They had been chased from New York to Ohio to Missouri to Illinois and then finally to Utah.
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actually no
Joey Smith said his mormon gods wanted them to move out to Ohio from NY so they did, a bit at a time...
Of course Joey Smith had been one step ahead of the law in NY...
In Kirkland OH Joey Smith ran a bank scam and also printed worthless $3 bills...again the run for his “life”...he was convicted and charged a $1000 fine that he never paid...
Onto Missouri where the mormons demanded the land of the earlier settlers claiming that they had a right to it because their mormon gods had given it to them...that didnt sit well with the MO folks...nor did stealing their wives, daughters, and possesssions and threatening the innocent farmers...and murdered settlers and storekeepers in Gallitin..
Joey Smith went around Missouri pointing out where the Garden of Eden had been, where the mormon Adam had his alter and sacrificed to the mormon gods etc...
He claimed that they were to build a temple on Temple Lot in Jackson County MO as the place the Mormons would gather in the last days...but although some LDS own it to this day, they are RLDS and not the polygamymous bunch that went onto Salt Lake City...and no “temple” was ever built there...so much for owning that lot forever...
The 1st exerminastion order was given by the Mormons against the Gov and the Missourians because they said beat it tyoure not stealing own land....Oh dear...
Well many of Joey Smiths followers went with him to IL but some stayed, were never killed, settled down anhd obeyed the law and got on famously and successful ..Oh noez they were not “exterminated” AT ALL...
Onto IL where Joey Smith was given a whole lot of land free and clear in Commerce, and changed the name to Nauvoo...the land gift had been meant to be handed out to Joey Smiths foollowers but Joey Smith made them pay HIM for it...keeping the biggest and best for himself...
In Nauvoo Joey Smith propmtly crowned himself “king of the world, made himself a Lt General of his army and wore a fancy uniform struting around and striking poses with a sword as he imagined Napoleon would have done...made himself the mayor, passed ordinances that favored him and his hencemen, improved on his personal army of vigilantes called Avenging Angels, Danites, until he had 5000 well armed well trained gang members and terrorists armed to the teeth...at that time the US Army had only 8000 soldiers...
Joey Smith petitioned Congress for permission to raise a 100,000 man army...now why did Joey smith NEED so many men ???
Joey Smith built a hotel and kept spare women there...he also propositioned any new unattacted girls who arrived in Nauvoo and threatened to compromise their reputations if they refused him ..When Emma objected to his cheatin ways he threatened her with bodily harm and death and wrote a phony doctrine about it rewarding himself at least 10 young virgins.....D&C 132...its still a good doctrine for the Mormons till this day...
There Joey Smith became a member of the Freemasons and rose to the highest level almost that same day..he betrayed his blood oaths by incorporating many of the secrets into his religious rituals, which are still used today in the mormon temples...later fellow Freemasons would kill him because of the blood oaths to kill anyone who betrayed them...
In May 1844 Joey Smith spoke in the town square and boasted that he was greater than Jesus...well he was greater I guess than he mormon jesus ...after all Joey himself had invented him...what creation is greater than the creator ???
But Joey Smith was not really greater than the LORD Jesus Christ of the Christian Bible and THAT Jesus destroyed the upstart usurper Joey Smith a month later...
In June 1844 when Joey Smith attempted to force himself onto Mrs Law, she refused him and so typically he threatened to smeer her good name...she told her husband, William Law...now it just so happened that William Law already knew about Joey Smith and all his philandering ways and so he printed a newspaper exposing Joey Smiths aduterous activitiesw ith married women and 14 year old children...
Joey Smith reacted in a more than slight overkill way...typical of the aggressive abusive bully...he called out his 5000 army and closed the town and declared martial law...he marched on the private newspaper office, broke up the printinbg press and burned down the building causing William Law to fled for help outside the town
The Gov sent an order to arrest Joey Smith for inciting a riot etc...Joey Smith as usual fled...Ho9wever Emma Hale sent a message asking him to come back...he did so...must have been a dozy of a note because he had never cared what Emma thought before...
Whether the note was for revenge or innocent, Joey Smith came back and was arrested and put in a building with some of his cronies where they drank wine and had guns smuggled to them foir a break...(Joey Smith was good at jail breaks) Howeever after Joey Smith shot and killed 3 men including hios own brother in the back, some others shot back...so much for the magic underwear that can stop bullets...
a couple of years before Joey Smith got himself killed in that gunfight, he wanted to move again, this time to Utah...Brigham Young hung around and waited for TWO MORE YEARS before setting out for Utah with most of the Mormons from Nauvoo...before they went they sold their “forever” mormon temple to ....the Catholics...at a great loss..
***He claimed that they were to build a temple on Temple Lot in Jackson County MO as the place the Mormons would gather in the last days.***
This is still doctrine in the mormon church. I was visiting, one Sunday, in Farmington NM back in 1974. The class leader gave a talk about the “last days” when they would all return to Jackson County MO.