The Story of the Mormons, from the Date of Their Origin to the Year 1901Linn, William Alexander
History
The Story of the Mormons, from the Date of Their Origin to the Year 1901
Linn, William Alexander
Latter Day Saints -- History; Utah -- History
The Temple with about two acres of land adjoining was deeded by the
prophet to William Marks in 1837, and in 1841 was redeeded to Smith as
trustee in trust for the church. In 1862 it was sold under an order of
the probate court by Joseph Smith's administrator, and conveyed the same
day to one Russel Huntley, who, in 1873, conveyed it to the prophet's
grandson, Joseph Smith, and another representative of the Reorganized
Church (nonpolygamist). The title of the latter organization was
sustained in 1880 by judge L. S. Sherman, of the Lake County Court of
Common Pleas, who held that, "The church in Utah has materially and
largely departed from the faith, doctrines, laws, ordinances and usages
of said original Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-Day Saints, and
has incorporated into its system of faith the doctrines of celestial
marriage and a plurality of wives, and the doctrine of Adam-God worship,
contrary to the laws and constitution of said original church," and that
the Reorganized Church was the true and lawful successor to the original
organization. At the general conference of the Reorganized Church,
held at Lamoni, Iowa, in April, 1901, the Kirtland district reported a
membership of 423 members.
BOOK III. -- IN MISSOURI
CHAPTER I. -- THE DIRECTIONS TO THE SAINTS ABOUT THEIR ZION
The state of Missouri, to which the story of the Mormons is now
transferred, was, at the time of its admission to the Union, in 1821,
called "a promontory of civilization into an ocean of savagery." Wild
Indian tribes occupied the practically unexplored region beyond its
western boundary, and its own western counties were thinly settled.
Jackson County, which in 1900 had 195,193 inhabitants, had a population
of 2823 by the census of 1830, and neighboring counties not so many.
It was not until 1830 that the first cabin of a white man was built
in Daviess County. All this territory had been released from Indian
ownership by treaty only a few years when the first Mormons arrived
there.
The white settler's house was a log hut, generally with a dirt floor,
a mudplastered chimney, and a window without glass, a board or quilt
serving to close it in time of storm or severe cold. A fireplace, with
a skillet and kettle, supplied the place of a well-equipped stove. Corn
was the principal grain food, and wild game supplied most of the meat.
The wild animals furnished clothing as well as food; for the pioneers
could not afford to pay from 15 to 25 cents a yard for calico, and from
25 to 75 cents for gingham.* Some persons indulged in homespun cloth for
Sunday and festal occasions, but the common outside garments were made
of dressed deerskins. Parley P. Pratt, in his autobiography, speaks of
passing through a settlement where "some families were entirely dressed
in skins, without any other clothing, including ladies young and old."
Public-domain text, read in full here on John Shaqi.
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