Warriors, Saints, and Scoundrels: Brief Portraits of Real People Who Shaped Wisconsin by Edmonds Michael & Snyder Samantha

Author:Edmonds, Michael & Snyder, Samantha [Edmonds, Michael]
Language: eng
Format: epub
Publisher: Wisconsin Historical Society Press
Published: 2017-04-14T04:00:00+00:00

Learn More: Louisa Johnson Clay, The Spirit Dominant: A Life of Mary Hayes-Chynoweth (San Jose, CA: Mercury Herald Company, 1914); “The Late Mrs. Mary Hayes-Chynoweth,” San Jose Mercury , July 28, 1905.

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Wingfield Watson (1828–1922), Staunch Defender of Little-Known Sect

In 1920, when many Americans had embraced the ideas of Albert Einstein and Sigmund Freud, a pious eccentric in Walworth County was preserving the teachings of a forgotten mystic. Wingfield Watson was, by then, almost the sole survivor of the once-numerous Kingdom of St. James.

After Mormon founder Joseph Smith was murdered in 1844, two disciples each claimed leadership of his church. Brigham Young led the majority of Smith’s followers to Utah, while about two thousand of them followed James J. Strang to Wisconsin. Strang and his followers formed a commune called Voree outside Burlington, Wisconsin, in 1845, but two years later threatening neighbors forced them to leave civilization for remote Beaver Island, at the top of Lake Michigan. There Strang progressively expanded his power until officially declaring himself king in 1850.

Wingfield Watson arrived at Beaver Island in 1852 and was appointed clerk of the church and custodian of its records. However, in 1856, Strang was murdered, hostile outsiders destroyed the colony, and the followers scattered. Most of them joined other churches, but Watson returned with his faith intact to the site of Voree, in Spring Prairie, Wisconsin.

There he established a farm, preserved the sacred archives, and published an anthology called The Revelations of James Strang: Consisting of the Revelations Given of God through the Prophet James J. Strang from 1844 to 1849, together with Other Important Records . Watson gathered up rare copies of pamphlets, broadsides, and newspapers that the Strangites had printed and occasionally traveled to defend them against critics who denied their claim to being the true Mormon church.

For more than sixty-five years, while the Strangite membership steadily dwindled, Watson maintained his faith. Though he was fierce in debates with religious opponents, the venerable, white-bearded Watson was quiet and kindly to visitors and neighbors. He died in 1922 at age ninety-six. By 1936, the Strangites had dwindled to just four congregations, with a total of 123 members. The faith still has a handful of adherents.

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