In the year 1843 there came from New York to the village of Burlington,
Racine county, an eccentric young lawyer named James Jesse Strang.
Originally a farmer's boy, he had been a country school-teacher, a
newspaper editor, and a temperance lecturer, as well as a lawyer.
Possessed of an uneasy, ambitious spirit, he had wandered much, and
changed his occupation with apparent ease. Strang was passionately fond
of reading, was gifted with a remarkable memory, and developed a
fervent, persuasive style of oratory, which he delighted in employing.
He often astonished the courts by the shrewd eloquence with which he
supported strange, unexpected points in law. It is related of him that,
soon after he came to Wisconsin, he brought a suit to recover the value
of honey which, he claimed, had been stolen from his client's hives by
the piratical bees of a neighbor, and his arguments were so plausible
that he nearly won his case.
In less than a year after his arrival in Burlington, the village was
visited by some Mormon missionaries. They came from Nauvoo, Illinois, on
the banks of the Mississippi River, where there was a settlement of
so-called Latter-Day Saints, who lived under the sway of a designing
knave named Joseph Smith. Strang at once became a convert, and entered
into the movement with such earnestness that, with his oratory, his
ability to manage men, and his keen zest for notoriety, he became one of
the most prominent followers of the faith.
Six months after Strang's conversion, Joseph Smith, the president and
prophet of the Mormons, was killed by an Illinois mob. At once there
arose a desperate strife among the leaders, for the successorship to
Joseph. Two of the number, Brigham Young and Strang, were men of
ability, and the contest soon narrowed down to them. Young had the
powerful support of the council of the church, known as "the twelve
apostles"; but Strang produced a letter said to have been written by
Joseph just before his death, in which Strang was named as his
successor, with directions to lead the Mormons to a new "city of
promise" in Wisconsin, to be called "Voree."
The "apostles" at Nauvoo denounced Strang as an impostor, declared that
his letter was a forgery, and attacked him bitterly in their official
newspapers, published at Nauvoo and at Liverpool, England. But Strang
was not easily put down. A great many of the fanatics at Nauvoo believed
in this impetuous young leader, who defended his cause with tact and
forceful eloquence; and for a time it looked as if he might win.
However, in the end the "apostles" had their way, and the adroit Young
was elected to the headship of the church. Strang at once called forth
his followers, and in April, 1845, planted the "City of Voree" upon a
prairie by the side of White River, in Walworth county, Wisconsin. It
soon became a town of nearly two thousand inhabitants, who owned all
things in common, but were ruled over, even in the smallest affairs of
life, by the wily President Strang, who claimed to be divinely
instructed in every detail of his rigorous government.
The people dwelt "in plain houses, in board shanties, in tents, and
sometimes, many of them, in the open air." Great meetings were held at
Voree, and the surrounding settlers gathered to hear Strang and his
twelve "apostles" lay down the law, and tell of the revelations which
had been delivered to them by the Almighty. Strang, who closely imitated
the methods of Joseph, pretended to discover the word of God in
deep-hidden records. Joseph had found the Book of Mormon graven upon
plates dug out of the hill of Cumorah, in New York; so Strang discovered
buried near Voree similar brazen plates bearing revelations, written in
the rhythmic style of the Scriptures, which supplemented those in the
Book of Mormon.
President Strang was a very busy man as the head of the Voree branch of
the Mormon church. He obtained a printing outfit, and published a little
weekly paper called _Gospel Herald_, besides hundreds of pamphlets, all
written by himself, in which he assailed the "Brighamites" in the same
violent manner as they attacked him in their numerous publications. He
also, with his missionaries, conducted meetings in Ohio, New York, and
other States in the East, gathering converts for Voree, and boldly
repelling the wordy attacks of the Brighamites, whose agents were
working the same fields.
Despite some backslidings, and occasional quarrels within its ranks,
Voree grew and prospered. By 1849 there was a partially built stone
temple there, which is thus described by an imaginative letter writer of
the time: "It covers two and one-sixth acres of ground, has twelve
towers, and the great hall two hundred feet square in the center. The
entire walls are eight feet through, the floors and roofs are to be
marble, and when finished it will be the grandest building in the
world."
Nevertheless, it was early seen by Strang that the growing opposition of
neighboring settlers would in the end cause the Mormons to leave
Wisconsin, just as the Nauvoo fanatics were compelled (in 1846) to flee
from Illinois, to plant their stake in the wilderness of the Far West.
He therefore made preparations for a place of refuge for his people,
when persecutions should become unbearable. In journeying by vessel,
upon one of his missions, he had taken note of the isolation of an
archipelago of large, beautiful, well-wooded islands near the foot of
Lake Michigan. The month of May, 1846, found him with four companions
upon Beaver Island, in this far-away group. They built a log cabin,
arranged for a boat, and returned to Voree to prepare for the migration
of the faithful.
The new colony at first grew slowly, but by the summer of 1849 the
"saints" began to arrive in goodly numbers. Strang himself now headed
the settlement; and thereafter Voree ceased to be headquarters for the
"Primitive Mormons," as they called themselves, although a few remained
in the neighborhood.
Very soon, about two thousand devotees were gathered within the "City of
St. James," on Beaver Island, with well-tilled farms, neat houses, a
sawmill, roads, docks, and a large temple. A hill near by they renamed
Mount Pisgah, and a River Jordan and a Sea of Galilee were not far away.
One beautiful day in July, 1850, Strang, arrayed in a robe of bright
red, was, with much ceremony, crowned by his "apostles" as "King of the
Kingdom of St. James." Foreign ambassadors were appointed, and a royal
press was set up, for the flaying of his enemies. Schools and debating
clubs were opened; the community system was abolished; tithes were
collected for the support of the government; tea, coffee, and tobacco
were prohibited; and even the dress of the people was regulated by law.
Never was there a king more absolute than Strang; doubtless, for a time,
he thought his dream of empire realized at last, and that here in this
unknown corner of the world the "saints" might remain forever
unmolested.
But the sylvan archipelago, and Beaver Island itself, had other
inhabitants; these were rude, sturdy, illiterate fishermen, who lived in
huts along the coast, and had little patience with the fantastic
performances of their neighbors, King Strang and the court of St. James.
His majesty had, also, jealous enemies among his own subjects.
Trouble soon ensued. The fishermen frequently assaulted the "saints,"
and carried on a petty warfare against the colony at large, in which the
county sheriff was soon engaged; for false charges came to be entered
against these strange but inoffensive people, and they were now and then
thrown into jail. The king, thereupon, in self-defence, "went into
politics." Having so many votes at his command, he easily secured the
election of Mormons to all the county offices, and of himself to the
legislature of Michigan.
But despite these victories over outside foes, matters at home went from
bad to worse. The enemies in his camp multiplied, for his increasingly
despotic rule gave them abundance of grievances. At last, about the
middle of June, 1856, two of the malcontents shot their monarch from
behind. He was taken by vessel to his old home in Voree, where he was
tenderly cared for until his death, a month later, by his poor,
neglected wife, who had remained behind when he went forth to the
island. His kingdom did not long survive him. The unruly fishermen came
one day with ax and torch, leveled the royal city to the ground, and
banished the frightened "saints."
To-day the White River prairie gives no evidence of having once borne
the city of Zion, and even in the Michigan archipelago there remain few
visible relics of the marvelous reign of King Strang.