge, prophesying that the Mormons would be driven from Nauvoo by the Lamanites, and that then the words of Joseph would be realized. In every detail he carried out the policy by which the seer Joseph had appealed to his followers. He pretended to have revelations. These he transcribed in imitation of scriptural language, teeming with vague phrases upon which he placed such interpretations as were needful to carry out his immediate purposes. He organized his church on the pattern prescribed by the sacred books of the Mormon faith, with a council of twelve, and quorums of elders and priests. Over all of them he exercised supreme authority. Like Joseph, when schism threatened or murmurs of discontent came to his ears, he would silence all opposition by means of a convenient revelation.
​Page:A Moses of the Mormons.djvu/21 ​Page:A Moses of the Mormons.djvu/22 ​Page:A Moses of the Mormons.djvu/23 ​Prophet." It bore date of December 25, 1845, and concluded in this wise:
"Let not my call to you be vain. The destroyer has gone forth among you, and has prevailed. You are preparing to resign country and houses and lands to him. Many of you are about to leave the haunts of civilization and of men to go into an unexplored wilderness among savages, and in trackless deserts, to seek a home in the wilds where the footprint of the
white man is not found. The voice of God has not called you to this. His promise has not gone before to prepare a habitation for you. The hearts of the Lamanites are not turned unto you, and they will not regard you. When the herd comes, the savages shall pursue. The cloud which surrounds by day shall bewilder, and the pillar of fire by night shall consume and reveal you to the destroyer.
​Page:A Moses of the Mormons.djvu/25 ​Page:A Moses of the Mormons.djvu/26 ​Page:A Moses of the Mormons.djvu/27 ​Page:A Moses of the Mormons.djvu/28 ​Page:A Moses of the Mormons.djvu/29 ​Page:A Moses of the Mormons.djvu/30 ​Page:A Moses of the Mormons.djvu/31 ​Page:A Moses of the Mormons.djvu/32 ​Page:A Moses of the Mormons.djvu/33 ​Page:A Moses of the Mormons.djvu/34 ​Page:A Moses of the Mormons.djvu/35 ​Page:A Moses of the Mormons.djvu/36 ​ ​Page:A Moses of the Mormons.djvu/38 ​Page:A Moses of the Mormons.djvu/39 ​Page:A Moses of the Mormons.djvu/40 ​Page:A Moses of the Mormons.djvu/41 ​tiles who lived on Beaver Island. They resisted; Thomas Bennett was instantly shot dead and his brother had one hand nearly shot away.
Such episodes caused renewed activity in the Gentile strongholds among those who planned to sweep the Mormon settlements with fire and sword. Before their plans could be executed the King was assassinated by two of his rebellious
(From the Smithsonian Report for 1878.)
subjects—Thomas Bedford and Alexander Wentworth. Bedford had been whipped by order of the King for some offense; he is said to have upheld his wife in disregarding the mandate to wear bloomers. Wentworth also had a grievance. About the middle of June, 1856, the Michigan steamed into the harbor, and by invitation of the captain King Strang proceeded to visit the vessel's officers. As he was about to step on the pier, two pistol shots were fired from behind, both taking effect. He ​Page:A Moses of the Mormons.djvu/43
* ↑ "Not many years ago the buildings erected by them were still. standing, among which a lime-kiln which had been used by them was discovered."—"History of La Crosse County," p. 355.
* ↑ On the Old Geneva Road, in Walworth County, in the midst of a large corn field, is the only Mormon church in Wisconsin. The worshipers who congregate there belong to the Iowa Saints, known as "Young Josephites." They abhor both the Brighamite and Strangite doctrines. The church is situated at a cross-roads, almost within view of beautiful Geneva Lake, six or seven miles south of Elkhorn. Glancing to the four points of the compass, one sees great fields of waving corn, interspersed here and there with a strip of yellow barley glinting in the sunlight, or a clump of trees through which peers a substantial looking farmhouse. The little church is a plain building with belfry, neatly painted white, and bearing on a tablet above the wide front door this legend in raised letters of wood: LATTER DAY SAINTS' CHURCH. Much prejudice exists among the country people of the neighborhood against the forty or fifty Mormons who attend this church. Several years ago I spent a few days in the vicinity, for the purpose of gathering data relative to this community. I was told, with bated breath, several instances of witchcraft attributable to the elder of the community. The narrators evidently believed the stories implicitly, the grotesqueness and Impossibility of the performances alleged to have occurred scarcely paralleling in extent the credulity of the country folk. In the neighboring village of Springfield there were, at the time of my visit, a few Mormons who used the schoolhouse as a meeting place. When the Saints were to be called together, the clangor of the school bell apprised them of the fact. Yielding to popular pressure, the trustees of the school had the bell removed. Thereupon the Mormons expressed their Indignation by placarding the town with notices of their meeting, these words appearing in large, black type: "Curfew must not ring to-night."
