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George Washington Adair
 1818 - 1897

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Timeline

1818
1834
1850
1865
1881
1897


 
 
 




   Year  Event(s)
1 1830 
  • 6 Apr: The Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints was organized in Fayette, New York. Due to their acceptance of The Book of Mormon as scripture, they are quickly nicknamed "Mormons".
2 1831 
  • May - June -- Latter-day Saint immigrants from New York arrive in Kirtland, Ohio.
  • 7 Jun: "Modern revelation" commands Latter-day Saints to gather to Missouri. -- "And thus, even as I have said, if ye are faithful ye shall assemble yourselves together to rejoice upon the land of Missouri, which is the land of your inheritance..." (Doctrine and Covenants 52:42)
  • Jul: Latter-day Saints from Colesville, New York arrive in Jackson County, Missouri and begin to "build up" the City of Zion. The numbers of Latter-day Saints relocating to the area increased rapidly and non-Mormon residents became alarmed by political and cultural differences.
3 1833 
  • November - December, 1833 -- Latter-day Saints are expelled from Jackson County, Missouri and their property is confiscated.
4 1834 
  • March - May, 1834 -- Zion's Camp is organized in Kirtland, Ohio to rescue Latter-day Saints in Missouri.
  • 4 Jun: Zion’s Camp crosses the Mississippi River and enters Missouri. News of their approach causes alarm among non-Mormons in Jackson and Clay Counties. Attempts to negotiate a return of the Latter Day Saints to Jackson County proved fruitless.
  • 21 Jun: (21st - 29th) -- Cholera attacks Zion's Camp.
  • Aug: Zion's Camp returns to Ohio. Although they failed to achieve their goal of returning Latter-day Saints to Jackson County, Missouri's legislature later approved a compromise which set aside the new county of Caldwell, specifically for their settlement in 1836.
5 1836 
  • (Summer) -- Latter-day Saint refugees found the community of Far West in northern Missouri.
  • 26 Dec: Caldwell County, Missouri is created as a refuge for "Mormons". Far West is designated as county seat.
6 1837 
  • 2 Jan: The Kirtland Safety Society, a quasi-bank, is founded by Latter-day Saints in Kirtland, Ohio – “...for the promotion of our temporal interests, and for the better management of our different occupations, which consist in agriculture, mechanical arts, and merchandising.” However, by November 1837, the institution failed and its business closed. Many bankrupted Mormons left the church because they believed its leader, Joseph Smith, had established the bank in order to enrich himself and others. Smith and his associates flee to Missouri to avoid being lynched by a mob.
  • Jul: Latter-day Saint missionaries preach in Great Britain for the first time.
7 1838 
  • (July - October) -- Religious, political, economic, and social pressures force thousands of Latter-day Saints to leave Kirtland, Ohio and journey to Missouri.
  • May: The Mormon community of Adam-ondi-Ahman is founded along the east bluffs above the Grand River in Daviess County, Missouri.
  • 6 Aug: Approximately 200 non-Mormon Missourians attempt to forcibly prevent Latter-day Saints (Mormons) from voting in Gallatin, Missouri and a brawl ensued. The skirmish is often cited as the opening event of the 1838 Mormon War in Missouri.
  • Oct: (1st -11th) -- After a lengthy siege in which hundreds of armed anti-Mormon vigilantes encamped around the town of DeWitt, Missouri, Mormon leaders agreed to abandon the settlement and move to Caldwell County.
  • 25 Oct: The Battle of Crooked River -- Rumors reached Latter-day Saints in Far West, Missouri that a "mob" of vigilantes from Ray County, Missouri had taken Mormons prisoner. An armed party was quickly assembled to rescue the prisoners and push the mob out of Caldwell County. When the Mormons arrived on the scene, the state militia unit was camped along Crooked River just south of Caldwell County. The Missourians had the advantage of position and fired, but the Mormons continued to advance causing the state militia to break ranks and flee across the river. Several Mormons were killed and at least nine injured. One Missourian was also killed.
  • 27 Oct: Major General Samuel D. Lucas marches the Missouri state militia to Far West and lays siege to the community. Latter-day Saint leaders agreed to talk with militia leaders to end the siege, but instead of negotiating, the militia arrests them and holds an illegal court-marshal, sentencing the men to be executed in the morning. Due to objections of some of the militia officers, including Alexander Doniphan, the sentence was never carried out. However Joseph Smith, Sidney Rigdon, Lyman Wight, Parley P. Pratt, and George W. Robinson were held as prisoners for five months before they were allowed to escape. After the Mormon leaders were taken prisoner, the militia entered Far West and took arms, robbed, raped, and arrested dozen others on spurious charges.
