The petition for statehood by the Mormons was never given serious consideration by the federal government.  Congress was pre-occupied with slavery, slave states, and free states.

The Church’s best friend in Congress proved to be Senator Stephen A. Douglas of Illinois, who had befriended Joseph Smith and the Saints during the Nauvoo period. Douglas, the chairman of the Senate committee on territories, graciously met with Dr. Bernhisel and promised to help take the petition through the legislative process. Although Congress willingly agreed to rapidly growing California’s petition for statehood, the slavery controversy prohibited serious consideration of the statehood petitions for sparsely populated Deseret and New Mexico. Senator Douglas decided to call for territorial status instead, to appease the South, which could not accept more senators from “free” states. He also changed Deseret’s name to Utah (after the Ute Indians) to avoid offending his colleagues, particularly Senator Thomas Benton of Missouri, who thought Deseret sounded too much like desert.

The Compromise of 1850 admitted California into the Union as a free state and “designated Utah and New Mexico as territories with the right to decide by popular sovereignty whether they would eventually become slave or free states. On 9 September 1850, President Millard Fillmore signed the bill creating the Utah Territory. Neither the Latter-day Saints nor the federal officials knew then that this action would begin forty-six years of mistrust and conflict before statehood was finally granted.”

The federal government selected officers for the territory, a mixture of Mormon and non-Mormon leaders.  Brigham Young was appointed governor and superintendent of Indian affairs.  He took the oath of office in February, 1851.   The non-Mormon officials from Washington were given a warm and celebratory welcome, but conflict began almost instantly.   Disdain for the Saints, and particularly their practice of plural marriage, was freely shared by the gentile government officials when they abdicated and departed for Washington in 1851. Brigham Young sent a letter to Washington defending the Latter-day Saints, and the officials were ordered to return to Utah or resign.  They resigned.

Brigham Young was reappointed governor in 1854, after none of the others assigned would take the job.  Meanwhile, the huge project of gathering the Saints moved forward.  In the early 1850’s there were more Latter-day Saints in Europe than there were in Utah.  (There were 30,747 Latter-day Saints in the British Isles in 1850 and 11,380 in Utah.)  Many of these new members were too poor to emigrate to the U.S. and then cross the plains to Utah.  Many European Saints paid all or part of their way, while others relied on the Perpetual Emigration Fund.  The PEF posted agents in Liverpool, England;  New Orleans, St. Louis, along the Missouri River and in eastern U.S. cities.

Mormon passengers traveled by ship for half a century and enjoyed a miraculous measure of safety, though voyages were difficult.  Ships were blessed and dedicated before departure.  The decision for Latter-day Saints to cut costs by crossing the plains with handcarts was enacted in 1856.  “Arriving at eastern United States seaports, they made their way by rail to the terminus at Iowa City, Iowa. There agents arranged for the preparation of handcarts designed for either pushing or pulling a load of one hundred to five hundred pounds of food and clothing. The first three companies, led by returning missionaries, heroically walked the plains, arriving safely in the Salt Lake Valley between 26 September and 2 October.”

The Martin and Willie handcart companies were stranded in blizzard conditions in Wyoming in October, 1856.  They had been counseled to wait out the winter in Nebraska, but in their zeal, proceeded onward.

General conferences were held semi-annually in Salt Lake City, and the Saints often traveled hundreds of miles to attend and to hear the messages from their prophet and apostles. In the Mormon general conference of October, this was Brigham Young’s sermon:

“The text will be, ‘to get them here.’ . . .

“I shall call upon the Bishops this day, I shall not wait until to-morrow, nor until next day, for 60 good mule teams and 12 or 15 wagons. . . .

“I will tell you all that your faith, religion, and profession of religion, will never save one soul of you in the celestial kingdom of our God, unless you carry out just such principles as I am now teaching you. Go and bring in those people now on the plains.”

The response was impressive. Sixteen wagon loads of food and supplies were quickly assembled; and on the morning of 7 October, sixteen good four-mule teams and twenty-seven hardy young men (known as Brigham Young’s “Minute Men”) headed eastward with the first provisions. More help was solicited and obtained from all parts of the territory. By the end of October, two hundred and fifty teams were on the road to give relief.

Some of the rescued had to have limbs amputated because of frostbite.  They were taken in and nursed to health by the Saints in Utah.

In Utah’s first decade, almost forty thousand Saints emigrated to Zion.  They were welcomed as they came through Immigration Canyon, and treated to a feast.  Thereafter, they were helped in moving to settlements and finding gainful employment.

Throughout the Mormons’ first decade in Utah, when approximately one hundred smaller communities were being colonized, Salt Lake City was developing into a major center. It was a planned community purposely designed to be the hub of a widespread religious commonwealth in the Great Basin. It was unique in the West because of its equitable distribution of land, community farms and herds, public work projects, organized immigration, and controlled use of natural resources. Emphasis on public convenience rather than the profitable sale of prime public lots also permitted the building of unusually wide streets.

Brigham Young had seen the layout of Salt Lake City in vision, and he demanded that the downtown streets be wide enough to turn a mule team around.  The city is laid out in a grid system, with streets going straight from north to south and east to west.  From the center, each street increases by 100.  So an address might be 100 South 300 West.

In 1855 the Utah economy suffered because of poor crops and severe drought.  Many Latter-day Saints had focused on survival and progress, and Brigham Young perceived a spiritual lethargy among them.  He felt that the drought was caused by the Saints’ lack of faithfulness to the commandments of God.  He initiated a “reformation” among them.  Leaders went about preaching repentance and urging the Saints to commit to re-baptism.  By the summer of 1857, ten years after first entering the Great Basin, the Church was on a strong footing and was accomplishing the things it was restored to the earth to do.

*Parts of this article were adapted from the LDS Institute Church History Manual.

The Mormon Battalion was not the first group of Latter-day Saints to reach the west.  One group of Mormons sailed out of New York harbor aboard the ship Brooklyn on 4 February 1846, coincidentally the same day the first Saints left Nauvoo.  The ship sailed all the way south from New York around the southern tip of South America (Cape Horn), northwest to the Hawaiian Islands, then on to San Francisco, a journey of five months.  There were 238 Latter-day Saints on board, and during the journey, there were two births and ten deaths.  The leader of this group was Samuel Brannan.  He developed the idea that the Saints should settle in California and became disaffected when Brigham Young and other leaders preferred the great basin of Utah.  Some members of his party disaffected with him.

Also, during the winter of 1846–47 about 275 Latter-day Saints formed a substantial community at Pueblo, hundreds of miles west of the main body of the Saints at the Missouri River. This group consisted of the three sick detachments from the Mormon Battalion and approximately sixty “Mississippi Saints” who had come to Pueblo in August.  These Mormons were later guided to the Salt Lake Valley.

Brigham Young sought all the knowledge possible to prepare the Saints and choose the route to Utah Territory, interviewing explorers, sending out scouts, and consulting with the Lord.  He received the revelation that is now Section 136 of the Doctrine and Covenants, with commandments for the conduct of the Camp of Israel.

Delegations went to each encampment to read the revelation and to announce the names of men Brigham Young desired to go in the Pioneer Company and in the companies to follow during the first year. Throughout the spring Church leaders held many meetings with various emigrating companies, providing information relative to their tentative location, the construction of boats for fording rivers, methods of pioneer travel, planting seeds, and irrigation.

