* The idea of returning to a Zion in Jackson County has never been abandoned by the Mormon church. Bishop Partridge took title to the Temple lot in Independence in his own name. In 1839, when the Mormons were expelled from the state, still believing that this was to be the site of the New Jerusalem, he deeded sixty-three acres of land in Jackson County, including this lot, to three small children of Oliver Cowdery. In 1848, seven years after Partridge's death, and when all the Cowdery grantees were dead, a man named Poole got a deed for this land from the heirs of the grantees, and subsequent conveyances were made under Poole's deed. In 1851 a branch of the church, under a title Church of Christ, known as Hendrickites, from Grandville Hendrick, its originator, was organized in Illinois, with a basis of belief which rejects most of the innovations introduced since 1835. Hendrick in 1864 was favored with a "revelation" which ordered the removal of his church to Jackson County. On arriving there different members quietly bought parts of the old Temple lot. In 1887 the sole surviving sister and heir of the Cowdery children executed a quit claim deed of the lot to Bishop Blakeslee of the Reorganized Church in Iowa, and that church at once began legal proceedings to establish their title. Judge Philips, of the United States Circuit Court for the Western Division of Missouri, decided the case in March, 1894, in favor of the Reorganized Church, but the United States Court of Appeals reversed this decision on the ground that the respondents had title through undisputed possession ("United States Court of Appeals Reports," Vol. XVII, p. 387). The Hendrickites in this suit were actively aided by the Utah Mormons, President Woodruff being among their witnesses. This Church of Christ has now a membership of less than two hundred. Two Mormon elders, describing their visit to Independence in 1888, said that they went to the Temple lot and prayed as follows: "O Lord, remember thy words, and let not Zion suffer forever. Hasten her redemption, and let thy name be glorified in the victory of truth and righteousness over sin and iniquity. Confound the enemies of the people and let Zion be free:"--"Infancy of the Church," Salt Lake City, 1889.