Historic Rural Churches THERE IS NO LAW IN GEORGIA FOR MORMONS A RTICLE AND P HOTOGRAPHY BY R ANDALL D AVIS n July 21, 1879, twenty-four-year-old missionary the Mormon faith and is quoted generously for background Joseph Standing of the Church of Jesus Christ of purposes, along with the writings of Sally Denton, Wallace OLatter-day Saints and companion Rudger Clawson Stengner and Gilbert Smith. were traveling from Whitfield County to a church conference The Mormon faith originated in 1820 in Manchester, New in Floyd County, in northwest Georgia. A confrontation with York, when, “a fourteen-year-old named Joseph Smith had a a mob of twelve near Varnell resulted in Standing’s murder. In visitation.” Wright explained that “[it] was a fertile and turbu - the years that followed, there would be more incidents of lent time in American religious history. Old beliefs were losing assault, bombing, arson and kidnapping perpetrated against their influence, and new ones were arising that were more Mormons across the state. responsive to America’s revivalist spirit. The upstate region The Mormon church’s origin and doctrine, and events that where Smith was living was known as the ‘burnt-over district,’ occurred prior to Standing’s death, shed light on the outbreaks because of the religious fevers that continually swept through of violence against members of the faith—and sometimes acts it. One morning, Smith, who was trying to sort out the claims perpetrated by them. A comprehensive history of the Mormon of truth that each denomination put forward, went into the faith isn’t possible in an article of this length, but several events woods to pray for guidance. He had no sooner knelt than he in Georgia and elsewhere, and the stories of two churches in sensed the presence of a higher power and felt himself sur - South Georgia, are illustrative of the church’s growth and how rounded by darkness. ‘Just at this moment of great alarm, I saw sometimes it was perceived as a threat to the established social a pillar of light exactly over my head, above the brightness of and ecclesiastical order. the Sun, which descended gradually until it fell upon me,’ Lawrence Wright’s 2002 article “Lives of the Saints” in The Smith wrote in a brief memoir. The two ‘personages’ hovering New Yorker magazine provided background information about in the air took form and Smith took them to be God and Jesus. HISTORIC RURAL CHURCHES OF GEORGIA—THERE IS NO LAW IN GEORGIA FOR MORMON S POINTS OF INTEREST 23 Y high, and many tended R A R B to reject the ritual of I L Y older, more established R O T S denominations in favor I H H of newer and more C R U evangelical ones, like H C S the Baptists and D Methodists. In this L environment, the idea of a new, homegrown faith that posited the divinity of the individ - Here and previous page, Cumorah Chapel. ual, allowed direct communication with Smith found the composure to ask which sect was right.” God, and recognized Wright recounted the message the angels gave Smith about the authority of the other denominations: “I was answered that I must join none of Bible, took hold. The Book of Mormon and them, for they were all wrong; and the personage who In 1879, a mob gunned down Elder Joseph addressed me said that ‘all their creeds were an abomination in its visionary young Standing, a Mormon missionary traveling his sight.’” In a moment everything returned to normal and prophet attracted a a quiet country lane near Varnell, Georgia. surprising number of A monument (opposite) marks the location later Smith told his mother, “‘I have learned for myself that of his murder. Presbyterianism is not true.’” converts and followers. “Three years later (1823),” Wright continued, “Smith had Along with this success came criticism. Wright wrote that, another visitation, this one from an angel named Moroni, who “By the time he was in his mid-twenties Smith had become revealed to him that an ancient book written on golden plates one of the most controversial men in America. …From the was buried nearby on a hill called Cumorah.” In 1827 Smith beginning, it was a missionary creed, and Smith sent emissaries “returned to Cumorah and again encountered Moroni. This throughout America and abroad. Thousands of followers were time, the angel entrusted the golden plates to him, along with drawn to his ministry, including Brigham Young, a young car - a pair of ‘seeing stones,’ called the Urim and Thummim, which penter in upstate New York, who became one of the greatest permitted him to translate the strange language inscribed on colonizers of the West. The Mormons, at first derided as the plates (identified by Smith as ‘reformed Egyptian’).” Three cranks, were soon objects of fear and hatred, not