Apostles John Taylor and Parley P. Pratt arrived in Winter Quarters from England.  They brought money contributed by the English Saints and scientific instruments for calculating latitude, elevation, temperature, and barometric pressure.  The Saints also used odometers to calculate mileage.  The first pioneer group left Winter Quarters on April 16, 1847.  The journey they undertook was 1,100 miles.

The advance company of pioneers entered the Salt Lake Valley on 22 July 1847, and immediately set up a crude irrigation system to flood the land and prepare for planting. On 24 July, Brigham Young and the rear company arrived at the mouth of Emigration Canyon. Wilford Woodruff drove President Young in his carriage. They looked to the future as they gazed over the valley. Wilford Woodruff wrote:

Thoughts of pleasing meditations ran in rapid succession through our minds while we contemplated that not many years that the House of GOD would stand upon the top of the mountains while the valleys would be converted into orchard, vineyard, gardens and fields by the inhabitants of Zion and the standard be unfurled for the nations to gather there to.

Brigham Young said he was satisfied with the appearance of the valley as a “resting place for the Saints and was amply repaid for his journey.”

On a later occasion, Wilford Woodruff explained that when they came out of the canyon he turned the carriage so that President Brigham Young could see the whole valley. “While gazing upon the scene before us, he was enwrapped in vision for several minutes. He had seen the valley before in vision, and upon this occasion he saw the future glory of Zion and of Israel, as they would be, planted in the valleys of these mountains. When the vision had passed, he said, ‘It is enough. This is the right place. Drive on.’”

Within a week, a survey of the area had begun and a plot chosen for the temple.  Men not engaged in farming were making adobes for a temporary fort.  The Mississippi Saints and some of the “battalion boys” who arrived in the valley in October built a bowery for public meetings on the temple block.

Brigham Young, the Apostles and many of the original Pioneer Company stayed in Salt Lake Valley only one month before returning to Winter Quarters to lead more Latter-day Saints to the West.  En route they met with 1,553 Saints who were already on their way to the Salt Lake Valley. More familiar with the terrain this time, and with fewer wagons and light loads, men and teams found the traveling considerably faster.

Later, Brigham Young would surmise that hardy, but poorer Latter-day Saints, many of whom were converts from Europe, could make it across the plains on foot, pushing and pulling their possessions in handcarts, with other supplies in wagons.  This idea was ultimately successful, in spite of the casualties borne by the Martin and Willey handcart companies, who left the mid-west ill-supplied and too late in the season.  Even the Saints of these ill-fated companies, wherein death and frostbite took a high toll, never complained of the experience, because of the spiritual help they received along the way.  One participant said they became familiar with God and would not trade the experience.  These Saints were rescued by others from Utah and taken into their homes.

Brigham Young had been sustained as the prophet of the Church on 5 December 1847.  Since then, succession has proceeded smoothly, as the senior apostle has become the prophet when the former prophet dies. On the 27th of December that same year, a conference of the general membership of the Church sustained President Young, the First Presidency, the Twelve Apostles, the Quorum of Seventy, and the Patriarch to the Church.

The Mormon Saints were virtually the only white settlers in the vast Great Basin, the name for an area about the size of Texas between the Rocky Mountains on the east, the Sierra Nevadas on the west, the Columbia River drainage on the north, and the Colorado River drainage on the south. The area was relatively isolated and arid and short on timber and game. The Saints realized that settling here would require considerable faith and their best efforts, but they believed that with God’s help they could succeed.

The first year (spring and summer 1848) brought a near-starvation period and the well-known plague of crickets with the miracle of the sea-gulls, that flew in in flocks, ate the crickets, disgorged them, and then ate more.  The gulls continued their attacks for over two weeks until the crickets were effectively eliminated. Many people were forced to eat the native Sego Lillies, which are now the Utah State flower.  By August, however, the worst was over, and a great feast was held.

A plan for distribution of farming lands worked out in the fall of 1848 was consistent with President Young’s philosophy that the land should not be monopolized by the earliest settlers, but should be put to its most productive use for the good of the community. There was to be no private ownership of water and timber—natural resources important to the entire community. Under the direction of bishops, workers turned out to build irrigation systems and roads to the canyons. Families received the right to use water and timber in proportion to the work they put into building and maintaining these systems. Disputes over land and resource use were mediated by priesthood leaders. Even though there was considerable cooperation among the Saints in the use of land, water, and timber, private business enterprises gradually developed to regulate these same resources.

The winter of 1848-49 brought severe weather and food shortages.  Some Latter-day Saints were tempted to pack up and move to California.  But President Young and Apostle Heber J. Kimball prophesied of coming prosperity, security, and plenty, all of which did come to pass.  The following summer brought a bountiful harvest.

Brigham Young called families to establish settlements elsewhere in Utah and neighboring areas.  Some of these locations were pleasant, and others were extremely challenging.  Among the earliest settlements were Ogden, Provo, and Tooele, Utah.  Brigham Young established a Perpetual Emigration Fund (PEF), from which money could be loaned to poorer immigrants, who would then replenish the fund when they got on their feet.   Eventually, before the railroad was connected and more easily brought converts to Utah Territory, about 70,000 Latter-day Saints trekked across the plains to Utah, making it one of the greatest movements in American history.

In the first years following the 1847 founding of a refuge in the West, The Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints, under inspired leadership, achieved a remarkable work. It began to conquer a desert, establish a core of settlements, gather thousands of refugees to Deseret, and courageously take the gospel to many nations of the earth.

*Parts of this article were adapted from the LDS Intstitute Church History Manual.

The prospect, however, had some advantages, and so it was seriously considered by Brigham Young.  The pay that the conscripted soldiers would receive would help the Saints make their move to Utah Territory.  However, the Saints needed their men, and separating families was an unappealing idea.  Brigham Young agreed, partly for the funds that would come in, and partly to demonstrate that Mormons were indeed good citizens.

Five hundred forty-one soldiers, 35 women (20 of whom were designated as laundresses), and 42 children began their march to Fort Leavenworth on 21 July 1846. Before they left, the officers, all of whom had been selected by Mormon Church leaders, met privately with members of the Twelve. The Brethren promised them that their lives would be spared if they were faithful.  This promise was fulfilled.  Sergeant William Hyde reported that they were charged “to remember their prayers, to see that the name of the Deity was revered, and that virtue and cleanliness were strictly observed. [The troops were instructed] to treat all men with kindness . . . and never take life when it could be avoided.”

The genesis of the Mormon Battalion, that President Polk himself took a major role in, was not for military reasons but for political reasons as he wrote himself. His aim was “to conciliate them” to ensure the Mormons loyalty which would provide the cash-starved Saints with military salaries and entitlements. Pulitzer winning historian Daniel Walker Howe wrote, “The Mormon Battalion represented a bargain struck between James Knox Polk and Brigham Young . . . It was a heavy tax on the community’s manpower, but the soldier’s pay would help the financially hard-pressed migration.”

The new soldiers marched two hundred miles down the east side of the Missouri River, then crossed over to Fort Leavenworth, arriving on 1 August 1846. There they were outfitted with supplies, guns, and forty-two dollars per man as clothing money for the year. The paymaster at the fort was surprised when every man was able to sign his name on the payroll. Only a third of the volunteers he had previously paid could write. A portion of the money was collected by Parley P. Pratt and others sent by the Church. This was used to support the battalion members’ families in Iowa and in unorganized territory, to assist in evacuating the poor from Nauvoo, and to help Parley P. Pratt, John Taylor, and Orson Hyde on their mission to England.

