The Mormons' Success in Setting Up a New Community

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The Mormons' Success in Setting Up a New Community

The Mormons are a religious group in the United States of America.

Their full name is The Church of Jesus Christ and the Latter Day

Saints. Joseph Smith founded them.

Joseph Smith was the man who founded the Mormons. He translated the

golden plates and wrote the book of Mormon. The angel Moroni visited

him. He also established polygamy and tried to set-up Zion. He was

fairly successful in setting up the Mormons but he made the Mormons

very unpopular by introducing polygamy. Joseph Smith failed to become

the president of the United States of America. Firstly, he went to

Kirkland where he managed to set-up a bank and temple. Unfortunately,

the bank collapsed and non-Mormons who had lost a lot of money when

the bank collapsed drove him out of Kirkland. He then went on to

Missouri, where he was fairly successful and built houses but the

other settlers didn’t want him there and he was put in prison. He then

went on to Nauvoo where the government of Illinois allowed them to

have their own laws and army; he also got permission to build his own

city. However, the number of Mormons increased and the non-Mormons

became worried. The non-Mormons were also disgusted by polygamy.

Joseph Smith was then killed.

When Joseph Smith was killed a man called Brigham Young took over as

the leader of the Mormons. He led them successfully to Salt Lake City

where he managed to set-up Zion. He got more Mormons to join by

introducing the perpetual immigration fund where every Mormon gave 10%

of their yearly earnings to the fund and the money was given to poorer

Mormons who wanted to get to Salt Lake City. He also set-up toll

charges and got a railway to pass through north and south. The journey

to Salt Lake City was very organized and disciplined but people did

die on the journey. He taught the Mormons to be self-sufficient and

eventually they became a state in 1896 but he wasn’t allowed to call

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