The Mormon Migration into Texas
THE MOVEMENT commonly known as Mormonism, officially
"The Church of Jesus Christ of Latter Day Saints," had
its real beginning in a vision which its founder Joseph Smith
(also known as Joseph Smith, Jr.) claimed to have seen in
his fifteenth year (1820), near Palmyra, New York. According
to Smith, he experienced a second vision in 1823, which revealed
to him the hiding place near Palmyra of certain ancient plates
containing the record of the ancestry of the American Indians,
the remnant of the House of Israel. With the plates were two
stones, known as the Urim and the Thummim, through the
instrumentality of which the plates could be translated. After
a further interval of four years, Smith claimed to have received
possession of the two stones and the plates, which he translated
and dictated to scribes, principally his wife, Emma, and one
Oliver Cowdery, an itinerant blacksmith and schoolteacher who
came to be associated with him. The translation was printed
in 1829 and is known as the Book
of
Mormon.
This work is
regarded by the followers of Joseph Smith as a revelation of
God, similar to the Bible and of equal authority.
1
The first Mormon church was organized with six members
at Fayette, New York, on April 6, 1830, a date which is
annually observed with much ceremony by the church. The first
gathering place of the Mormons was at Kirtland, Ohio, in the
Western Reserve, from which place messengers were sent in
1831 to Missouri. This is said to have been done in response to
a further revelation to Joseph Smith in which Jackson County,
Missouri, was designated as the final gathering place for his
followers, commonly referred to as the Saints. It was to this
permanent Zion that the Lord should come in person in the
second resurrection. In the course of the months thereafter,
the Saints in large numbers moved to Missouri, and to Jackson
County in particular, where their headquarters were estab-
lished. The story of their life in Missouri is an exceedingly
bitter chapter in the history of the Mormon church. There
the followers underwent continuous persecution and harass-
ment. In 1839, after a residence of some eight years in Missouri,
the Saints, under the leadership of Joseph Smith, began an
exodus to Illinois, leaving their property behind them.
In Illinois, the Saints began a new settlement on the banks
of the Mississippi at Nauvoo, which, operating under a liberal
charter granted by the legislature of that state, enjoyed great
prosperity and growth. The Quorum of Twelve, which was
the head of the missionary efforts of the church, proselyted
with great zeal, especially in England, and brought thousands
of converts to Nauvoo.
At Nauvoo, in 1841, Lyman Wight became one of the Quorum
of Twelve. He was born in 1796 in Connecticut. As a boy he
had fought in the War of 1812, distinguishing himself at the
Battle of Sackett's Harbor. About the year 1826, after a short
residence in New York State, he moved to Cuyahoga County,
Ohio, and while living there he accepted the Book of Mormon
and was baptized into the church at Kirtland. Six days after
his baptism, he became an elder in the church and continued
so until his death. As one of the forerunners, he went to Jack-
son County, Missouri, in 1831, to carry the gospel of the new
dispensation to the western frontier of that state. The story
of his life in Missouri is filled with numerous incidents which
bespeak his courage and loyalty. On one occasion the presiding
bishop of the Jackson County Saints called for volunteers to
go and visit the Prophet (Joseph Smith), who was still in
Kirtland, Ohio, and to ascertain from him what he would have
the Saints do next. Volunteers were slow in responding; many
excuses were made. Wight stepped forward and said he would
go. "What kind of circumstances are your family in right now,
Brother Wight?" the Bishop asked. Wight made this reply:
"My wife is lying beside a big log in the woods with a three-
day-old child in her arms, but there are three days' provisions
there too, so I am sure that it will be all right for me to go."
This was in February, 1834, when weather conditions were
certainly not ideal for a mother and newborn babe in the woods
with only a big log for shelter.
The plans for the Nauvoo settlement called for the erection
of a temple and a home for the Prophet, and a special company
was formed to secure lumber for this purpose. At the head
of this special company were placed Lyman Wight and George
Miller. A sawmill in the Wisconsin pineries, on the Black River,
a little above LaCrosse, was purchased; standing timber was
acquired from some Indians; and it was to this location that
Wight and Miller and their group journeyed. This marks the
real beginning of the Texas colony.