The Mormon Battalion eventually marched two thousand miles to California, enduring great hardships during the journey.  However, the battalion saw no military action, and only twenty-two perished (all from natural causes — one as the result of childbirth).

Since California was already in the hands of the United States, the battalion men served as occupation troops with garrison duty in San Diego, San Luis Rey, and Los Angeles. While in southern California, the Saints gained the respect of the local citizens. Those in San Diego built a courthouse and houses, burned brick, and dug wells, thus contributing significantly to the building of the community. On 16 July, at the end of their year’s enlistment, the battalion members were discharged, although eighty-one men chose to reenlist for an additional six months.

Brigham Young sent a message asking those without families to stay in California to work during the winter of 1847–48. Most of them did. Many spent the winter at Sutter’s Fort on the Sacramento River and assisted in the discovery of gold in January 1848 that began the California gold rush. The following summer they honorably completed their contracts with Sutter, abandoned the gold fields, and joined their families in Salt Lake City or at the Missouri River. “The officially recognized discovery of gold at Coloma in Northern California occurred on 24 January 1848 at John Sutter’s lumber mill. Of the eleven white men and one woman present, at least six were Church members from the Mormon Battalion.”

In 2010 “the LDS Church’s Mormon Battalion Visitors Center in San Diego, had a completely renovated structure dedicated. It also boasts an entirely new interpretive approach―history rather than mostly gospel themes. It is an outstanding community attraction with world-class interactive/interpretive devices, demonstrating the theme that soldiers and armies are not always agents of destruction.”

In Salt Lake City, the new Mormon Battalion Park at “This is the Place” state park and a museum was opened in July and August of 2010. There are also dozens and dozens of plaques, monuments, interpretive trail markers, across half the continent from Fort Leavenworth to Tucson to Los Angeles. Now with two major visitor attractions this one battalion of 500 soldiers has perhaps more markers, plaques and monuments than any other similar-sized unit in United States history.

Brigham Young has been called “The American Moses.”  This is more fitting than most people realize.  In direct revelation, the Lord called the Latter-day Saints the “Camp of Israel.”  (See Doctrine and Covenants, Section 136.)  The first part of the journey west was the most difficult, due mostly to the winter departure of the Saints from Nauvoo.  Although the weather was comparatively mild when the first of the Mormons left Nauvoo, it soon became severe, and they trudged through mud and snow into Iowa.  It took 131 days to travel only 300 miles.  In comparison,  The Pioneer Company a year later took only 111 days to cover 1,050 miles from Winter Quarters, Nebraska, to the Great Salt Lake Valley.  Many Saints fell ill, including Brigham Young, and the apostle found that the Saints could be as much of a plague as any illness.  The blessings of the Lord are always predicated on how well we hearken to His counsel and commandments, how unified we are in peace and forgiveness, and how carefully we care for the poor and afflicted.

“Lack of food… plagued the departing Saints. Wishing to be with their leaders, many of them had failed to follow the counsel to be prepared before leaving. Brigham Young, Heber C. Kimball, and a few others had begun the journey from Nauvoo with a year’s supply of provisions, but most others left with hardly any food. Their unpreparedness caused some, who had brought provisions and were willing to share, to deplete their supply within a few weeks. President Young had the overwhelming responsibility of being a father to all. One journal entry manifests his discouragement: ‘Unless this people are more united in spirit and cease to pray against Counsel, It will bring me down to my grave. I am reduced in flesh so that my coat that would scarcely meet around me last Winter now laps over twelve inches. It is with much ado that I can keep from lying down and sleeping to wait the resurrection.’”

Interestingly, in Doctrine & Covenants, Section 136, the Camp of Israel is commanded by God to dance and sing as they traveled west.  This they did, with organized bands and original songs written along the way.  One traveler noted that he saw the Mormons dancing so vigorously one evening, one would never know that they had walked all day.

As the Saints faced days of challenge, it refined them, so that Brigham Young was able to praise their faithfulness.  “I did not think there had ever been a body of people since the days of Enoch, placed under the same unpleasant circumstances that this people have been, where there was so little grumbling, and I was satisfied that the Lord was pleased with the majority of the Camp of Israel.”

In March of 1846, the Saints began to leave their camp at Sugar Creek, Iowa.  To increase food supplies, some Mormons found work in Iowa, and the Nauvoo band even played concerts to raise money.  Scouts were sent out to find the best route west, avoiding the hostile state of Missouri.  It was difficult for Brigham Young to keep the camp organized, to calm the zeal of those who wanted to speed ahead, and to be certain there were enough supplies.

Wet weather during March and April slowed the Saints’ progress across southern Iowa, with stretches of mud for miles.  Hosea Stout wrote, “The horses would sometimes sink to their bellies on the ridges, teams stall going down hill. We worked and toiled more than half the day and had at last to leave some of our wagons and double teams before we could get through.”

Eliza R. Snow recorded that the wind was a “perfect gale attended with a heavy shower of rain—and several of our habitations were leveled and the roofs of our wagons barely escaped the wreck of elements.”The weary travelers awoke the next morning to a little snow, a slight freeze, and a rising creek. With clothes and bedding often drenched and with the cold temperatures, frequent illnesses and occasional deaths further hindered travel.

Progress was so slow that the Mormon leaders began to realize the Saints would not reach the west that season.  They began a new plan to establish crops and way-stations along the way for Mormon wagon trains that would follow.  “By 24 April the pioneers reached a place they named Garden Grove, sixty miles northwest of Locust Creek and about halfway across Iowa. Within three weeks they had broken 715 acres of tough prairie sod, built cabins, and established a small community. A high council was called to regulate both Church and civic affairs, and two hundred people were assigned to improve this first way station.”

A few days later Brigham Young arrived and immediately organized a second way station at Mount Pisgah. Another high council was appointed, and several thousand acres were cooperatively enclosed, planted, and farmed. One of the new leaders, Ezra T. Benson (great-grandfather of the thirteenth President of the Church), declared, “This was the first place where I felt willing in my heart to stay at, since I left Nauvoo.” Soon Mount Pisgah outstripped Garden Grove in size and significance. Both, however, were important pioneer way stations from 1846 to 1852.

The leaders were considering sending a fast-moving party to the Rockies ahead of the rest of the group.  That plan was scrapped when the U.S. Army conscripted so many men to serve in the Mormon Battalion.  With the battalion gone, energies were directed toward finding a suitable winter way station.  Elder Wilford Woodruff appeared in camp with unsettling news.  A church authority in England had pilfered funds designated for the Saints’ move to the west, and the Saints in Nauvoo were too poor to proceed.  Orson Hyde, Parley P. Pratt, and John Taylor were dispatched to England to solve the problems of the Church there.  A good area near a proposed ferry site on the banks of the Missouri River was selected in early September and surveying was begun. By the end of the month a town of 820 lots had been laid out and some lots spoken for. Winter Quarters, as the Brethren called the community, came into being.

Even as the Saints were straggling out of Nauvoo, the Nauvoo Temple was dedicated to the Lord on April 30, 1846.  Mobs stepped up their attacks on the remaining Latter-day Saints when they realized the exodus was taking longer than planned.  By mid-August less than fifteen hundred Saints remained in Nauvoo, some of them new converts from the East who had arrived too late to join the earlier companies. Most of them had exhausted their savings just to reach Nauvoo and now looked to Church leaders as their only hope to proceed West.

