The fellow pictured above is James Jesse Strang, the self-proclaimed prophet who, upon the death of Joseph Smith on June 27, 1844, mounted a nearly successful attempt to wrench control of the Mormon church from Brigham Young. His presence continues to loom large over Michigan’s Beaver Island, where I spent this past weekend, and where he led his followers in 1848, and presided over them as “King” until his murder on July 9, 1856… a murder, by the way, which seems to have at least had the tacit approval of the U.S. government. (Strang, a two-term member of the Michigan House, was planning a Congressional run at the time of his death, and his growing prominence was clearly seen by many to be a threat. And, to make matters worse, he and his congregation also owned valuable property that others coveted. Oh, and then there was the fact that he was the leader of a cult that scared the living shit out of his contemporaries. When you put all the pieces together, it’s hard to imagine any result other than assassination.) Strang’s story, for reasons we’ll soon get into, is one of the most interesting that I’ve stumbled across since moving to Michigan, and I’m having a difficult time letting go of it, even though I’m now hundreds of miles removed from the site of his former kingdom.
My research thus far is still somewhat rudimentary. I interviewed Beaver Island historian Bill Cashman, and spent several hours digging through the collections of the local historical museum, which, by the way, is housed in what had once been Strang’s print shop. (Strang, when he wasn’t receiving prophecy, traveling in search of converts, taking on new wives, or shaking down local fisherman for financial tributes, edited the Daily Northern Islander, norther’s Michigan’s first newspaper.) Here’s what I know thus far.
Read More Here: http://markmaynard.com/2013/09/introducing-king-strang-imperial-primate-of-the-halcyon-order-of-the-illuminati/
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