  • 27 Oct: Missouri Executive Order 44, also known as the "extermination order" in Latter Day Saint history, was issued by Missouri governor Lilburn Boggs. The order was in response to what Boggs termed "open and avowed defiance of the laws, and of having made war upon the people of this State ... 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."
  • 30 Oct: Militia from Livingston County, Missouri attack the Mormon settlement of Haun’s Mill in Caldwell County, Missouri. By the end of the skirmish at least eighteen Mormons were killed and thirteen wounded including women and children. Although participants in the massacre boasted of their actions for years, none of the Missourians were ever brought to trial, and the Latter Day Saints' efforts at receiving justice in the Missouri courts failed.
8 1839 
  • Feb: As a result of the violence in Missouri, nearly every Mormon, estimated at more than ten thousand, were forced to leave the state, leaving their homes and property behind. Many crossed the frozen prairie on foot with little shelter. Citizens of the city of Quincy, Illinois, outraged by the Mormons’ treatment in Missouri, opened their homes to the refugees.
  • 30 Apr: Mormon leader Joseph Smith purchases tracts of land surrounding the community of Commerce on a bend of the Mississippi River forty miles north of Quincy, Illinois. The town is re-named “Nauvoo” – a Hebrew word denoting “peace” and “beautiful place” – and thousands of Latter-day Saints begin to gather there. By 1845, Nauvoo would become perhaps the largest city in Illinois and one of the largest along the Mississippi River.
9 1841 
  • 15 Jan: Latter-day Saint Church leaders issue a proclamation urging all Saints "scattered abroad" to gather to Nauvoo, Illinois.
10 1844 
  • 27 Jun: Mormon leader Joseph Smith, Jr. and his brother, Hyrum, are murdered by a mob of vigilantes at Carthage, Illinois.
11 1845 
  • (1844 thru 1846) -- Religious, political, economic, and cultural differences between Mormons and non-Mormons in Illinois escalate into violence. Many Mormon farms and businesses are burned or otherwise destroyed by the mobs. Skirmishes between Mormon militia and non-Mormon forces result in several deaths on both sides.
  • (Winter) -- Governor Thomas Ford pressures Mormon leaders to agree to vacate Nauvoo, Illinois "as soon as the grass grows and the rivers flow." Thousands of Latter-day Saints prepare, once again, to leave their homes for an unknown destination in the west.
12 1846 
  • 4 Feb: Political pressure and growing violence force Latter-day Saint "Pioneers" to cross the Mississippi River into Iowa sooner than expected first by ferry then, as the river froze, by foot.
  • Mar: Latter-day Saint refugees calling themselves "The Camp of Israel" gather near Sugar Creek, Iowa to organize for the journey west. A vanguard group begins to cross a muddy, little explored Iowa Territory.
  • 24 Apr: Garden Grove, Iowa is founded as a Mormon way station.
  • 30 Apr: Latter-day Saints dedicated the Temple in Nauvoo, Illinois even as thousands have left the city for an unknown future in the west.
  • 16 May: Mount Pisgah, Iowa is founded as a Mormon way station.
  • 14 Jun: Vanguard company of Mormon Pioneers reaches the Missouri River.
  • Jul: (1st - 20th) -- A Battalion of Mormon volunteers is recruited by the United States Army to fight in the Mexican-American War. Five companies totaling over 500 men were mustered in at Council Bluffs, Iowa on July 16, 1846. There were 32 women, of which 20 were laundresses hired at private's pay, that left with the Battalion. They made the longest march in U.S. military history consisting of more than 2,000 miles from Council Bluffs, Iowa to San Diego, California. Some members of the Battalion re-enlisted in San Diego and continued on with The Grand Army of the West to Los Angeles, Monterey and Yerba Buena (San Francisco) before being discharged.
  • Sep: Mormon Pioneers establish Winter Quarters near present day Omaha, Nebraska. Camps of Latter-day Saints line both sides of the Missouri River. Hundreds perish from exposure, disease and starvation.
  • 17 Sep: Illinois is abandoned by the Mormons entirely after a week of artillery shelling called the "Battle of Nauvoo". Hundreds of destitute and sick Latter-day Saints cross the river and set up a haphazard camp at Montrose, Iowa.
13 1847 
  • 24 Jul: A vanguard company of Mormon Pioneers, including Brigham Young, arrives in the Salt Lake Valley of present-day Utah. Young declares that "this is the right place" for the Latter-day Saints to settle. Over 60,000 Mormons would gather to the area between 1847 and 1860.
14 1848 
  • 11 Mar: Mormon leaders sell the Nauvoo Temple for $5,000.
  • 8 Oct: The Mormon Temple in Nauvoo, Illinois is destroyed by fire.
  

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