By the second week in September the anti-Mormons were determined to drive the Saints out of Nauvoo. Approximately eight hundred men equipped with six cannons prepared to lay siege to the city.  The Saints were forced to surrender unconditionally in order to save their lives and gain a chance of escaping across the river….Those who could quickly crossed the river without provisions or additional clothing. Finally, the mob entered the city, looted homes, and desecrated the temple. Some Saints who were not able to escape fast enough were beaten or thrown into the river by the mob.

Camps of poor refugees lined the Mississippi River bank on the Iowa side.  While leaders scrambled to help them, unable to raise donations because of bigotry against them, the Saints were saved by flocks of quail that landed in their camps, a repeat of the blessings received by the ancient Israelites.

Rescue teams sent by Brigham Young arrived in time to save the Saints from starvation and winter exposure. The poor Saints were dispersed throughout various camps in western Iowa. A handful made it all the way to Winter Quarters.  Almost 4,000 Saints were residing in Winter Quarters when winter began.  Another 2,500 were camped on the east side of the Missouri River on Indian lands.  Over 1000 were elsewhere in Nebraska and Iowa.  Fifteen hundred were temporarily settled in St. Louis.

Jane Richards recorded in her journal the story of her little, dying daughter, who had suffered for weeks and finally expressed the desire for a little potato soup.  In sight of a potato field, a sister had begged for a single potato, but was refused.  Sister Richards said, “I turned on my bed and wept, as I heard them trying to comfort my little one in her disappointment. When she was taken from me I only lived because I could not die.”

Sickness and death stalked the camps of the Saints. During the summer many travelers suffered from the exposure-related diseases of malaria, pneumonia, and tuberculosis. Lack of fresh vegetables brought on a plague of scurvy, which the Saints called “black canker.” Serious sickness was no respecter of persons or position, and many of the leaders, including Brigham Young and Willard Richards, became seriously ill. Wilford Woodruff wrote, “I have never seen the Latter-day Saints in any situation where they seemed to be passing through greater tribulations or wearing out faster than at the present time.” Over seven hundred people died in the camps by the end of the first winter.

It is difficult to imagine thousands of people stranded and suffering in this manner in the middle of America with no help or aid from surrounding populations or the U.S. Government, but such was the situation with the Mormons.  Still, “Brigham Young encouraged the [Saints] to celebrate with feasts and dancing. Women often came together in neighborhood groups to gather food, quilt, braid straw, comb each other’s hair, knit, wash clothes, and read letters.

Throughout the winter of 1846–47, additional preparations were made for continuing the westward exodus. Though the Church and its members had suffered almost beyond measure during the previous year, the Saints still harbored fond hopes for the future. Much was learned in 1846 that would pay tremendous dividends in the future.

*Parts of this article were adapted from the LDS Institute Church History Manual.

Citizens of Illinois outside of Nauvoo succeeded in getting Nauvoo’s charter revoked.  The action was understandable because of the many criminals who claimed to be Mormons, thus blackening the reputation of upstanding Latter-day Saints.  The revoking of the charter left the Saints without a legal government or the protection of their own militia.  The Twelve used guards to try to keep unsavory characters out of Nauvoo.  Sometimes boys followed them, whistling, until the people abandoned the town.  However, Nauvoo continued to grow.  In June of 1845 Brigham Young said the following about the city:

[The city] looks like a paradise. All the lots and land, which have heretofore been vacant and unoccupied, were enclosed in the spring, and planted with grain and vegetables, which makes it look more like a garden of gardens than a city. . . . Hundreds of acres of prairie land have also been enclosed, and are now under good cultivation, blooming with corn, wheat, potatoes, and other necessaries of life. Many strangers are pouring in to view the Temple and the city. They express their astonishment and surprise to see the rapid progress.

Nauvoo’s spectacular growth only increased the antagonism of the Mormon Church’s enemies.  Men accused of assassinating Joseph and Hyrum Smith were finally brought to trial.  The claim of the defense was that it was the people’s will that the prophet be disposed of, so no one should shoulder the blame.  All the accused were acquitted, and this emboldened the mobs who wanted to drive the Latter-day Saints out of Illinois.  Early in September of 1845, a mob of three hundred men led by Levi Williams systematically burned outlying Mormon farms and homes. They first raided Morley’s settlement and torched many unprotected homes, farm buildings, mills, and grain stacks. In mid-September Brigham Young asked for volunteers to rescue the besieged Saints. One hundred thirty-four teams were secured and immediately sent to bring the families of the outlying settlements in south Hancock County and north Adams County safely to Nauvoo.  Ensuing events proved that there would be no peace in Hancock County unless the Saints left.

Congressman Stephan A. Douglas was an advocate of manifest destiny—a philosophy advocating the growth of the United States completely across the continent. He counseled Church leaders to find a place to settle in the West and promised to use his influence in assisting their move. For some time Church leaders had planned a move to the Rocky Mountains, so these negotiations proceeded smoothly. Finally the Saints agreed to leave Nauvoo the following spring as soon as there was enough grass on the prairies to sustain their cattle and horses. Trustees of the Church would stay in Nauvoo to sell any remaining property.

Late in 1845 ordinances were performed in the nearly-completed Mormon temple, with rooms being dedicated to the Lord’s work as they were completed.  When enemies of the Church observed this increased temple activity, they renewed their oppression.  The Saints began to realize that they would be forced out of Nauvoo before the spring and favorable weather.  They worked day and night to provide the members with the temple ordinances they desired.  “On 3 February the Brethren planned to stop the ordinance work, and Brigham Young left the temple to make final preparation to leave the next day for the West. But seeing a large crowd gathered to receive their endowments, he compassionately returned to serve them. This delayed his departure for another two weeks. According to temple records, 5,615 Saints were endowed before going west, thus fulfilling one of Joseph Smith’s fondest desires.”

Many thousands of people responded to Latter-day Saint missionaries in England.  They sent funds to Nauvoo for the building of the temple, and began to make the journey to the U.S. to join the body of the Saints.  They became the strong backbone of the church membership.  Meanwhile, Parley P. Pratt and his companions were teaching in the eastern United States.  They discovered others of the Church who were spreading false doctrine and committing gross sins, causing many to be led astray.  The guilty parties were sent to Nauvoo for church discipline.

In 1842 Joseph Smith had prophesied that the Saints would continue to suffer much affliction and “some of you will live to go and assist in making settlements and build cities and see the Saints become a mighty people in the midst of the Rocky Mountains.”  Exploring groups were sent out to scout a good location for the Saints in the Rockies, and plans for the move advanced.  The great basin of Utah was settled upon.  Despite the onset of winter, Nauvoo was a hive of activity as the Saints began to prepare for the exodus.

The evacuation from western Illinois was originally planned for April 1846, but two new threats prompted an early, hasty exit. The first was the indictment against Brigham Young and eight other Apostles, accusing them of counterfeiting. The second was a warning by Governor Thomas Ford and others that federal troops in St. Louis planned to intercept the Mormons and destroy them. Years later it was learned that this was only a rumor started to induce the Saints to leave sooner than they had planned.

In January 1846 the Brethren decided to prepare several companies to leave at a moment’s notice. A committee was appointed to dispose of all property and effects left behind, including the temple and the Nauvoo House. The decision to leave was made on 2 February, and the first group, led by Charles Shumway, crossed the Mississippi River on 4 February. Soon there were several hundred Saints assembled in temporary camps in Iowa. Brigham Young and others who remained behind to administer endowments to the Saints did not leave Nauvoo until mid-February. Unfortunately too many left who were inadequately outfitted and chose to depart earlier than was wise.

