Brigham Young University BYU ScholarsArchive Theses and Dissertations 1981 Mormon Land Ownership as a Factor in Evaluating the Extent of Mormon Settlements and Influence in Missouri 1831-1841 Wayne J. Lewis Brigham Young University - Provo Follow this and additional works at: https://scholarsarchive.byu.edu/etd Part of the History Commons, Mormon Studies Commons, and the Sociology Commons BYU ScholarsArchive Citation Lewis, Wayne J., "Mormon Land Ownership as a Factor in Evaluating the Extent of Mormon Settlements and Influence in Missouri 1831-1841" (1981). Theses and Dissertations. 4876. https://scholarsarchive.byu.edu/etd/4876 This Thesis is brought to you for free and open access by BYU ScholarsArchive. It has been accepted for inclusion in Theses and Dissertations by an authorized administrator of BYU ScholarsArchive. For more information, please contact [email protected], [email protected]. D 12 02 02oz.02 lsL 3 MORMON LAND OWNERSHIP AS A FACTOR IN evaluating THE EXTENT OF MORMON settlements AND INFLUENCE IN MISSOURI 183118411831 1841 A thesis presented to the department of history brigham young university in partial fulfillment of the requirements for the degree master of arts by wayneTTayne J lewis august 1981 this thesis by wayne J lewis is accepted in its present form by the department of history of brigham young university as satisfying the thesis requirements for the degree of master of arts s A Pphilliph i 1 li p flFIFflammer1 amermmerammer committee chairman taanyaryporterary aorteraborterPorter committee member 22z z m 00 date jaroffjarofeja4l4h B alienailen department chairman 11 acknowledgementsACKNOWLEDGE MENTS I1 would like to express appreciation to members of my committee and others who have offered suggestions and help dr phillip flammer as committee chairman has given valuable assistance as well as dr larry C porter and dr james B alienailenwho gave early and constant encouragement for this project thanks are due to lyndon C cook dr clark johnson and dr milton backman for sharing information from their collections of missouri data I1 am grateful for my wife maren barraclough and our ten children who encouraged me to continue when the task extended into the fifth year ililii111 TABLE OF CONTENTS acknowledgementsACKNOWLEDGEMENTS iii LIST OF illustrations vi chapter FOREWORD I1 I1 MORMONS IN southwestern MISSOURI 183118411831 1841 7 jackson county 7 bates county 19 johnson county 22 lafayette county 23 II11 MORMONS IN northwestern MISSOURI 183318361833 1836 25 clay county 25 ray county 30 clinton county 32 liiittIII111 MORMONS IN northwestern MISSOURI 183618391836 1839 33 caldwell county 33 daviess county 37 carroll county 40 gentry grundy and livingston counties 0 42 IV MORMONS IN EASTERN MISSOURI 183118411831 1841 45 monroe county 45 pike county 49 chariton county 49 lewis county 54 st louis cormonsmormons 58 marion county 58 randolph county 59 V MORMON TRENDS IN ANDLANDL A ND PURCHASES 61 SUMMARY AND conclusions 72 bibliography 75 iv appendices 0 0 0 82 A WHERE MORMONS LIVED 83 B MORMONS BY COUNTY 84 C MORMON settlements 85 D ESTIMATES OF MORMON population 86 E SUMMARY JOSEPH SMITH instructions FOR MOVE TO MISSOURI 87 PF LIST OPOFMORMONS IN MISSOURI 1831184118311 ai3i idl1841 88 G INHABITED MISSOURI 1831 167 H COUNTIES FORMED BY 1831 168 I1 COUNTIES FORMED BY 1838 169 J MORMON population IN JACKSON COUNTYOUNTY 170 K MORMON population IN MISSOURI BY COUNTY 171 L miscellaneous MORMON DATA FROM MISSOURI PERIOD 0 172 M TIME CHART BY COUNTY 173 v LIST OF illustrations figure 1 mormon land in jackson county 8 2 jackson county 183118331831 1833 12 3 jackson county after 1835 13 4 exiled jackson county cormonsmormons 183318391833 1839 18 5 bates county cormonsmormons 183318391833 1839 21 6 mormon land in clay county 27 7 mormon land and site location in ray county 29 8 mormon land in clinton county 31 9 mormon land in caldwell county 35 10 mormon population in caldwell county 183418411834 1841 36 11 mormon land in daviess county 38 12 mormon population in daviess county 183718411837 1841 39 13 mormon land in carroll county 41 14 mormon land in livingston county 43 15 mormon land in monroe county 47 16 cormonsmormons in pike county 50 17 mormon land in chariton county 53 18 bozarthsBozarths of lewis county 56 19 land summary by county 62 20 mormon population in missouri 73 VI FOREWORD the extent of early mormon land holdings in missouri has never been discussed in detail the reason is twofoldtwo fold it is virtually impossible to analyze mormon land holding without knowing the names of the cormonsmormons who lived in missouri from 183118411831 1841 concurrently without proper identification of the Morcormonsmormonsmons it has been impossible to know exactly where they settled this study is