The Mormon War: Zion and the Missouri Extermination Order of 1838

In the history of the persecution of the early Mormon Church (founded by Joseph Smith in 1820), Kinney's tale centers on a lesser-known event. After being chased from Palmyra, N.Y., to Kirtland, Ohio, where internal dissension as well as external attacks afflicted the group, Smith established a new community in Independence, Mo., which he revealed as Zion, where a magnificent temple to the Lord would be built. But there too non-Mormons were suspicious of the outsiders' religious beliefs and abolitionist sympathies. Expelled in 1833, the Mormons returned to Far West, Mo., to establish a new Zion. There they faced the same treatment, and in 1838 the Mormon War erupted: an armed conflict between the Mormon militia, or Danites, and their adversaries. Eventually, Missouri governor Lilburn Boggs issued an executive order for Mormons to be driven from the state or exterminated. The massacre of trapped Mormons led to surrender, and Smith and his followers fled and established themselves in Nauvoo, Ill. Even there troubles continued to follow the Mormons; Smith was murdered and the church split into many factions, the largest of which was led by Brigham Young to Utah. Kinney's prose is workmanlike, and methodical, its lack of passion marring a fascinating and little-known story of American religious history. 25 illus. (Sept.)