The first difficulty (after abandoning beloved property) was crossing the Mississippi River.  The river froze over for a time, allowing wagons to cross it.  Ferries were used amidst floes of ice for the rest of the wagons.

If the Saints had left Nauvoo beginning in April, as originally planned, undoubtedly there would have been a more orderly exodus. The original blueprint called for twenty-five companies of one hundred families each with adequate provisions and presided over by a company captain. The companies were to have left at prearranged intervals to ensure order. But these plans were shattered by the Saints who panicked and did not want to be left behind after the Twelve had left. Many of the previously appointed captains abandoned their assignments to align themselves with the vanguard companies and be with the Twelve. But in spite of the confusion, there was optimism among the Saints in eastern Iowa. One of the most remarkable migrations in the history of Western civilization had begun.

*Parts of this article were adapted from the LDS Institute Church History Manual.

With the martyrdom of Joseph Smith, enemies of The Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints thought the Church would dissolve into disarray.  However, this did not happen.  The members of the Church greatly mourned the prophet, and a pall of sadness hung over the Saints.  However, sensing his own approaching death, the Prophet had bestowed all of the priesthood keys of the kingdom upon the twelve apostles of the Church, who quickly returned from their missions in the east to lead the Church.

Wilford Woodruff later recalled those days of 1844:

“I am a living witness to the testimony that he [Joseph Smith] gave to the Twelve Apostles when all of us received our endowments from under his hands. I remember the last speech that he ever gave us before his death. It was before we started upon our mission to the East. He stood upon his feet some three hours. The room was filled as with consuming fire, his face was as clear as amber, and he was clothed upon by the power of God. He laid before us our duty. He laid before us the fullness of this great work of God; and in his remarks to us he said: ‘I have had sealed upon my head every key, every power, every principle of life and salvation that God has ever given to any man who ever lived upon the face of the earth. And these principles and this Priesthood and power belong to this great and last dispensation which the God of Heaven has set His hand to establish in the earth. ‘Now,’ said he addressing the Twelve, ‘I have sealed upon your heads every key, every power, and every principle which the Lord has sealed upon my head.’ . . .

“After addressing us in this manner he said: ‘I tell you, the burden of this kingdom now rests upon your shoulders; you have got to bear it off in all the world, and if you don’t do it you will be damned.’”

“On this same occasion, Joseph conferred the keys of the sealing power on Brigham Young, President of the Twelve. Brigham later explained that ‘this last key of the priesthood is the most sacred of all, and pertains exclusively to the first presidency of the Church.’”

Sidney Rigdon, who had become disaffected, tried to claim the position of “guardian of the Church.”  He was a great orator and a charismatic man.  He and Brigham Young spoke before the people, and many in the congregation saw Brigham Young take on the image of Joseph Smith.  They knew that God had chosen Brigham Young as the next prophet.  They also sustained the twelve apostles as the presiding quorum of the Church.  Brigham Young led the Church as its senior apostle until named as prophet in  Utah.

“William W. Phelps—Church publisher, city councilman, and scribe to the Prophet—helped immeasurably in keeping order in the city. Since his return to the Church in 1842, Elder Phelps had indefatigably sought to build up the kingdom and had helped the Prophet with a number of important projects, such as the publishing of the book of Abraham and the campaign for the presidency. He was the principal speaker at the funeral services of Joseph and Hyrum. Now he helped Elders Taylor and Richards during this critical interim period. As a poet, he memorialized the Prophet in lines which later became a favorite Church hymn:

Praise to the man who communed with Jehovah!
Jesus anointed that Prophet and Seer.
Blessed to open the last dispensation,
Kings shall extol him, and nations revere.
Hail to the Prophet, ascended to heaven!
Traitors and tyrants now fight him in vain.
Mingling with Gods, he can plan for his brethren;
Death cannot conquer the hero again.”

“Parley P. Pratt was the first Apostle outside of Nauvoo to learn of the Martyrdom. He was on a steamboat headed across the Great Lakes toward Chicago. At a landing in Wisconsin, boarding passengers brought news of the Carthage murders. There was great excitement on board, and many passengers taunted him, asking what the Mormons would do now. He replied that “they would continue their mission and spread the work he [Joseph Smith] had restored, in all the world. Observing that nearly all the prophets and Apostles who were before him had been killed, and also the Saviour of the world, and yet their death did not alter the truth nor hinder its final triumph.”

“In sorrow Elder Pratt walked 105 miles across the plains of Illinois, hardly able to eat or sleep, wondering how he should ‘meet the entire community bowed down with grief and unutterable sorrow.’ He prayed for assistance. ‘On a sudden the Spirit of God came upon me, and filled my heart with joy and gladness indescribable; and while the spirit of revelation glowed in my bosom with as visible a warmth and gladness as if it were fire. The Spirit said unto me: . . . “Go and say unto my people in Nauvoo, that they shall continue to pursue their daily duties and take care of themselves, and make no movement in Church government to reorganize or alter anything until the return of the remainder of the Quorum of the Twelve Apostles. But exhort them that they continue to build the House of the Lord which I have commanded them to build in Nauvoo.” Arriving in Nauvoo on 8 July, Parley helped Elders Richards and Taylor keep order in the stricken community.'”

Both Sidney Rigdon and James Strang rebelled against the Twelve and formed apostate splinter groups, the Rigdonites and the Strangites, which remained very small as the main body of the Church swelled with new members and continued to be led by revelation.  Within thirty years the Rigdonites had dissolved.  In 1856 Strang was murdered by disaffected followers and his movement virtually collapsed.

Some of Joseph Smith’s own family did not follow the Twelve. The Prophet’s widow, Emma, could not be reconciled with the Twelve on economic and theological matters. She became embittered and influenced her children against following the direction of the Twelve. When the Saints made their exodus to the West, Emma and her family stayed in Nauvoo and Emma eventually remarried. When William Smith belatedly returned to Nauvoo from the East, he was ordained Church Patriarch to replace Hyrum. After a few months, he advanced his own claims to be Church leader. He was consequently excommunicated. Following a short association with Strang, William taught that Joseph Smith’s eldest son should, by right of lineage, inherit the presidency and that he, William, was to be guardian and president pro tem until Joseph III was of age.

There were others who refused to follow the leadership of Brigham Young and the Twelve. A few members were disaffected over plural marriage; some isolated branches did not go west and became confused as to what course they should take. During the 1850s a “new organization” gradually emerged. In 1860 leaders of the new organization (among them William Marks) formed the Reorganized Church of Jesus Christ of Latter Day Saints and succeeded in naming Joseph Smith III to be its president. Eventually it established its headquarters in Independence, Missouri.

The Reorganized Church still exists under the name “Community of Christ.”  With about 250,000 members it has become more like any Protestant congregation and has lately struggled both for funds and for membership.

The apostolic succession in 1844 established the principles and set the pattern for future reorganizations of the Presidency of the Church. Following the death of each President, the keys of the kingdom, which have been conferred upon each Apostle at his ordination, reside with the Quorum of the Twelve Apostles as a body (see D&C 107:23–24;112:15).

Elder Spencer W. Kimball, in a general conference address in 1970, explained the process: “The moment life passes from a President of the Church, a body of men become the composite leader—these men already seasoned with experience and training. The appointments have long been made, the authority given, the keys delivered. . . . the kingdom moves forward under this already authorized council. No ‘running’ for position, no electioneering, no stump speeches. What a divine plan! How wise our Lord, to organize so perfectly beyond the weakness of frail, grasping humans.”

