The Story of the Mormons, from the Date of Their Origin to the Year 1901

In Short

William Alexander Linn delivers an uncompromising, secular account of the Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints, following its trajectory from early nineteenth-century New York roots to its establishment as an entrenched political and religious power in Utah at the dawn of the twentieth century. Drawing extensively on original Mormon documents, church periodicals, autobiographies, and contemporary legal records, Linn reconstructs the movements of Joseph Smith Jr., Sidney Rigdon, and Brigham Young without leaning on theological claims or sensationalized exposures. The history details the repeated violent clashes between Mormons and their neighbors in Ohio, Missouri, and Illinois, culminating in Smith’s murder and the westward exodus over the Rocky Mountains. Linn analyzes the institutionalization of polygamy, the autocratic governance of the Utah territory, and the long-standing friction between church authority and the federal government. The book endures as a foundational, highly detailed historical critique that exposes the human mechanisms, financial speculations, and political maneuvers behind a major modern religious movement.

The Story

The narrative begins in western New York during an era saturated with religious revivals, treasure-seeking, and a cultural appetite for new spiritual revelations. Joseph Smith Jr., a young man known locally for using seer stones to locate hidden wealth, produces the Book of Mormon, presenting it as a translated record of ancient American civilizations inscribed on buried golden plates. Linn demonstrates that the conceptual structure and theological framing of the new church owe their true origin to Sidney Rigdon, a former Campbellite preacher whose influence shapes the doctrines and administrative systems of the infant organization.

Seeking a community apart from hostiles, the early converts assemble in Kirtland, Ohio, while simultaneously laying claims to land in Jackson County, Missouri, designated by Smith as the earthly "Zion." In Kirtland, Smith and Rigdon establish an ambitious financial system, including an unchartered bank and speculative land enterprises, which ultimately collapse in 1837 amidst charges of financial mismanagement. As public hostility mounts in Ohio, highlighted by an incident where Smith and Rigdon are tarred and feathered by local residents, the leadership shifts its focus entirely to Missouri.

In Missouri, the rapid influx of Mormon settlers and their bloc-voting practices incite severe conflict with long-time residents. Local non-Mormons fear the loss of political control and property, leading to armed skirmishes, the destruction of homes, and the formation of the Danites—a secret Mormon oath-bound society organized for defense and retaliation. The escalating violence prompts Missouri Governor Lilburn Boggs to issue an executive order directing the militia to expel or exterminate the Mormons. After severe winter hardships and imprisonment in Liberty Jail, Smith and his followers flee across the Mississippi River into Illinois.

Welcomed initially by Illinois politicians eager for their votes, the Mormons purchase swampland along the Mississippi and establish the city of Nauvoo. Under a generous charter granted by the state legislature, Nauvoo becomes a semi-independent city-state with its own court system and a formidable militia known as the Nauvoo Legion, commanded by Smith as Lieutenant-General. During the Nauvoo period, Smith consolidates absolute religious, military, and civil authority. He secretly introduces the doctrine and practice of plural marriage (polygamy) among top church leaders, despite public denials and published rules restricting marriage to one spouse.

Internal dissent boils over in 1844 when former church insiders launch an opposition newspaper, the Nauvoo Expositor, exposing Smith's secret practice of polygamy and his autocratic rule. Smith and the Nauvoo city council order the press destroyed as a public nuisance. This suppression sparks widespread outrage in Hancock County. Smith and his brother Hyrum are arrested and placed in the jail at Carthage, Illinois, where an armed mob storms the facility and murders both men on June 27, 1844.

Following Smith's death, a power struggle ensues, resulting in Brigham Young securing control over the majority of the church. Recognizing that peaceful cohabitation in Illinois is impossible, Young organizes a massive, disciplined exodus. Beginning in 1846, thousands of believers migrate across the snow-covered plains of Iowa to winter camps along the Missouri River, eventually embarking on the arduous overland trek west toward the Great Salt Lake Basin, then under Mexican jurisdiction.

In Utah, Young establishes an isolated, self-contained teocratic society. The church regulates land distribution, agricultural irrigation, and economic trade, while organizing extensive foreign missions—particularly in Great Britain and Scandinavia—to funnel thousands of fresh converts to the territory. To reduce transportation costs, Young institutes the "hand-cart system," sending impoverished converts across the plains pulling two-wheeled carts. In 1856, late departures lead to disaster when the Willie and Martin hand-cart companies are trapped by early blizzards, resulting in catastrophic loss of life from freezing and starvation.