By 1844 trouble with their neighbors in Illinois had increased
to such an extent that the Saints began to look for a new Zion.
They had a strong feeling against the United States govern-
ment, contending that no protection had been given them and
that the government had allowed them to be murdered, robbed,
and plundered by their Gentile neighbors. They proposed a new
order of things, and a national ticket composed of Joseph Smith
and Sidney Rigdon for president and vice-president, respec-
tively, was placed before the voters of the country. Though
this ticket was doomed to overwhelming defeat, there is evidence
that the Saints really thought there was a chance for success.
A plan which they held in reserve provided for the purchase
of a part of the Republic of Texas described as being
"north of a West line from the falls of the Colorado River to
the Nueces; thence down the same to the Gulf of Mexico and
along the same to the Rio Grande and up the same to the
United States Territory." It will be observed that this was
a portion of the territory in dispute between Texas and Mexico.
The Saints expected to be acknowledged in the area as a separate
nation and to help Texas defend herself against Mexico. Lucien
Woodworth was chosen as a messenger to the cabinet of the
Texas Republic to lay the plan before them. Woodworth re-
turned from Texas in 1844, reporting that the plan had been
received favorably. He was then appointed, along with A. W.
Brown and George Miller, as commissioner to meet the Texas
Congress to consummate the purchase of the territory, after
which Wight and Miller were to lead a colony of the Saints to
this new location. All plans were cut short by the killing of
Joseph Smith, the Prophet, and his brother, Hyrum Smith, by
a mob at Carthage, Illinois, on June 27, 1844. Confusion
immediately ensued in Nauvoo; Brigham Young, president of
the Quorum of Twelve, assumed control, declaring himself the
successor of Joseph Smith. All of the Twelve, except Lyman
Wight and two others, followed his leadership.
After refusing to acknowledge the leadership of Brigham
Young, the group known as the "Black River Lumber Com-
pany," under the leadership of Wight, had no further connec-
tion with the main body of the Saints, who followed Young to
Salt Lake City. The Wight faction decided to migrate to Texas
and settle in the territory which had been the subject of dis-
cussion with the cabinet of the Texas Republic. Wight, basing
his belief on his last conversation with Joseph Smith, was con-
vinced that a new Zion was to be found in Texas. The sawmill
of the company was sold at a great loss, and on March 28, 1845,
the group started from the mouth of Black River, down the
Mississippi, in four homemade boats. There were about one
hundred and fifty men, women, and children in the party. After
overland travel through Iowa, Missouri, Kansas, and the Indian
Territory, the group forded the Red River, near Preston, Texas,
on Sunday, November 10, 1845.
2 After traveling four miles
in Texas, they camped and began to look for a temporary
location. Wight and David Monroe went in search of a suitable
site and decided on an evacuated fort called Georgetown (also
known as Fort Johnson) in Grayson County, Texas.
3 They
moved to this place on November 19, 1845, and spent the suc-
ceeding winter there. In April, 1846, they broke camp, again
moving south. On April 30, they crossed the Trinity River
three miles above Dallas, which was then a small village. The
Brazos was crossed May 14 near the present site of Marlin in
Falls County, where the teams and cattle swam across and the
wagons were ferried by means of small canoes. Little River
was crossed at a point north of Rockdale, and on June 6, the
colonists reached a location at the falls of the Colorado River
about six miles above Austin. Here the first gristmill in the
country was built. This site was at the exact corner of the
territory the Saints had previously expected to acquire by pur-
chase from the Texas Republic.
4 Austin Dam is now situated
at this point on the river.
In his Evolution
of
a
State,
Noah Smithwick, a neighbor and
early acquaintance of the colonists, relates in detail the religious
activities of the colony. An extract from his narrative is inter-
esting and informative. He states:
They were a novelty in the religious world and curious to know some-
thing of their peculiar views, I permitted the Elder to preach in my
house. Preaching of any kind was so rare that the neighbors all gathered
in and listened with respectful attention while the Elder expounded the
doctrine of the Latter Day Saints, being careful to leave out its more
objectionable features. But amongst most people the idea obtained that
they were a lawless band, and the subject of rising up and driving them
from the country was strongly advocated. They were in sufficient numbers
to stand off the Indians, and, it being their policy to isolate their com-
munities which relegated them to the outskirts of civilization, I was
willing to utilize anything that formed a barrier against the savages.