The Lord controls succession in his church. President Ezra Taft Benson explained, “God knows all things, the end from the beginning, and no man becomes President of the church of Jesus Christ by accident, nor remains there by chance, nor is called home by happenstance.”

*Parts of this article have been adapted from the LDS Institute Church History Manual.

Portrait of Joseph Smith by Dan Weggeland.

Joseph Smith and the Church were plagued by debt, persecution and law suits, but were still able to procure land on the east side of the Mississippi River in Commerce, Illinois.  The shoreline was a malarial swamp and would need to be drained, but the Latter-day Saints began to gather there.

The Twelve Apostles, who had helped the Saints leave Missouri while the Mormon prophet was imprisoned, now left for missions abroad, while Joseph oversaw the establishment of a city in Commerce, which he renamed Nauvoo, meaning the beautiful. Meanwhile, the Saints compiled a record of their lost property and injuries, so they could seek redress.  Martin van Buren was the U.S. president then, and said he could do nothing for them.

Joseph Smith established Nauvoo as a city with a legal charter, meaning that it could mount a militia for self-defense.  The city established a law of habeas corpus, so no one could be arrested without being presented a list of charges against him.  The city also established a university.

Nauvoo prospered, and immigrants soon began arriving from England and Canada. In 1840, the Mormon Church was ten years old and had grown from a mere 6 members in April 1830, to over 16,000 by the end of 1840. There were now enough Mormons in England that the Church began publishing its own newspaper in that country, The Millennial Star. [1]

Nauvoo was orderly and lovely, and visitors commented upon the industry of the citizens.  Every civilized activity could be found there.  The Saints drained the swamp, causing many to fall to disease, including Joseph Smith’s father, who was weakened by past persecutions.  The prophet healed many of their infirmities by the power of the priesthood.  The Saints began to build their second temple, wherein they could endow each member with power from on high and perform the newly revealed ordinances of the true church.  In 1841, though the temple was still not completed, part of it was used for baptisms for the dead.

By 1841, the number of Mormons had grown so much that they spilled over into Hancock County and across the Mississippi into Iowa.  In March 1842, Joseph Smith organized the Relief Society, the women’s auxiliary of the Church, under the auspices of the priesthood.  The Relief Society organized service to the poor and the needy and provided sisterhood for the women of the Church.  Today, it is the largest and oldest women’s organization in the world.

John C. Bennett moved to Nauvoo as a convert and quickly became a leader in the community, but he used his authority to seduce women and was excommunicated.  He quickly became an enemy to the Church and caused persecution to increase.  This caused Joseph Smith to alternate periods of presence in Nauvoo and periods in hiding.  When in Nauvoo, Joseph delivered sermons to thousands of Saints at once, usually outside, because there were so many people.

Joseph Smith had inquired of the Lord regarding David and Solomon and the prophets of old, who had many wives.  Was it a sin?  The revelatory answer from God was preceded by a warning— anyone to whom the law of eternal marriage was given, would have to live it.  The law is that men may have multiple wives, only when the Lord ordains it through His prophet, at a time which the Lord must choose.  Otherwise, a man should have only one wife.  The kings of old sinned not, except with those wives who were not given them by the Lord.  David had not sinned until he committed adultery with Bathsheba.  The Lord told Joseph Smith that He desired now to “raise up seed unto Himself,” and that the Latter-day Saint leaders should begin to enter in to plural marriage.

The commandment was challenging in the extreme.  Although 80 percent of the world’s population engaged in polygamy at the time, Americans were descendants of western Europeans, and it was the Victorian age, where the roles of husband and wife were strictly defined, as was morality.   Joseph knew that to enter into such a practice would heap more persecution on the Saints, and that some would leave the Church as soon as they got the commandment.  He worried that his own wife would not consent, and it took the consent of the first wife.  It was nearly ten years before Joseph was able to fully reveal the law to the Saints, and some people did leave the Church, and persecution did increase.  Joseph, while knowing the law and being unable to reveal it fully to the membership, entered into plural marriage discretely, and his wife Emma struggled mightily with it.  It appears that at least some of Joseph’s polygamous unions were “spiritual,” meant only to be in effect in heaven, while some of his wives were were married to others for this mortal life.  There are no recorded offspring from any of these marriages.  (For more on polygamy, go to Mormon-Polygamy.org.)

Brigham Young was devastated by the revelation on plural marriage.  He said that for the first time, whenever he saw a funeral procession, he envied the dead.  Never at any time did all of the Latter-day Saints enter into plural marriage, and rarely did men take more than two wives.  Women had the power of consent and divorce, and some found the institution liberating— one wife could go to school or pursue a profession while the other watched the children.  Other unions were more difficult.

By 1944, Joseph Smith was a champion of minority groups in the United States, even running for President to bring to light the cause of the down-trodden.  He established a fund to buy slaves from slave owners, and then free them. The slave owners could use the money to transform their estates so that they would no longer need slaves.

The Martyrdom

On June 7, 1844, William Law, a disaffected Mormon, published the first and only edition of the Nauvoo Expositor. It was a scandalous paper that called for Joseph Smith to be hung.  The printing office was declared a public nuisance and the city officers (Joseph Smith was mayor at the time) destroyed the press, causing a riot.  The county sheriff meant to arrest Joseph Smith, who went into hiding for a few days.  If Joseph Smith were arrested, he would be tried in Carthage, Illinois, where he knew he could not receive a fair trial.  He turned himself in, hoping to be tried in Springfield, and after having been promised safety and fairness.  He was imprisoned in Carthage with a few faithful friends— John Taylor, Willard Richards, and his brother, Hyrum Smith.  A mob attacked while they were incarcerated, killing Joseph and Hyrum and wounding John Taylor.  Joseph and Hyrum’s brother Samuel, also died, from exposure on his many trips back and forth to the jail.  The martyrdom occurred on June 27, 1844.  John Taylor, who would be the third prophet of the Church, wrote about the martyrdom in the Doctrine and Covenants,  section 135.

Joseph Smith had ever accepted any commandment the Lord gave him, no matter what the difficulty or sacrifice.  He restored the priesthood authority of Jesus Christ, and the gospel as it was in ancient times.  He translated the Book of Mormon, the Pearl of Great Price, and compiled the revelations in the Doctrine and Covenants.  He completed a partial translation of the Bible, and organized a church, beginning with 6 people, that now fills the earth.  With 14 million members worldwide, the prophecy has been fulfilled that Joseph Smith would be known for good or ill by all nations, tongues, and kindreds of the earth.  He established and restored the Lord’s Church in preparation for the Second Coming of Christ.  It is “a marvelous work and a wonder.”

Therefore, they must needs be chastened and tried, even as Abraham, who was commanded to offer up his only son. For all those who will not endure chastening, but deny me, cannot be sanctified (Doctrine and Covenants 101:4, 5).

Of the men in Zion’s Camp, the Lord said, “…it is expedient in me that they should be brought thus far for a trial of their faith” (Doctrine and Covenants 105:19).  An Abrahamic sacrifice has several components.  First, the Lord’s commandment needs to seem illogical — He called for volunteers to join Zion’s Camp during planting season in Ohio, risking the well-being of the families there.  He had counseled the Saints to refrain from retaliating, but Zion’s Camp was sent to redeem the beleaguered Saints there, possibly by force.  Abraham was obedient to the Lord’s command, even though it made no sense to him and seemed to contradict everything he knew about the Lord and himself.  Secondly, it has to hurt.  The men of Zion’s Camp suffered every form of physical stress to follow the prophet of God.  Third, the hand of the Lord is stayed at the end, once He has seen that His child intends to be obedient.  The Lord accepted the sacrifice of the men of Zion’s Camp, and rescinded the commandment to storm into Missouri to save the Saints.