* ↑ Scattered throughout the peninsula of Door County and adjacent islands, and also in the counties of Rock, Walworth and Racine, loyal adherents of King Strang can still be found. They cling to the faith he taught them with unabated devotion, and cherish his memory with unwavering loyalty.
* ↑ While en route for the copper mines of Lake Superior, Alfred Brunson of Prairie du Chien and his party of prospectors came to the Black River in May, 1842. "We found the Mormons in possession getting out timber for their Nauvoo temple; to them and to our company I preached the first gospel sermon ever delivered in that valley. We ferried over Black River on their keel boats, except the cattle, who swam."—"History of the Chippewa Valley," by Thos. E. Randall, p. 23. George Z. Heuston, of Winona, informs me, on the authority of his father's manuscript history of Trempealeau County, that about that same Lime a few Mormon families settled in the vicinity of the modern town of Trempealeau, at a place called Little Tamarack, but they did not remain. long, and probably joined Lyman Wight's colony at La Crosse.
* ↑ An excellent condensed sketch of Lyman Wight, with extracts from his journal, appears on page 125 of "The Wights, a Record of Thomas Wight of Dedham and Medfield and of His Descendants, 1635–1896."
* ↑ I am indebted to Chas. J. Strang, of Lansing, Mich., son of King Strang, for a copy of the manuscript.
* ↑ See autobiography, appendix.
* ↑ Following incident, told the writer by Judge Lyon, illustrates the peculiar bent of Strang's mind: "On one accasion he brought a suit before me (I was then a justice of the peace) to recover the value of honey which he claimed had been stolen from his client's apiary by the thievish bees of a neighbor. Who ever heard of a law suit based on such grounds? And yet Strang conducted the case with great shrewdness and made a most plausible argument. He was continually bringing up unexpected points in law cases, and using arguments that would have been thought of by no one else. I think he liked the notoriety that resulted from that sort of thing."
* ↑ "E. D. Howe, in his valuable work, Mormonism Unveiled (Painesville, O., 1834), presents the testimonials of eighty-one persons, neighbors and acquaintances of the Smith family, all attesting to their illiteracy and generally worthless and disreputable character."—"The Prophet of Palmyra," p. 11.
* ↑ "Joseph estimated that, in the various quarters of the earth where his religion had been preached, he had over a hundred and fifty thousand followers."—Remy & Brenchley's "Journey to Great Salt Lake City," Vol. I, p. 349.
* ↑ "Of all the aspirants he (Strang) was the only one, save Brigham. Young, who displayed any genuine qualities of leadership."—Michigan Pioneer and Historical Collections, Vol. XVIII, p. 5.
* ↑ The twelve apostles, after the death of the prophet, bestowed these names upon each other: Brigham Young, the Lion of the Lord. Heber C. Kimball, the Herald of Grace. Parley P. Pratt, the Archer of Paradise. Orson Hyde, the Olive Branch of Israel. Willard Richards, the Keeper of the Rolls. John Taylor, the Champion of Right. William Smith, the Patriarchal Staff of Jacob. William Woodruff, the Banner of the Gospel. George A. Smith, the Entablature of Truth." Orson Pratt, the Gauge of Philosophy. John E. Page, the Sundial, Lyman Wight, the Wild Ram of the Mountains.
* ↑ Two of them—George A. Smith and John E. Page—subsequently enrolled themselves under the standard of Strang. Their names frequently appear in the conference reports published in the Voree Herald and Northern Islander.
* ↑ Letter of Joseph Smith to James J. Strang. published in "The Diamond," p. 3.
* ↑ The columns of the "Times and Seasons," published at Nauvoo, fairly teem with denunciation of the pretender, Strang.
* ↑ According to the "Book of Mormon," a remnant of the tribe of Joseph was miraculousy led to the new world across the Pacific Ocean (Book of Nephi), and separated into two distinct nations—Nephites and Lamanites. "This division was caused by a certain portion of them being greatly persecuted, because of their righteousness, by the remainder. The persecuted nation migrated toward the northern parts of North America, leaving the wicked nation in possession of the middle and southern parts of the same. The former were called Nephites, being led by a prophet who was called Nephi. The latter were called Lamanites, being led by a very wicked man whose name was Laman."—Kidder's "Mormonism and the Mormons." p. 267.
* ↑ "Revelations of James J. Strang," collected and printed in pamphlet form by Wingfield Watson after the death of Strang—now an excessively rare pamphlet.
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