Original sentence: After a mob was let into the jail in Carthage, Illinois, where Joseph Smith was being held on charges of committing treason against the state of Illinois, a gun fight ensued and as a result Smith was killed.Followers of the Latter Day Saint movement ( commonly known as Mormons ) have been persecuted since the faith's creation in the 1830s.However hostilities between Mormons, non-Mormons and former Mormons would soon escalate.This caused an exodus by the Latter-day Saints to Utah, which, at the time, was not a part of the United States.This drove the early Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints from New York to Missouri, where escalating attacks by neighboring villages caused them to flee to Nauvoo, Illinois