Tensions between the Mormon hierarchy and the United States government escalate as territorial officers report complete defiance of federal laws, the subversion of local courts, and the pervasive practice of polygamy. In 1857, President James Buchanan sends a federal army expedition under Colonel Albert Sidney Johnston to enforce federal authority, initiating the "Utah War." During this period of heightened hysteria, a combined force of Mormon militiamen and allied Native Americans attacks a wealthy California-bound emigrant train at Mountain Meadows, slaughtering over one hundred unarmed men, women, and children.

The confrontation with the military ends in a negotiated compromise; Young surrenders the formal governorship to federal appointees while retaining actual control over his people. The final sections detail the post-Civil War decades, characterized by aggressive congressional legislation aimed at dismantling church dominance and ending polygamy. The Edmunds and Edmunds-Tucker Acts disfranchise polygamists, dissolve the church corporation, and escheat its property to the federal government. Facing legal, economic, and political ruin, church leadership issues the Manifesto of 1890, officially renouncing the practice of plural marriage and paving the way for Utah's admission as a U.S. state in 1896.

How It Unfolds

The translation and the plates Joseph Smith Jr. asserts he has unearthed gold plates containing an ancient script, using a seer stone in a hat to translate the text into the Book of Mormon. Observers and local printers note that the original manuscript lacks basic grammar and punctuation, requiring heavy editing before publication.

The collaboration with Sidney Rigdon Sidney Rigdon joins Smith, injecting structured theology, communal economic concepts, and rigorous organizing power into the fledgling movement. The dual leadership inserts predictions of Smith’s prophetic role directly into rewritten biblical translations to solidify authority over converts.

Speculation and flight from Kirtland The church establishes its headquarters in Ohio, launching extensive land operations and an unchartered wildcat bank. When financial panics sweep the nation and the bank defaults, enraged investors force Smith and Rigdon to flee to Missouri under cover of darkness.

Militant clashes on the Missouri frontier Mormon settlement in Caldwell and Daviess counties triggers armed resistance from Missouri settlers threatened by the church's solid political voting bloc. Secret paramilitary groups like the Danites form, culminating in open warfare, civilian casualties, and the state-ordered expulsion of the entire Mormon population.

The rise of the Nauvoo city-state Rebuilding on the banks of the Mississippi River, Smith constructs the city of Nauvoo under an extraordinary charter granting local courts vast powers. Smith amasses unmatched personal control, serving simultaneously as mayor, chief magistrate, religious prophet, and Lieutenant-General of the Nauvoo Legion.

Secret revelations and internal rebellion Smith receives a private revelation sanctioning plural marriage, taking multiple wives while publicly denying the doctrine in church publications. When dissenters establish a newspaper to expose these practices, Smith orders the printing press destroyed, igniting a fatal political crisis.

Assassination at Carthage Jail Surrendering to state authorities under a promise of protection from the governor, Joseph and Hyrum Smith are held in Carthage Jail. On June 27, 1844, a armed mob with blackened faces rushes the guards, shooting both brothers to death.

Brigham Young and the western migration Brigham Young assumes leadership of the main body of Saints, organizing a disciplined military-style departure from Illinois. Hundreds of covered wagons navigate snow and mud across Iowa, establishing temporary winter quarters before launching the pioneer trek into the Great Salt Lake Valley.

Deseret and the hand-cart disasters Settling in the arid West, the church builds an extensive irrigation network and organizes cheap immigration schemes from Europe. A rushed attempt to save funds by using hand-carts instead of ox teams ends in tragedy when late-season storms freeze over two hundred converts to death in the mountains.

The Utah War and Mountain Meadows Fearing federal subjugation when President Buchanan dispatches troops to Utah, Mormon leaders preach defiance and order scorched-earth tactics. Amidst extreme war hysteria, local Mormon authorities and Native allies massacre an unsuspecting emigrant train at Mountain Meadows, killing over a hundred travelers.

Federal crackdowns and the Manifesto Following decades of tension, the United States Congress passes stringently enforced anti-polygamy laws that seize church property and strip civil rights from practitioners. In 1890, facing complete institutional destruction, Church President Wilford Woodruff issues the Manifesto formally suspending plural marriage, leading to Utah statehood.

