Utah Studies

Utah Studies7th Grade

December 3, 2013

A Religious Journey

Who Were the Mormons?

• Where did they come from?• Follower’s of Joseph

Smith• Believed in a new

book of scripture• Book of Mormon

• Translated from gold plates found near his home

New York Period• Organized a church

• Apr 6, 1830• Church of Christ• Changed Later

• LDS• Called each other

Saints

• Why did people leave their homes and lives for a church?• Joseph Smith

Joseph Smith Jr.• Born

• Dec 23, 1805

• Spring 1820• Claimed he saw a vision

• No true church on the earth

• Fall 1823• Visited by heavenly

beings that instructed him• Zion=Live in peace

with no poor

The Reaction To Joseph’s Claim

•Most did not believe him•Ridiculed him•Made fun

•Other’s joined and believed•Thousands joined from all over the world

•Flowerers persecuted by others•Beat up Joseph Smith•Tried to steal the Gold Plates

•THE OUTCOME•Forced to move to Kirtland, Ohio

Another Gathering Place

Western Missouri• Summer 1831

• Joseph and others left to explore the frontier• Started 5 communities

• A continued gathering• Thousands came to Ohio and Missouri

• Mobs soon drove Mormons out of Ohio

Missouri Executive Order 44

• Background• Missourians did not like

having Mormons in such numbers moving in• Battle of Crooked

River• 3 Missourians Died• 1 Mormon

• The people were outraged about this skirmish

Issue of the Order

Gov. Lilburn Boggs claimed that the Mormons had committed

"open and avowed defiance of the laws", and had "made war upon the people of this State,"

Boggs directed that "the Mormons must be treated as

enemies, and must be exterminated or driven from the State if necessary for the public

peace—their outrages are beyond all description".[2]

Result• Mormons driven from the state

• In the winter time

• Joseph Smith and other leaders arrested• Spent 5 months in a jail in Liberty, MO

The first exodus• Brigham Young

lead the Mormons to Illinois• Settled on the

banks of the Mississippi River• Commerce, IL

• Drained the swamps and built a city

Nauvoo, IL• Nauvoo

• Hebrew for “It is beautiful”

• Growth of City• Thousands came to city

• Largest city in Illinois at one time

• Old problems• People started to feel

uncomfortable with so many people

Beginning of the end• People within started to

cause problems• Nauvoo Expositor

• Joseph ordered it be destroyed

• Negative Reaction• Nearby towns saw this

as going against the freedom of Press

The Martyrdom•Joseph and others arrested

•Sent to Carthage to a Jail

•June 7, 1844•Mob attacked the jail

•Killed Joseph and brother Hyrum

•Mormons devastated•Now they were martyr’s

•Died for their religion