Show Me Missouri: The Mormons and the Mobbers (6.9.24)

Northwestern Missouri is filled with Mormon (LDS) historical sites.  On June 9 and 10, 2024, we made a quick trip to see most of them.  We began with sites relating to the "Mormon War" of 1838-1839.  Our first stop was at Gallatin where, on July 4, 1938, Mormon settlers tried to vote in the county seat and were prevented from voting.  A brawl ensued, which brought already simmering tensions between the Mormons and other Missouri settlers to a boiling point.

The Mormons first began settling in Missouri in 1831, in Jackson County, where Independence, Missouri, is now located.  The Mormons were predominantly New Englanders, and against slavery, whereas most of the settlers in Jackson County were from Virginia or Kentucky, and had brought their slaves with them.  The Mormons moved in en masse, and the existing settlers feared the Mormons would outnumber them in their communities and in the polls.  In the pre-Civil War years, when states were admitted as either slave states or free states, having anti-slavery settlers arrive could threaten the status of Missouri as a slave state.  The Mormons were ejected from Jackson County and then from neighboring Clay County, as well, between 1833 and 1835.  They were allocated space in newly created Daviess County, but after the Gallatin fight, mob activity increased until the Mormons were finally expelled from the entire State of Missouri in 1939.

The "Mormon War" came to a head when Joseph Smith was taken prisoner by the Missouri state militia at the Mormon settlement of Far West in October 1838.  Alexander Doniphan, an officer in the militia, was ordered to shoot Joseph Smith and other Mormon leaders at dawn, without a trial, but he refused to do so and threatened to report his superior if that order was carried out by anyone else.  Joseph Smith was taken south to be held in Liberty Jail and the Mormon settlers fled to Illinois in the middle of the winter. They created the city of Nauvoo, on the Mississippi River.  Dave and I have ancestors who lived in Nauvoo but, so far as I know, no one who witnessed the Mormon War.

Lilburn Boggs, Missouri's governor, signed the "Extermination Order" in October 1838,which said the Mormons had to leave the state or be "exterminated." Boggs sent 2000 to 3000 militiamen to Far West to carry out the order.

When we visited Gallatin, a courthouse was on the town square, next to the monument memorializing the Mormon conflict of 1838.  The first courthouse was built in Gallatin in 1843, and this courthouse was built in 1907.   When the Mormons were here in the 1830s, it was a lawless place.  Now, all was peaceful.

As we drove into Gallatin, we did a double-take, as we saw what looked like an LDS chapel.

We parked and walked around the building.  We found a sign which did identify the building as an LDS church, in this town from which the Mormon people had been expelled in the 1830s.  We later learned that this is the stake center for the area, housing leadership for 9 wards, or congregations, nearby!

We continued our exploration of Mormon history with a visit to nearby Adam-ondi-Ahman, located in a large, fertile valley.  From 1837, when the Mormons arrived, "Diamahn" and the nearby area that included Far West swelled from 500 people to several thousand, with hundreds of buildings.  Joseph Smith predicted that Adam-ondi-Ahman will be the place where, at the time Christ returns, Adam will also return to earth and gather his righteous people in a grand reunion.  The LDS Church has bought hundreds of acres in the area.

Nearby Far West was the center of the Church in 1838, until Joseph Smith was taken prisoner.  It was in Far West that several revelations were given to Joseph Smith which are included in the Doctrine & Covenants (Sections 113-155 and 117-120).  Missionaries to Europe left from Far West.  They and their associates converted several of my great-grandparents, including the Cottams in western England and the Calders in Edinburgh.  A temple site was dedicated on the site where these monuments exist, and we believe that, some day, that temple will be built.

The original cornerstone for the temple is now encased in glass.

We stopped at an LDS bookstore near Far West which had a statue of Joseph Smith out front.  The owner told us about the growth of the Church in the area, and the business he gets from LDS people visiting nearby historical sites.  We bought a couple of Mormon history books and ice cream bars, and drove on.

We had reservations to attend the Kansas City temple on June 10, and Dave thought he was getting us a hotel nearby.  Instead, it was in a random suburb of Kansas City, Raytown, half an hour from the temple.  The best restaurant in Raytown was Fiesta Azteca, which primarily served take-out!   

No matter.  Our shrimp enchiladas were delicious!

My goal, each year, is to visit ten new temples, of the nearly 200 that have been completed.  Another 100 have been announced.  So far, I have visited 70 temples.  I am always inspired by the beauty of the buildings and grounds of each temple, as well as by the sacred spirit of the ceremonies inside the temple and the obvious love that the local people officiating within the temple have for their own sacred space. Dave and I completed an endowment session at the Kansas City temple on June 10, 2024.

Each temple is surrounded by a beautiful garden.  As I have learned to love gardening myself, I appreciate the landscaping of the temples, including the arrangements and varieties of the plants.

Our next stop was Liberty Jail in Liberty, Missouri, near Independence.  Joseph Smith spent six months in the basement of the small, cold, dirty jail during the winter of 1838-1839.  It was a test of his faith, but also the place where he wrote one of the most beautiful prayers in the Doctrine & Covenants, and received a revelation from God in response.

As we visited Liberty Jail and the Independence Visitors Center, we thought of our dear granddaughter, Kirsten Flindt, who was a missionary at those places.  After returning from her mission, Kirsten graduated from BYU and is now a lab scientist at Primary Childrens Hospital in Salt Lake City.

Near Liberty is a monument marking the spot where Zions Camp bivouacked in 1834.  Joseph Smith  arrived with a contingent of men from Kirtland, Ohio, where the Church was then headquartered, to help the LDS settlers regain their land in Jackson County.  Zions Camp was ravaged by cholera at this spot and the men did not succeed in regaining land in Jackson County.  However, the organizational skills that the members of Zions Camp learned on that trip were immensely helpful when many of them, including Brigham Young, organized the pioneers to travel from Nauvoo, Illinois, to Salt Lake City.

We spent an hour at the Independence Visitors Center, in Jackson County, listening as a guide told us about the Mormon settlers in Jackson County and the promises given about the Church's eventual building of a temple here and even establishing a headquarters.

There were recreations of the settler's homes and businesses from the 1830s.

The Community of Christ, originally organized by Mormon settlers who remained in Illinois or Missouri after the Church left, is headquartered in Independence.  Its temple is built in the shape of a shell.  It is a beautiful building, but the architectural symbolism and the Church's ceremonies are completely different from those of the LDS Church.  The Community of Christ recently sold the LDS Church the temple in Kirtland, Ohio, built by early Mormon settlers, as well as historical sites in Nauvoo.  

Someday, a temple will be built on this site, originally dedicated for a temple, but not now owned by the Church.

In downtown Independence, we visited the site of the Gilbert & Knight store, formerly a general store for Mormon settlers in the early 1830s.  It is now a quaint grocery and kitchen equipment store.  During this trip, we saw the major Church sites, but there are still many minor ones left to explore.

I recently read a biography of Harry Truman, and so I was thrilled to visit his presidential library in Independence, Missouri.

Harry Truman never expected to become president.  However, when Franklin Roosevelt died in 1945, President Truman exceeded everyone's expectations in becoming a strong and influential president.  He  made possible the founding of Israel, defended the U.S. from the Soviets during the beginning of the Cold War, and settled the Korean War.  He also made the fateful decision to use the atom bomb to end World War II.

The Truman Library includes a recreation of the Oval Office in the White House at the time Harry Truman worked there.