The People

• Joseph Smith Jr. wants to establish a supreme, divinely guided church under his personal direction, backed by new scriptural revelations and temporal political authority. Confronted by financial failures, mob violence, and bitter internal apostasy, he responds by consolidating power, forming secret societies, and establishing plural marriage. His career ends abruptly when he is shot to death by an enraged mob while held in an Illinois prison.
• Sidney Rigdon wants to realize a restored Christian church based on communal economic principles and explicit prophetic guidance. Acting as the primary intellectual engine behind Smith, he writes much of the church’s doctrinal material and administrative guidelines. Later pushed aside by Brigham Young after Smith’s murder, Rigdon is excommunicated and ends his life in obscurity, alienated from the main body of the church he helped create.
• Brigham Young wants to preserve the church from total destruction by securing a permanent, isolated territorial sanctuary far from Gentile control. Faced with harsh environments, federal armies, and internal economic strain, he governs with absolute autocratic discipline, implementing the hand-cart system, expanding plural marriage, and directing territorial policy. He dies having successfully established a self-sustaining desert empire, though burdened by historical accountability for systemic violence under his administration.
• Martin Harris wants spiritual assurance and financial return on his investment after mortgaging his farm to fund the initial printing of the Book of Mormon. Continually caught between intense religious credulity and suspicion over business dealings, he is repeatedly alienated from and reconciled with the leadership, losing his property and temporal standing in the process.
• John C. Bennett wants influence, personal advancement, and political power within the rapidly growing Nauvoo governance. Standing as a close advisor to Smith and a high-ranking officer in the Nauvoo Legion, he is eventually exposed for private misconduct and excommunicated, after which he writes a damaging, widely circulated book exposing secret church practices.

In Its Own Voice

"During the printing of the book I remember that Joe Smith kept in the background."

This observation from Daniel Hendrix, who assisted in reading proof for the original 1830 edition of the Book of Mormon, highlights the shadowy role the church founder maintained during the physical production of his central text.

"There were no paragraphs, no punctuation and no capitals."

Printer John H. Gilbert describes the rough, unedited manuscript provided by early church scribes, illustrating the immense labor required by compositors to turn the initial handwritten draft into a readable volume.

"On the first of March, the ground covered with snow, we broke encampment about noon, and soon nearly four hundred wagons were moving to--WE KNEW NOT WHERE."

Lorenzo Snow captures the vast uncertainty and immediate hardship confronting thousands of Mormon families as they abandoned their homes in Nauvoo to march into an uncharted Western wilderness.

What It's Really About

Beneath its chronological recording of events, the book argues that Mormonism is primarily a secular and political phenomenon rather than a purely spiritual one. Linn presents the movement as an outgrowth of nineteenth-century American frontier conditions, where widespread religious credulity met shrewd corporate organizing. The text exposes how religious authority was repeatedly invoked to consolidate financial control, shield leaders from civil law, and enforce unquestioning obedience among followers.

Another central theme is the continuous conflict between an exclusive,ocratic subculture and the surrounding democratic society. Linn demonstrates that public hostility toward Mormons was rarely driven by abstract religious intolerance; rather, it was ignited by concrete grievances over bloc voting, land speculation, paramilitary organizations like the Danites, and the subversion of local judicial systems.

Finally, the work explores the dynamics of autocratic leadership. It details how charismatic figures manipulate divine revelation to adapt to immediate political emergencies, justify economic failures, or institute radical social practices like polygamy, leaving ordinary adherents to bear the physical suffering and financial loss.

Why Read It Today

This volume remains an essential read for history enthusiasts, scholars of American religion, and anyone interested in the development of the American West. Linn's writing is clear, direct, and methodical, offering a calm, deliberate counterweight to both church-sanctioned hagiography and sensationalist anti-Mormon exposés. Readers who appreciate rigorous, document-driven history will value the author's extensive reliance on original primary sources, including early court records, newspaper files, and private journals.

The book can be demanding due to its thoroughness, significant length, and dense citations of nineteenth-century legal documents and church tracts. It also reflects the firm, unsentimental secular perspective of its era. However, what stays with the reader is the vivid, unvarnished portrait of frontier America—a landscape of intense religious fervor, political volatility, and human endurance, mapped out through one of the most remarkable institutional journeys in American history.