Missionary work increased once the Twelve and the Seventy were chosen.  In the early days of the Mormon church, the men who were sent out on missions, some on one mission after another, were often married men with families.  They were dedicated enough to make that sacrifice and leave their families in the care of the Lord and helpful neighbors.

The Kirtland Mormon Temple was still under construction, and Joseph Smith was overseeing it.  During this time, Joseph obtained the papyrii that, when translated, would become the Book of Abraham in the Pearl of Great Price.

The Kirtland Temple was dedicated on March 27, 1836, with attendant miraculous manifestations of the Spirit.  On Sunday, April 3, 1836, Joseph Smith and scribe Oliver Cowdery, experienced miraculous visitations in the Kirtland Temple.  It was the second day of Passover, the Jewish holiday of Bikkurim, and a fitting day for resurrected messengers to deliver the keys to various aspects of the “last dispensation of time.”  Moses appeared to deliver the keys of the regathering of Israel.  Elijah appeared to deliver the keys of the “sealing power,” wherein families can be sealed together in the eternities, and turning the hearts of the children to the fathers can be realized.  Elias appeared to restore the keys of the Abrahamic Covenant.  These visions are recorded in Section 110 of the Doctrine and Covenants.

The Economic Collapse of 1837

There was widespread land speculation both in Ohio and Missouri, and Joseph Smith had relayed the Lord’s disapproval with the same.  This speculation was not confined to the Latter-day Saints but existed all over the U.S. and its territories.  The leaders of the Church had attempted to create a bank, but the state refused to grant a charter.  The “Kirtland Safety Society” was established as an “anti-banking society” that was able to print notes.  This idea especially offended Martin Harris who ever dealt in silver and gold, and who had a deep-seated mistrust of printed money.  When the economy collapsed, the Kirtland Safety Society fell with it.  Some histories report that certain of the managers were stealing money and re-lending it, but Joseph Smith had heaped upon him most of the blame, resulting in a myriad of lawsuits and the apostasy of a number of the Saints in Kirtland, some of whom tried to take over the temple at gunpoint.  Embittered members flamed the fire that led to even more persecution of the Saints.

It would be expected that at this difficult time, Joseph Smith would gather his closest allies about him for their support.  But Joseph Smith was a prophet of God, and following God’s counsel, sent his most loyal brethren to Europe on foreign missions.  Missionary work in Europe, especially in England, brought thousands of converts into the Church, many of whom were so stalwart, they and their descendants formed the sturdy backbone of the growing membership.

Persecution in Missouri

By spring of 1838, most of the Latter-day Saints in Jackson County, Missouri, had been forced out by mobs.  The prophet was commanded to build up a community at Far West, Missouri.  In August of 1838, Mormons attempting to vote in the town of Gallatin in Daviess County were attacked and kept from the polls.  Part of the reason is that the Saints were against slavery.  Many Saints were severely injured by the mob, though none were killed.  The Saints had, over the months and years, constantly sought legal redress from the state and the country, to no avail.

In October 1838,  the Mormons were forced out of Caldwell County, Missouri, their farm animals killed and homes destroyed.  Many died of exposure.  Most lost all their property and means of support.  As the persecution continued, the Saints had to decide whether to try to defend themselves.  A new convert named Samson Avard organized a group called the Danites to physically resist persecution.  He claimed to have the support of Joseph Smith, but Avard’s group was more like a secret society, igniting violence.  Most members of the group were excommunicated by the Church for their activities.

Once word got to the state government (highly inflamed reports, actually), Governor Lilburn Boggs issued an “Extermination Order” against the Mormons, calling for them to be driven out of  Missouri or be exterminated.  Three days after the order, a mob attacked the village of Haun’s Mill and massacred dozens of men, women, and children. On October 31, 1838, Joseph Smith and several others were arrested.  The prophet was incarcerated in Liberty Jail for months in abject conditions.  Though the prophet suffered terribly, his major concern was for the Saints, who were being driven from the state in the midst of winter.  His wife Emma walked across the frozen river to Illinois with two babes in arms and their other two children clinging to her skirts.  She had sewn Joseph’s translation of the Bible into her cloak.

Those Saints who survived the winter were weakened by the experience.  Many could not sustain themselves through following trials and lost years off their lives.  Joseph Smith, Sr. was among this group.  The people of Quincy, Illinois offered succor to the Saints, and soon there were more beleaguered Mormons camped in the town than citizens of Quincy.  In recent years, the LDS Church has honored the people of Quincy for their charity.  Their care surely saved hundreds of lives.

Though incarceration in Liberty Jail was a horrible trial for Joseph Smith and his fellows, Joseph received many revelations while there, including Section 121 of the Doctrine and Covenants.  Finally, on April 16, 1839, as they were being led to Columbia, Missouri, the jailer permitted them to escape.

The Church won many converts in the nearby areas of Colesville and Manchester, as well as in Fayette.  This, in spite of continuous persecution and mistrust from the general population.  In 1830 a group of four elders went west to preach to the Indians.  Along the way, they taught and converted many in Kirtland, Ohio.  Due to severe persecution in New York, the Lord counseled Joseph to gather the membership to Kirtland in late 1830.

Kirtland became the headquarters of the Church from January 1831 to December 1837.  Saints gathered to Kirtland as they were converted by travelling missionaries.  Charity was extended to those who arrived without resources.  Joseph Smith received many revelations in Kirtland regarding the organization of the Church and the doctrines of the Kingdom of God on earth.

On April 30, 1831, Emma Smith gave birth to twins, who died after only three hours. The wife of a man in the neighborhood, John Murdock, gave birth to twins on the same date, but died shortly thereafter. Joseph and Emma decided to adopt the Murdock twins into their Mormon family, hoping they would comfort Emma after the loss of her two children. They took the twins in when they were nine days old, and Joseph and Emma cared for the children.

In July 1831, the Lord revealed to Joseph Smith that the center of Zion would be in Jackson County, Missouri.  From this point on, a number of the Saints began to gather there.  The Church was run from two centers, one in Ohio and one in Missouri.  In November the Mormons in Ohio began to collect and assemble revelations which Joseph Smith had received for the Church, into one volume, which would later be called the Doctrine and Covenants.  The original name for the compilation was the Book of Commandments.  The book was divided into “sections.”  Joseph Smith received the revelations that would become section 1 and section 133.  Section one is the preface to the collection of revelations and was dictated directly by the Savior, the only known writing solely in the words of Christ.  Section 133 is a revelation concerning the Second Coming of Christ.

In Kirtland, Joseph Smith began a new translation of the Bible.  His translation of Matthew is now contained in the Pearl of Great Price.  Translations of other verses show up as footnotes in the standard King James Version of the Bible used by English-speaking members of the Church.

As commanded by God, the Latter-day Saints in Kirtland began to build the first Mormon temple.  The construction progressed in fits and starts according to the wealth and faithfulness of the members.  The Lord chastised them in 1833 for their slowness in keeping this commandment.  Finally, the Kirtland Temple was completed and then dedicated on March 27, 1836.  The dedication was accompanied by spiritual manifestations similar to those recorded in the New Testament at Pentacost, when the Holy Ghost was poured out upon the Church.  It appeared as if there were fire on the roof.  Many heard the rushing of angels and many saw them.  Many prophesied and saw visions.

