The Savage Years by George Kearton

Author:George Kearton
Language: eng
Format: azw3
Tags: RO:SF
Publisher: Sea Lion Press
Published: 2017-12-24T23:00:00+00:00

A Cuckoo in the nest – British North America, 1865-1867

The Mormons had been the subject of suspicion, distrust and dislike ever since their foundation by Joseph Smith in New York state in the 1820s. Their practice of polygamy, their promulgation of alternative gospels (allegedly inscribed on mysterious golden tablets discovered by Smith) and their highly-developed sense of political unity all added to the unease felt by many Americans in the states where Mormon communities had been established. This frequently overflowed into violence against them, and for some 30 years they were gradually pushed westwards until they reached the area of the Great Salt Lake in Utah territory. Here, their leader Brigham Young had declared that this was the promised land of Deseret (though earlier, the Mormons had claimed that Independence, Missouri had been the original site of the Garden of Eden) and large-scale Mormon settlement followed, with its own exclusive practices being adopted in the establishment of a religious empire on the frontier.

Young had been chosen as the leader of the Mormons after the 1844 murder of Joseph Smith in Illinois, but he was by no means the unanimous choice. There were at least two schisms within the movement; Sidney Rigdon (described as “a little deranged in his mind” by his own brother following a childhood accident) led a breakaway sect (“the Rigdonites”, also known as “The Church of Jesus Christ of The Children of Zion”) in the eastern part of America until their collapse after his death in the 1870s, and there was also the bizarre case of “the Strangites”, led by James J Strang, who with several hundred followers set up a short-lived theological kingdom on and around Beaver Island in Lake Michigan.

In 1850 Strang proclaimed himself king, but not of the island itself. Rather, he claimed to be king over his church, which at that time contained most of the island's inhabitants. He was crowned on July 8th of that year inside a large log ‘tabernacle’ built by his followers, in an elaborate ceremony that featured a crown (described by one witness as "a shiny metal ring with a cluster of glass stars in the front"), a red royal robe, a shield, breastplate, and wooden scepter. The Strangite tabernacle and Strang's modest house are both long gone, as is the royal regalia, but a print shop built by his disciples remains – the only Strangite building left on Beaver Island. Today, it houses a museum dedicated to the island's history.

Strang was a late convert to polygamy, but married five wives. He also introduced elements of animal sacrifice into Mormonism.

Strang and his followers often clashed with their non-Strangite neighbors on Beaver Island and in the adjacent areas. While claiming to be king only over his own adherents, Strang tended to exert authority over non-Strangites on the island as well, and was regularly accused of forcibly seizing their property and of physically assaulting them. Open hostility between the two groups frequently resulted in violence. Strangites were beaten by ruffians

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