based on an examination of over 3000 journals and other private and public documents which in turn revealed the names of over 8000 cormonsmormons who lived in missouri during the ten years between 1831 and 1841 also research in the records of over thirty missouri counties has revealed where the cormonsmormons lived particu- larly when they were landowners see app F p 88 analyzing the mormon non mormon population ratio in various counties and the land owned collectively among the cormonsmormons provides a broader foundation for under- standing the complex missourimissourimormonmormon problems of the late 1830s As long as researchers worked with only a few hundred known cormonsmormons who lived in missouri their studies were unavoidably restricted this study shows that cormonsmormons migrated well beyond the three to five 1 2 counties usually discussed by historians these countcountiesiesles are jackson clay caldwell daviess and carroll land deeds reveal that cormonsmormons owned more than 821-82000000 acres in fourteen missouri counties or twenty six 26 percent of the counties then organized cormonsmormons settled not only in the frontier of northwestern missouri but also in north- eastern southeastern and central missouri this study also shows that the total mormon population in missouri during the period indicated was much greater than most writers have previously recognized indeed it is probable that by late 1838 cormonsmormons made up as much as ten percent of missouris population even as they were predicting that more saints were on the way several published sources spurred my interest in the problem of the cormonsmormons in missouri and particularly in the reasons for anti mormon hostility in his LA comprehensive history of the church of jesus christchrish of latterlatteelatterdaydatter davday saints brigham H roberts observes that the reasons for their expulsion from the state included the slave issue frontier lawless elements cultural differences mormon clannishness jealous protestant ministers and social differences in persecutions in missouri richard bushman reviews the same ideas but stresses the religious differences as the ultimate cause of mormon rejection and expulsion warren A jennings in his the expulsion of the cormonsmormons from jackson county 3 missouri also enumerates the reasons already listed and includes the mormons recurring emphasis on zion and the second coming as a major cause of the expulsion in his phd dissertation zion is fled expulsion of cormonsmormons from jackson county missouri jennings outlines several causes of conflict and emphasisemphasisesemphasizeses the fear of missouriansMissour ians that the rapidly growing mormon population would take over their state politically the same themes are dealt with in his article the city in the garden social conflict in jackson county missouri locally published history of jackson county devotes nineteen pages to Morcormonsmormonsmons in jackson county and makes several other references to the cormonsmormons throughout its 1006 the history seeks to justify the anti mormon activity by detailing mormon lawlessness in northern missouri counties in hancock county illinois and in utah various county histories such as history of cass county histhistoryorvory of clay and platte counties hi-histgryhjstqpystory afof caldwell and livingstonLivinastonoston counties carroll county missourimiggqucif ray county history and the history of daviess and gengentrytry counties seem to similarly quote or draw from the statements made in the righigbigriguryhistoryeryury of jacksonjackconjackgon county most of these describe the cormonsmormons as a lawless and obnoxious threat to the people of missouri these histories were written in the late 1800s and early 1900s when mormonism had considerable bad press 4 leland gentrys A history of the church of jesus christ of latterlatterdayday saints in northwestern missouri 183618391836 1839 follows rather closely the theme proposed in roberts comprehensive history but adds considerable detail and includes the idea of fear of political control as a reason for the conflict it is the primary purpose of this thesis to demonstrate the extensive settlement and landlandhildinglandholdinghilding of the mormon people in missouri and virtually no space is devoted to reviewing again the various reasons for persecution the material presented here however is especially significant in supporting the view that missouriansMissour ians feared the growing political power of the Morcormonsmormonsmons that they had seemingly good reason to fear that power is clearly suggested by the extent of mormon landhildinglandlandholdinghilding not only in the counties traditionally discussed by historians but also in some of the surrounding areas