Bowen presents program on History of Mormons in Area

Sometimes you have to ignore the standard advice to never to discuss religion or politics with anyone you’re not well acquainted with – especially when the discuss deals with history.

While trying not to “preach”, Keith Bowen outlined the history of the Mormon movement into the area during the Ray County Historical Societies Annual Membership meeting last week at the Ray County Museum. 

Bowen provided a reference guide with maps to various Latter Day Saint historical sites in Ray County, Independence, Caldwell County and Daviess County.

He has a degree in art education and taught for over 20 years. After he retired from teaching, he began bottling and distributing Excelsior Springs Mineral Water.

Though Keith’s strong suite is art history; he loves history and enjoys sharing it. That had led to his involvement with the Excelsior Springs Museum and Ray County Museum and with some genealogy. 

“Family history is a very, very important issue with the church,” he said. 

When he first visited the Excelsior Springs Museum, he noticed the paintings done by County Edmund DeSzaak of “The Gleaners” and “The Angelus” needed cleaning and he ended up bringing in scaffolding and cleaning them inch by inch.

Bowen said the Mormons have many historical ties to this area. Some are well known and some are not so well known. 

The Historic Liberty Jail and the Independence Visitor’s Center are two of the better-known historic sites of the Church of Latter-Day Saints.

Ray County and Richmond are recognized for the Eight Witnesses Monument in the Pioneer Cemetery as well as the Old Jail site, David Whitmer’s Livery, and the graves of David Whitmer, Oliver Cowdery and Peter Whitmer, Sr. These sites are marked with monuments and signs. 

The Battle of Crooked River Site, near Elmira, played an important role in Mormon history, but as it is on private property, the site is not marked.

Hiram Page’s Grave near Excelsior Springs is located on 146th Street, just off Y-Highway, while the Zion’s Camp, located southeast of Excelsior Springs, is not marked. 

 “There is so much history in this area,” Bowen said, noting that these areas have a very important and sacred place in their church history.

He discussed the early history of the Mormon Church, which started as a vision by Joseph Smith in 1820. The church was organized in 1830 in upper-state New York and moved to Kirkland, Ohio in 1831.

They began sending missionaries to Missouri, Canada, New York and New Jersey in the first year of organization.

The missionaries who came to Missouri liked the area and settled in different regions from Gallatin to Richmond. 

Bowen said the concept of a prophet being among people was foreign in the United States at that time. Mormonism is very uniquely American, and the RLDS is the first church that was born in the United States. 

“Independence would have been Salt Lake City if the early Mormons hadn’t been run out of here,” he said.

Those wanting a more detailed history of the Mormon War in Missouri should read: The Mormon War – Zion and the Extermination Order of 1838.

The Mormon population was growing very rapidly here in the 1830’s and Far West in Caldwell County had thousands of Mormons living there. At one point, Caldwell County (which was a specifically designated as a county for Mormons) had a little over 5,000 residents and about 4,800 of them were Mormons.

One of the early problems between the church and Missourians in this area was the Mormons opposition to slavery. While the Mormon population was growing, they were being kept from voting in Missouri. That and Mormons successes in business evolved into suspicion, distrust and finally outright turmoil that brought on the Mormon Wars. 

Bowen also explained the importance of Zion’s Camp to the group. 

As the early Mormons were being forced out of Jackson County in early 1834, Joseph Smith and a couple of hundred men left Kirkland, Ohio, on a nearly 1,000 mile march through Ohio, Indiana, and Illinois, with Independence as the goal. They were going to try to regain land in Jackson County or help them move on.

They didn’t reach Independence.

While they were camped south of Excelsior Springs, between the two main branches of Fishing River, a contingent from Jackson County came across the river and attacked.

Though the Mormons were out-numbered 5-1, a storm came in and a wall of water and a giant hailstorm thwarted the attack. 

Bowen said in church history, this is known as Zion’s Camp and the importance of Zion’s Camp was that it became a galvanizing point of the church. 

The church was having both internal and external problems at the time and it was at that point church leaders decided they were going to stay and they were going to thrive.“The naysayers left and the really, really strong believers stayed,” he said. 

About 85% of the church leadership for the next 50 or 60 years came from the small group who marched to Zion’s Camp.

He said Joseph Smith received the "Fishing River revelation" near the front entrance of the pasta plant, which commanded the Saints not to pursue the "redemption of Zion" further at that time.

The Battle of Crooked River was the result of a brawl at the election polls in Gallatin, after a mob would not let the Saints vote. 

After Governor Lilburn W. Boggs heard of this brawl along with other mob activity, he called in the state militia to keep the peace. Captain Samuel W. Bogart, who led 75 men, had been forcibly disarming Latter-Day Saints and ordering them to leave their homes. 

In an effort to promote conflict, he and his men kidnapped three Latter-day Saints, Nathan Pinkham, Jr., William Seely, and Addison Green and held them hostage in his camp near Crooked River. 

The Latter-day Saints learned of the kidnapping and believed the mob intended to execute the three men. 

A group of about 75 Latter-day Saint militiamen led by Apostle David W. Patten were armed and sent to rescue the three Mormons.

As they approached the Crooked River camp someone yelled out "who goes there?" and immediately followed the question with gunfire.

One of the Latter-day Saint militia was killed and Patten ordered the LDS militia to charge and fire a round. With this attack, the state militia began to run, leaving their animals and equipment behind. It was falsely reported that the LDS militia had killed all of the men and that the person giving the report was the sole survivor. 

Governor Lilburn W. Boggs used the Battle of Crooked River as an example of why the "extermination order" should be put into effect. Governor Boggs wrote the order only knowing exaggerated accounts of the battle, which reported that the LDS militia had killed half of Bogart’s men. 

The order was issued on October 27, 1838, and said "The Mormons must be treated as enemies, and must be exterminated or driven from the State if necessary, for the public peace—their outrages are beyond all description." 

Though referred to as the "Mormon Extermination Order", relatively few Mormons were killed as a direct result of its issuance. 

Missouri Governor Kit Bond rescinded the order in 1976.

Hiram Page was an early member of the Latter Day Saint movement and one of the Eight Witnesses to the Book of Mormon's Golden Plates.

During the growing anti-Mormon hostilities in Jackson County, Page was severely beaten by a group of non-Mormon vigilantes on October 31, 1833. On July 31 and August 6, 1834 he testified to the facts of the beatings. By 1834 he and his family were expelled along with the other Latter Day Saints, and lived for a time in neighboring Clay County, before moving to Far West.

Page and other members of the Whitmer family were excommunicated from the Church of Jesus Christ of Latter Day Saints in 1838. 

He later bought a farm near Excelsior Springs where he died on August 12, 1852, still affirming his testimony of the Book of Mormon.

A commemorative marker was placed on his grave at the farm on April 27, 2002.

Linda Emley, the museum administrator, presented the group with copies of the official dedication program for the Mormon History Room at the museum. The room was dedicated in 1976 and is maintained by The Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints. 

Howard Hill, publisher of the Richmond Daily News, was the master of ceremonies for the event and Elmer Minnick cut the ribbon to open the room.

His wife, Carolyn, represented Governor Kit Bond.The address at the dedication was given by Elder David Haight, who was a member of the Council of Twelve for the Church. He came from Salt Lake City to be a part of this program.

The LDS Choir from Independence provided the choral music.