I therefore counseled suspension of hostilities till some overt act called
for their expulsion.
5
Skilled artisans included among the colonists took the con-
tract for the first jail in Austin, as well as several residences
in that city. The gristmill erected at the falls of the Colorado
was a public benefit, since up to that time all corn was ground
on steel mills run by hand, a tedious and wearying process.
It was a catastrophe to the country when a rise in the river
swept the mill away. The colonists gathered up the machinery
but, discouraged with the prospect, began to look about for a
better location.
6
On October 19, 1846, an exploring committee was sent out,
consisting of Spencer Smith (the son-in-law of Lyman Wight),
John Taylor, Meacham Curtis, and William Curtis. They re-
turned on November 14, 1846, reporting that a favorable loca-
tion had been found on the Pedernales River "with plenty of
good water and timber and abounding with game and honey,"
all in striking similarity to the Old Testament account of the
report made by the spies sent out by Joshua to survey the
Promised Land. The search for the new home was temporarily
abandoned during the winter but was renewed in March, 1847.
On May 1 of that year a mill site was selected on the Peder-
nales, about four miles southeast of Fredericksburg. One reason
for selecting a location near that place was the fact that the
German settlers there were Free-Soilers, opposed to slavery,
which harmonized with the beliefs of the colonists, and they
concluded that their relations would be more amicable there
than elsewhere. In this hope they were doomed to disappoint-
ment. Six weeks after selecting the site, the colonists had a
gristmill in operation. Houses were built; a sawmill, store,
school, and temple were all erected; crops were planted, and
the entire colony settled at the new site. To this settlement
Wight gave the name of Zodiac. From the sawmill came much
of the lumber used by the early German settlers, and from the
gristmill much of the first corn meal. Fort Martin Scott near
by was then in process of construction by the United States
government, and some of the colonists found employment there.
In 1848 two messengers from Brigham Young arrived in
Zodiac. Their mission was to induce Wight to come to Salt
Lake City and counsel with his brethren, "The Twelve." The
messengers threatened Wight with excommunication if he re-
fused. He replied, "Nobody under the light of the heavens
except Joseph Smith or John Smith, the President of the Fifty,
can call me from Texas to come to Salt Lake City, and I have
as much authority to call one of the Twelve or rather the
Eleven to Texas as they have to call me to Salt Lake City."
Wight did not claim any succession for himself, stating that
he was filling a mission or trust imposed upon him by Joseph
Smith. The messengers returned to Salt Lake City and made
their report to Brigham Young. The next year Lyman Wight
was excommunicated from the Mormon Church.
On February 17, 1849, a temple was finished in which there
were observed the Mormon ordinances of foot washing, anoint-
ing, and baptism for the dead; in this last mentioned ordinance
members of the faith stood proxy for dead relatives who had
not heard the Mormon Gospel.
In 1850, the Comanche Indians, with their chief, Buffalo
Hump, visited the colonists several times and gave them the
privilege of traveling anywhere through their nation. Wight
talked with them concerning the Book of Mormon. Tradition
has it that the prophet Joseph Smith, in his authorship of the
Book, was greatly influenced by his study of the beliefs of the
Iroquois Indians of New York. Since the Comanches "seemed
very much pleased" with Wight's explanation of the Book, it
is quite likely that this connection with the Iroquois Indians
was stressed.