just because years later, Smith published the Book of Mormon. “It was of their heretical beliefs but also because of their communal prefaced by the statements of eleven witnesses who claimed to economy, their monolithic politics, and, eventually, their prac - have seen the golden plates and, in eight cases, to have actually tice of polygamy.” ‘hefted’ them. The plates themselves, however, were no longer The unusual doctrine and practices by leaders and mem - available for examination. With the ‘translation’ finished, bers of the church drew the scrutiny and ire of those commit - Moroni had reclaimed them and taken them back to Heaven.” ted to more traditional beliefs. In the nine years that remained The Mormon faith originated in a conflict set in the New in Smith’s brief life, his disciples “were driven from one settle - World. According to Wright, “The Book of Mormon purports ment after another, in what was an unparalleled assault of reli - to be the history of two tribes of Israel—the fair-skinned, vir - gious persecution in America.” tuous Nephites and the dark-skinned, conniving Lamanites. The persecution endured by Smith’s followers was exten - The Nephites and the Lamanites battled for centuries, eventu - sive. The Mormons were driven from towns in New York to ally carrying their feud into North America. In the midst of Kirtland, Ohio, and then to Independence, Missouri, where their warfare, the resurrected Jesus suddenly appears in the yet again their presence angered residents. Vigilantes burned New World, demanding repentance… The two tribes are tem - homes, and Smith was beaten, tarred and feathered, and an porarily reconciled. But, four hundred years later, the Nephite attempt was made to force him to drink poison. The governor leader Mormon is slain, with hundreds of thousands of his of Missouri ordered the state militia to subdue the Mormon people, in the final triumph of the Lamanites. Mormon’s son, population and to arrest Smith and other leaders. Moroni, survives to record this last event on the golden plates, Meanwhile Brigham Young fled the area, with a core of which are then buried on [a hill named] Cumorah.” believers, to Quincy, Illinois. When Smith and his associates Joseph Smith was a down-to-earth, unrefined farmer with escaped captivity, he bought land on the Mississippi River, no formal education but possessed of an engaging, charismatic where he established the town of Nauvoo, Illinois. It was there personality. In 19th century rural America, religious fervor was that the idea of a “plurality of wives” developed, triggering 24 GEORGIA BACKROAD S/ SUMMER 2018 even more antagonism. Utah it was attacked by armed Mormons, resulting in the Facing accusations of philan - death of 120, including many women and infants. dering, he received a revela - The Mormon Church quickly blamed a few renegade tion that allowed any man to church members for the massacre and said that Paiute Indians take as many consenting had killed the women and children. But in 1999, bones uncov - wives as he deemed necessary. ered at the site showed signs that the women and children had Eventually, he would take a been shot at close range. reported 40, most in the last Mark Twain accused Brigham Young of ordering the years of his life, including a Mountain Meadow killings. The jailhouse confession of John 14-year-old girl and the D. Lee, an adopted son of Young’s who was executed by the wives of other members of government for his part in the massacre, told one version of the church. what happened. Lee claimed that a band of Paiutes numbering With a warrant out for 300 to 400 led the attack that continued for four days. Lee his arrest, Smith surrendered claimed that he, under a flag of truce, approached the wagon to authorities at the non- train to present terms of surrender. The battle-weary emi - Mormon town of Carthage. grants, with seven dead and sixteen wounded, put down their While in custody, he and his weapons in exchange for a promise of safe passage. Then, at a brother Hyrum were shot to pre-arranged signal, the Mormon militia shot them all, leaving O death by a mob in 1844. Smith uttered his last words—”Oh, the women and children to fall under the clubs, knives and T O H P Lord, my God”—and fell from a second-story window to the hatchets of the Paiutes. Seventeen of the youngest children F F A street. There he was propped against a well and shot again by were spared. T S a four-man firing squad. “Twain believed that the ‘Indians’ involved were actually Wallace Stegner, a widely published novelist and historian Mormons wearing war paint, which conforms to accounts who admired the LDS, once described early Mormons in Utah given by surviving children,” Wright wrote.