Joseph Smith, the founder of the Mormon church, was also the mayor of Nauvoo, Illinois (and, according to some, he was even a candidate for President of the US) when he was attacked and killed by an angry mob. He was imprisoned in Carthage, Illinois at the time, but bullets from the mob's firearms reached him. That, by itself, could be the topic of a blogpost, but instead, it is only the opening hook.
After Joseph Smith died, there was a struggle for power between Brigham Young, Sidney Rigdon, and James Strang. All three men (and later a fourth, Joseph Smith III) felt they were entitled to lead the Mormon church. Most Americans don't realize that not all of Joseph Smith's followers got behind Brigham Young and headed west for Salt Lake City. Rigdon and Strang and later Joseph Smith III each had their own followers and their own churches.
The Strangites, followers of James Strang, established their community on Beaver Island, in the northern part of Lake Michigan.
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Thanks to Citynoise for making this graphic available via Wikimedia commons:[/caption]James Strang had only been a Mormon for about a year when he claimed to be the rightful leader of the church. He'd actually once declared himself "the perfect atheist"(Gilbert in Smithsonian, August, 1995, page 86). So it would not be unfair to look at Strang's career cynically. He was more than ambitious, he was hungry for power.
It was in 1843 that the young James Strang and his new wife, Mary, settled near Burlington, Wisconsin, an area close enough to Illinois to have Mormon settlers at that time. As Bil Gilbert points out in his Smithsonian article, Strang probably looked upon the earnest and zealous Mormons as potential followers. A biography written by James Strang's own grandson, imagines that Stang (the grandfather), when he came upon the credulous Mormons felt
like a prospector who has finally struck it rich[. He] knew that he had found his listening audience.
While Joseph Smith started Mormonism by claiming to have discovered gold plates with divine revelation written in "Egyptian Hieroglyphics," James Strang claimed to have found the same kind of revelation written on brass plates that he found in southern Wisconsin. Strang added to his remnant of Mormons by active recruiting.
That is how it began. The things that actually happened on Beaver Island during the short time that it was James Strang's kingdom are covered well in Bil Gilbert's 1995 article in Smithsonian Magazine.
The "teaser" for Smithsonian's website reads
About 145 years ago, a former attorney and future polygamist named James Strang had himself crowned the King of Beaver Island, Michigan. His reign was short and ended violently but while he ruled he did so the old-fashioned way: by divine right as the ultimate lawgiver, political authority and arbiter of morals.
Like Joseph Smith before him, you might say that James Strang had bitten off more than any American can safely chew.
Near the end of Gilbert's article he tells us that Strang's devoted followers scattered after his death.
During the next several weeks, hundreds of destitute Strangites were deposited haphazardly on the docks of Chicago, Detroit, Racine, and Green Bay.... Without [Strang] his flock was incapable of taking determined action.
Nevertheless, Strang's "original" Church of Latter-Day Saints still exists to this day. They have their own website, in which the Book of the Law of the Lord... first translated from the brass plates onto paper, is now displayed in digital format:
Checkout the Strangites website.
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