In social and business matters the colonists and the German
settlers got along peaceably, but political differences eventually
developed. Wight was elected chief justice
7 of Gillespie County
and took office in September, 1850. Political quarrels and dis-
putes arose between Wight and his colony on one side and the
members of the commissioners' court and the German settlers
on the other side. Wight refused to attend the sessions of the
court. Finally three of the county commissioners called them-
selves together, and the following significant entry appears in
the minutes of the court:
Ordered by the Court that Chief Justice Lyman Wight be ordered to
meet the said County Commissioners at the Chief Justice's office this
day two weeks, to-wit: on the 16th day of June, 1851, to settle matters
of said county: and it is ordered that Christian Gartner, Constable for
Precinct No. 2, be ordered to see said Lyman Wight and command him
to attend said Court and settle and close up all matters with the County
as Chief Justice and Probate Judge.
8
Wight paid no attention to the summons of the court; where-
upon the commissioners met again, declared the office of chief
justice vacant, and ordered a special election to fill the vacancy.
It was shortly after this episode that the colonists abandoned
their location at Zodiac on the Pedernales and began to seek
another field of labor and adventure. A flood in the river had
destroyed much of their property, washing away the gristmill
and sawmill, and there was no more work for them at Fort
Martin Scott. Moreover, the political differences with the Ger-
man settlers had brought about strained relations, and the
situation was anything but pleasant. Today the only remaining
trace of the Zodiac settlement is an old cemetery about an acre
in extent, which contains a few graves, including that of Wight.
A new location was decided upon, in a beautiful hidden valley
with lake and waterfall, situated in Burnet County, on Hamilton
Creek, about eight miles below the town of Burnet, and about
fifty miles from the Zodiac settlement. To this new location
the colonists migrated in the summer of 1851 and erected log
dwellings, a gristmill, shops, and a sawmill. The millstones
used by the colonists at the falls on the Colorado and on the
Pedernales were said to have been imported originally from
France and were of fine quality. When the flood on the Peder-
nales washed away the gristmill, these millstones disappeared
beneath the sands of the river bed. In their new location in
Burnet County, the colonists were in sore need of these mill-
stones, because other stones, improvised from a quarry near
by, required frequent dressing. In Burnet County the colonists
again became neighbors of Noah Smithwick, and from his
recollections there comes the story of the recovery of the mill-
stones from a sand bar in the Pedernales near the Zodiac
settlement:
Old Lyman Wight, the high priest, set about the task of recovering
the lost stones. After wrestling alone with the spirits for some little
time, he arose one morning with joy in his heart and summoning his
people, announced to them that he had a revelation and bidding them take
spades and crow-bars and follow him, set out to locate the millstones.
Straight ahead he bore as one in a dream, his divining rod in his hand,
his awe-struck disciples following in silence. Pausing at last in the middle
of a sand bar deposited by the flood he stuck his rod down. "Dig right
here," he commanded. His followers, never doubting, set to work, and
upon removing a few feet of sand, lo and behold, there were revealed
the buried mill-stones. Wight said he saw them in a vision and his
followers believed it.
9
From distances up to a two days' journey, the settlers brought
their corn to the new settlement to be ground. From their
sawmill and turning lathes the colonists manufactured chairs,
tables, and bedsteads, supplying the whole countryside with
furniture. In speaking of the colonists, Smithwick, from per-
sonal experience, had this to say:
I found them the same as other people in matters of business. While
some of them were honest and industrious, others were shiftless and
unreliable; and this must ever prove a potent argument against com-
munity holdings--the thriftless got just as much as the thrifty. But
though the industrious saint was thus forced to contribute to the support
of his idle brother, he drew the line to exclude the worthless dog that is
generally considered an indispensable adjunct to thriftlessness, the canine
family being conspicuous by its absence about the domicile of the Mormon.
Nor was there anything objectionable in the Mormons as neighbors. If
there were polygamous families I did not know of them. To still further
emphasize the perfect equality of all members of the society, all titles of
respect were discarded, men and women were universally called by their
first names, and these first names, by the way, were perhaps the most
striking peculiarity about the Mormons. The proselytes were permitted
to retain their Gentile names but those born in the fold received their
baptismal names from the Book of Mormon and have no counter-part
elsewhere. They were Abinadi, Maroni, Luami, Lamoni, Romali, Cornoman
and many other equally original. The female children, however, were
apparently not permitted to participate in this saintly nomenclature. It
might be that women cut no figure in the book of Mormon; at any rate,
there was nothing distinctive in the names of the girls.