As recorded in Doctrine and Covenants Section 110, Joseph Smith and Sidney Rigdon were visited in the temple by several resurrected beings, including Elijah and Moses, who restored the keys to the sealing power and the gathering of Israel, among other powers.

In March of 1832, Joseph Smith and Sidney Rigdon were violently attacked by a mob led by disaffected Mormons.  They were tarred and feathered.  The exposure to the cold was the final blow for one of Joseph’s twin babies, who was then suffering from measles.  The baby died of exposure.

In April Joseph and others traveled to Missouri to help the Saints there.  He warned them that they were not faithful enough to deserve the help of the Lord, and that if they did not repent, they would be driven from Missouri.  Although revelations received by Joseph Smith indicated that Zion would soon be established, the Saints were unworthy to do so.  Eventually, the Lord withdrew His promise and His protection from the Saints and sent them into diaspora.  The situation was similar to that of the Israelites during the Exodus.  They made a straight trek from Egypt to the Promised Land and then were not allowed to enter.  They were forced to abide in the wilderness for forty years before being found worthy enough to enter Canaan.

Mormons were against slavery, and in 1833, the LDS newspaper, The Evening and Morning Star, published an article on free blacks.  Mobs destroyed the newspaper press on July 20, 1833, along with the building it was housed in (which was the home of the printer). They also tarred and feathered several Mormons who refused to leave or deny their faith.  Saints in Jackson County, Missouri, were ultimately expelled from their homes and from the county in November 1833. In February 1834, after numerous ineffectual appeals to local and state governments, Joseph Smith was commanded by the Lord to organize Zion’s Camp to aid the beleaguered Mormons in Missouri, which the Mormons called Zion.

Zion’s Camp was an interesting venture that shows us something of how the Lord works.  The Lord commanded Joseph to combine as many men as possible to gather and travel to Missouri to help the Saints there.  Whereas the call was for at least 500, it was planting season, and only around 200 men were willing to leave Kirtland with the prophet.  The journey was extremely difficult, and God sent several plagues among the men when they were unfaithful.  They marched at a terrific pace, which was taxing on their health, but they learned from the prophet as they went.  The future leaders of the Church were volunteers at Zion’s Camp.  In the end, the Lord absolved them of their final goal.  It seems the goal never was to liberate the Saints in Missouri.  It was a test and a trial to prove the mettle of the volunteers and to prepare future leaders.

Mormonism had not even officially begun, and Joseph Smith’s family was indigent.  In additional to the hard work they put in on their farm, they hired out for other work as best they could.  A man named Josiah Stowell hired members of the family to help him dig on his property for Spanish treasure.  Although Joseph had committed not to associate with treasure-hunters, he did agree to help Stowell.  During this fruitless venture, Joseph stayed with the Hale family and met his future wife, Emma Hale.  Joseph had not yet retrieved the plates when he married Emma, but because of his visions, he had a reputation that grew with every exageration and misrepresentation about him.  Emma’s father alternately accepted and rejected Joseph, and Emma married him without her parents’ approval.  Joseph and Emma’s first residence was in Palmyra with Joseph’s parents.

Joseph, as commanded by the Lord, began to translate the writings on the plates with the help of the Urim and Thummim.  Emma acted as his first scribe.  She commented on the miraculous nature of the work.  Joseph had only three years of education and had trouble creating a lucid sentence on the written page.  Yet he dictated word by word and sometimes letter by letter.

An influential local farmer, Martin Harris, took an interest in the work.  He was among the many people of the time who had developed a “restorationist” orientation towards religion.  Many seemed to come to the idea that all Christian faiths had gone astray.  Some had spiritual experiences which increased their hope that the original gospel of Christ was about to be restored.  Harris nurtured Joseph along in the work.  He took a copy of certain of the ancient characters to professor Charles Anton in New York.  Anton certified that the characters were real and of ancient origin, and put it in writing.  However, when he discovered that the writings had been given to Joseph Smith by an angel, he tore up that which he had written.  Harris had told Anton that part of the book was sealed.  Anton replied, “I cannot read a sealed book.”   The Mormons recognized this as a fulfillment of the prophecy made in Isaiah 29, where a book is delivered to the learned man who is unable to read it, and then given to an unlearned man who, by the power of God, can read it.

Martin Harris’ wife was a constant thorn in the work.  She mistrusted Joseph and was jealous of the time Harris spent helping him.  Harris begged to borrow part of the translated manuscript to show her.  Joseph petitioned the Lord over and over for permission, and several times, the Lord refused, then finally relented.  Harris lost the manuscript.  It may have been stolen, perhaps by his wife or her associates, but Joseph stood at the edge of the abyss because of the loss.  He knew his standing before God and his calling were in serious jeopardy.

The Lord took back the plates, the Urim and Thummim and Joseph’s standing until Joseph had thoroughly repented.  Fortunately, the Lord had foreseen the event and had commanded the prophets of old to record similar events and revelations in two places, so the information was still available.  This was important.  The Lord revealed to Joseph the plot behind the theft, as recorded in Doctrine and Covenants, Sections 3 and 10:

And when thou deliveredst up that which God had given thee sight and power to translate, thou deliveredst up that which was sacred into the hands of a wicked man,  Who has set at naught the counsels of God, and has broken the most sacred promises which were made before God, and has depended upon his own judgment and boasted in his own wisdom.

 

And this is the reason that thou hast lost thy privileges for a season—For thou hast suffered the counsel of thy director to be trampled upon from the beginning (D&C 3:12-14)….And because you have delivered the writings into his hands, behold, wicked men have taken them from you.   Therefore, you have delivered them up, yea, that which was sacred, unto wickedness.

 

And, behold, Satan hath put it into their hearts to alter the words which you have caused to be written, or which you have translated, which have gone out of your hands. And behold, I say unto you, that because they have altered the words, they read contrary from that which you translated and caused to be written; And, on this wise, the devil has sought to lay a cunning plan, that he may destroy this work;

For he hath put into their hearts to do this, that by lying they may say they have caught you in the words which you have pretended to translate.  Verily, I say unto you, that I will not suffer that Satan shall accomplish his evil design in this thing.  For behold, he has put it into their hearts to get thee to tempt the Lord thy God, in asking to translate it over again.

 

And then, behold, they say and think in their hearts—We will see if God has given him power to translate; if so, he will also give him power again;  And if God giveth him power again, or if he translates again, or, in other words, if he bringeth forth the same words, behold, we have the same with us, and we have altered them;   Therefore they will not agree, and we will say that he has lied in his words, and that he has no gift, and that he has no power;   Therefore we will destroy him, and also the work; and we will do this that we may not be ashamed in the end, and that we may get glory of the world.  Verily, verily, I say unto you, that Satan has great hold upon their hearts; he stirreth them up to iniquity against that which is good;   And their hearts are corrupt, and full of wickedness and abominations; and they love darkness rather than light, because their deeds are evil; therefore they will not ask of me (Doctrine & Covenants 10:8-21).

Fleeing persecution, and trying to find the peace in which to continue with the translation, Emma and Joseph lived with her parents and then in Harmony, Pennsylvania.  A school teacher named Oliver Cowdery found them and was converted.  He became Joseph’s scribe.  The Book of Mormon was translated in about 60 working days.