The Kootenai herald. [volume] (Kootenai, Idaho) 1891-1904, 1896-10-31
THE GRIT OF M0RM0NS
KENTUCKY MoUNTAiNEERs WILL
FIGHT MISSIONARIES.
II F1Ourishing Colony in Chi
hunhua, Mexico.

Kentucky, fringing the Cumberland
mountains, become as riotous as
in the days &C the Mccoy Hatfield feud,
It will be the fault of the Mormons. A
number of these Latter Day Saints have
| been brave enough to invade the home
country of the rough mountaneers and
| make converts wherever they can. This
| speaks volumes for the courage of the
Saints, and but very little for their judg-
ment
Many converts have been made so
many that the natives of Grayson Knott
| Rowan, Letcher, Leslie, Boyd, Harlan,
! Elliott, Bell. Pike, Floyd and Perry coun-
! ties have taken alarm. They have formed
am organization to drive the Mormon
missionaries out of the stale. and the
! MormOns refuse to be driven. There can
be but one result Of this, and that is
trouble
The Kentucky mountaineer is a simple.
| kindly being crude i'm matters of educa-
ton and with old-fashioned notions of
what is right and wrong. He believes
| nothing Of Mormonism except that the
| Mormon has dozen or two of wives. The
| other features of the religion he knows
nothing of and cares less. He has a
| wholesome regard for the moral welfare
| of his daughter his sister or his wife,
| and when that is assailed he Is ready to
! fight Then the kindly, simple man be-
! comes terrible
1t is doubtful if there Is a single boy Of
- years or more I'm the counties above
named who cannot shoot. All of the men
! Of that region are accustomed to the use
| of firearms, and their skill in handling
| them seems to be inherited from the soil,
a soil which has been soaked many times
| with the blood spilled I'm the bitter feuds
of the country. If a kentucky mountain
| ecr has but one good nrst-class thing
! among his earthly possessions that arti-
! Gle is apt to be a gun.
MOrmOns Have Grit.
10 10 "a a A
trouble are not weaklings. The same
warike and determined spirit with which
the founders of the sect took possession
Of Utah 49, years ago and held IL against
all opposition seems to animate the men
here. and they are numerous enough to
Give the mountaineers a stiff struggle.
fit is estimated that fully 5000 Mormons
arc now in the eastern end of Kentucky,
or just over the line I'm Virginia or West
VIRGINIA. They are distributed over many
miles Of territory but I'm the event of
emergency they could be assembled at a
central point within a day or so. In
numbers they are nearly as great as the
male population of that section of the
state, and if the trouble comes to regu-
lar conflict the damage to life will be
great owing to the equal proportions of
, strength.
1t is understood that the converts made
in Kentucky are not being sent to Utah.
owing to the stringent laws in force
] Liltlt AStllllrl lbl9 6ellAAg. mere - IL hlS
colony of Mormons OF the polygamous
! order I'm the great arid desert OF Chihua-
5 hua, Mexico and it is believed that the
Kentucky converts will be sent there
When the United States government first
began to enforce the Edmunds law by
bers of M0lmons. with their numerous
wives and their progeny, fed to Mexico
and settled In the foothills of the Sierra
Madres
A Prosperous Colony.
with the same thrift and industry
which characterized the first Mormons in
Utah. those I'm Mexico have transformed
the wild country into fertile fields, and
now they have q monopoly of a4ricul-
tural products i'm that part of Mexico,
, supplying all Of the northern towns with
their surplus crops. These MeSican col
onists have become prosperous. They live
in good. comfortable houses built i'm the
! American style.
There is no cCncoalment of their pOlyg-
amous mode OF living and the number Of
wives of the rich exceed those of the
same class i'm Utah in it's carly days The
Mexican government has taken no steps
to vine out polygamy, and as result
the colonies are growing in number each
( year The principal colonies are at Diaz,
e. Juarez and Pachea and other towns in
- northern Mexico.
Some of the elders domicie their wives
/ i'm separate houses probably TO reduce
minimum. one man at LloZ has q row
/ of small houses. nine in number, inhabit-
. ed by his respective wives and their chill
r. dren. According to the doctrine of the
, rOiygamist Mormon q mans status in
= heaven is governed by tine number of
wives and children he has had, and on
p this basis the elder with the nine houses
u and wives should rank very high indeed.
{ MOUntuineers Are Angry.
e The news that the Kentucky converts
3D. are being sent to Mexico to strengthen
o. the Mormon colony there, whether it be
true or false, has served to inhame the
{ mountaineers greatly. The organization
D which they have formed is not dissimiar
e. to the ku-klux-klan which by the way,
q | originated in the Kentucky mountains
1 / This organization is called THE Mules,
and its sole purpose is to drive the Nor
/ mons away before they can 90 further
- damage among the susceptible young
women folk. Most of the mountaineers
are Methodists, and the church elders
20 have been most active in organizing
2 1.-THE Mules" In each little hamlet IN
v the counties affected THE Mules" have a
n leader, who carries out the orders is
sued from the central point. One of the
first of these was to warn all of the ma
tives against selling or giving the Nor
:. mon missionaries food or shelter. The
a punishment for a violation OF this edici
l.. is the destruction of the persons home
, by fire and the ruin of his crops and
= stock, practically reducing him to beg
gary.
If this fails to stop the missionary
n work of the Saints warfare of the guer-
s rilla order will probably be inaugurated
and many Kentucky bullets will find g
: target in Mormon. 1t is less than two
q months since the first batch Of elders In
vaded the country, and since then there
1r, ,~,srr aIr n Or fxrrn