10
In spite of their habits of work and frugal living, the colo-
nists became involved in debt. George Miller, the associate and
co-manager with Wight of the "Black River Lumber Company,"
made a visit to the Zodiac settlement in 1848 and reported that
while the colonists seemed to be in a prosperous condition, they
were actually indebted to merchants in Austin in the sum of
$3,000 and the amount was increasing. The colonists were thus
in debt when they established their settlement in Burnet County,
and it was undoubtedly the pressing nature of this indebtedness
that prompted them again to cast about for a new location and
start on the march. Smithwick became the purchaser of their
gristmill property, and he records the transaction in this
fashion:
Having all of my life had a penchant for mills, I recognized this as
"my long lost brother" and at once opened negotiations for it. The dream
of my life was fulfilled and I was at last the proud possessor of a bona
fide mill and that in one of the most picturesque spots to be found.
11
Today, in traveling over U. S. Highway 281, through the
hills of Burnet County, between Burnet and Marble Falls, in
a valley difficult of access, east of the highway, will be found
the remains of the settlement: a huge cypress post set upright
in the ground, a grass-grown cemetery, and the moss and vine
covered remains of a millrace. Within the rock-walled ceme-
tery there are fifteen graves, and an additional eight graves,
supposed to be non-Mormon, are outside. One of the leaning
headstones bears the name Wight, undoubtedly one of Lyman
Wight's family.
Again on the move in December, 1853, the colonists, in search
of a new home, and under the leadership of Wight, traveled
westward, making their first stop in Llano County. They num-
bered at this time about two hundred and fifty persons. The
diary of Spencer Smith, son-in-law of Wight, indicates that they
moved through the present counties of Llano, Mason, Gillespie,
Kerr, and Bandera, finally coming to a stop at a point on the
Medina River across from the village of Bandera. This was in
March, 1854. They spent the spring and summer of that year,
partly across the river from the village and partly in the village
itself, occupying their time in making cypress shingles. Later
they moved to a location on the river some twelve miles below
the village where they established a settlement called Mountain
Valley. The site of this settlement is now covered by the head-
waters of Medina Lake. Here the colonists lived from 1854 to
1858, and it was during this period that Bandera County was
created out of Bexar County. William Curtis, one of the colo-
nists, was elected the first sheriff of the new county. On Sep-
tember 6, 1856, the first marriage license granted in the new
county was issued to Levi Lamoni Wight and Sophia Leyland.
The groom was the fifth chiLd of Lyman Wight. In January,
1856, Wight wrote to his nephew in New York State a glowing
description of their new location, stating in his letter:
. . . we are p[l]aced in a valley between several lofty mountains on
a beautiful prairie bottom the Madina river a stream a trifle smaller than
the Genesee river runs within 30 steps of our doors our houses are
placed at a proper distance a part in two straight rows our gardens lying
between which makes it very pleasant ... we make bedsteads and chairs
in large quantities . • . and get one dollar apiece for chairs by the thou-
sand, we have a good horse mill to grind for our selves and neighbors
we have a black smith and white smith we raise our own cotton and
make our own wheels to spin it on. . . I calculate to continue till [I]
lose the horse or win the saddle.
12
Troubles, however, still plagued the colonists. There was a
succession of depredations by the Indians resulting in a loss
of cattle and horses. Wight sought protection from the state
authorities at Austin and complained bitterly to Major Robert
S. Neighbors, the Indian agent, about the lack of protection,
finally stating to him:
We make this one more appeal to the Government and if this fails,
we have but one alternitive and that is to abandon the frontiers alto-
gether. . . It seems very curious to us that troops are raised and sent
five or six hundred miles from where an Indian ever roamed and leave
our frontiers without protection. . .
13
The neighbors of the colonists placed the blame on General
Persifor F. Smith, saying that the military branch of the govern-
ment continued to harass the friendly Indians and make indis-
criminate war upon them and that it was impossible for the
Indian agents to make peace with the Indians or quiet them
until the troops ceased making such war.
The debts of the colonists were again pressing. One of their
creditors, John Bremond, a pioneer merchant of Austin, filed
suit against Wight on August 3, 1854, in the district court of
Bexar County for the balance due on a note originally for
$685.09 which had been executed on February 2, 1853. The
note was entitled to certain credits, and it is interesting to
observe how these came about:
14
inability of the sheriff of Bexar County to locate Wight and
serve citation upon him. Evidently Wight found convenient
ways to avoid the presence of the officer.
Troubles continued to beset the colonists, and Wight was
again seized with the wanderlust. In March, 1858, declaring
that he had a premonition of the War between the States, he
gathered his followers together and headed northward. His
son, Levi Lamoni, had this to say:
In the spring of 1858 my father planned another move. Of course we
must all go. Here came quite a test of faith in the technicalities of his
religion. I told my wife that I was not going to follow those wild moves
any longer. We consulted about the matter for several days and came
to the conclusion that we would rebel and arrange to stay where we were
and risk the consequences and went to plowing. I thought over the matter
seriously. My father and mother were getting old and feeble and we
could not tell what might happen to them, and finally thought it our duty
to follow them once more, so we arranged to go along.15
On the second day of the journey, at a point about eight
miles from San Antonio, Wight suddenly died. His body was
carried by his family and followers to the old settlement of
Zodiac and there interred in the cemetery.
No colonists in Texas were ever more thoroughly under the
domination of one man. In a literal sense, Wight was their
material and spiritual leader. His colony was a "common stock"
proposition, in which he was the absolute dictator. All business
was done and all property was held in his individual name. It
was inevitable that when his dominant personality was gone
the colonists would divide into several groups. There was no
leader to succeed him. The greater number continued the jour-
ney northward and after wintering two years in the Indian
Territory, and another year in Missouri, finally settled in 1861
in the northwest corner of Shelby County, Iowa. This settle-
ment they called Galland's Grove. Practically all of the group
joined the Reorganized Mormon Church. In time Galland's
Grove became a landmark in the history of that church. One
small group of three families returned to Burnet County and
later in 1861 followed Noah Smithwick to California. Three
of Wight's sons remained in Texas and became soldiers in the
Confederate Army. One of these sons, Levi Lamoni, settled at
Medina in Bandera County. At this place, in San Antonio, and
in other near-by places his descendents live today. Several
other Mormon families, as well as individuals, remained in
Bandera County. One of these was Andrew Hufman, who after
the Civil War, went from Bandera to lowa to find his old
brethren. He returned with Spencer Smith, and as elders of
the Reorganized Church, the two baptized some of the colonists
who remained in Texas.
When death ended the stirring and eventful life of Wight,
his sixty-two years of existence had covered the states of
Connecticut, New York, Ohio, Missouri, Illinois, Wisconsin, and
Texas. He was one who had always been in the midst of
struggle and hardships, one who had repeatedly braved per-
secution and oppression, one to whom life was hard and cruel,
but who was never discouraged and who "calculated to continue
till I lose the horse or win the saddle." In Mormon circles, he
was called the "Wild Ram of the Mountains." With courage
undaunted and with enthusiasm high, he spent the last two
days of his life in journeying toward a new Zion.
FOOTNOTES:
Britannica, XV, 14th ed.
script. (65 pp.) University of Texas Archives.
County, Texas (Sherman, 1936).
Days (Austin, 1900), 235-236.
Monday, June 2, 1851. In office County Clerk of Gillespie County.
rests today over the fireplace in the Frontier Times Museum at Bandera.
Civil Docket, District Court, Bexar County, Texas. These papers are now
on file in district clerk's office, Bexar County.
Board of Publication of the Reorganized Church of Jesus Christ of Latter
Day Saints, Lamoni, Iowa), IX (July, 1916), 268.
How to cite:
C. Stanley Banks, "Mormon Migration into Texas", Volume 49, Number 2, Southwestern Historical Quarterly Online, http://www.tsha.utexas.edu/publications/journals/shq/online/v049/n2/contrib_DIVL3261.html
[Accessed Thu Nov 5 2:44:12 CST 2009]
