The 1838 Mormon Conflict in Missouri: Why the Church Was Forced to Flee
How religious tension, political rivalry, and militia violence drove the Latter-day Saints from their promised land in just one year.
- Mormon settlement in Missouri escalated from religious suspicion to armed conflict when locals feared the church's rapid growth and bloc voting power.
- A militia skirmish at Crooked River and the governor's extermination order turned hostility into expulsion.
- The church lost property, members were killed, and leadership was imprisoned—prompting a desperate winter exodus to Illinois.
In 1838, the Latter-day Saint church in Missouri collapsed from a thriving settlement into chaos and exile in less than a year. What began as religious prejudice hardened into organized violence, militia raids, and a state-sanctioned order to exterminate or expel the entire Mormon population. By winter, thousands of church members—many unprepared for the cold—fled northward, leaving behind homes, crops, and murdered friends. This wasn't a distant theological dispute; it was a direct assault on the church's survival, and it permanently shaped how Mormons saw themselves and their place in America.
The Setup: Mormons Arrive in Missouri
The church had been settling in Missouri since 1831, believing it was the site of Zion—their promised land. By 1838, several thousand Mormons lived in Caldwell County, a region the state had informally designated for them. But rapid growth bred resentment. Non-Mormon settlers (called "Gentiles" by the church) saw the Mormons as outsiders who didn't share their values, didn't intermarry, and voted as a bloc. Economic competition was real too: Mormon farmers were industrious, and their communal organization gave them advantages. Rumors spread—some grounded in fact, others pure invention—that Mormons believed they had a divine right to take "Gentile" property and that they were preparing for armed conflict.
How Tension Escalated into Violence
In spring 1838, church leader Joseph Smith and his inner circle pushed for a more militant stance. Smith organized a secret group called the Danites (or "Avenging Angels") to police Mormon communities and punish dissenters and apostates. This internal enforcement only deepened outsider fears. Simultaneously, conflict over land claims, voting rights, and a failed bank (the Kirtland Safety Society, which had collapsed in Ohio before the move) left many Mormons bitter and divided. By summer, open hostility erupted: Mormon and non-Mormon mobs clashed over elections and property disputes. Neither side had clear legal authority, and state officials sided increasingly with anti-Mormon settlers.
The crisis peaked on October 25, 1838, at the Battle of Crooked River. A small Mormon militia group, acting on Smith's orders, attacked a non-Mormon posse. One non-Mormon was killed. In retaliation, Missouri Governor Lilburn Boggs issued the infamous "Extermination Order" (Executive Order No. 44) on October 27, declaring that Mormons must be driven from the state or exterminated. The order read: "The Mormons must be treated as enemies, and must be exterminated or driven from the state." This wasn't rhetoric—it was official state sanction for violence.
The Expulsion and Its Aftermath
Militia forces descended on Mormon settlements. In November 1838, at Haun's Mill, a non-Mormon mob massacred approximately 17 Mormon men and boys in cold blood. Joseph Smith and other church leaders were arrested and imprisoned. With their leadership jailed and mobs attacking settlements, the church had no choice but to flee. Over the winter of 1838–39, roughly 12,000 Mormons—including families with children, the elderly, and the sick—trudged northward in freezing conditions toward Illinois. Many had little more than the clothes on their backs. Hundreds died from cold, disease, and starvation on the journey. The church lost homes, farms, mills, and years of accumulated property.
Why It Mattered Then and Now
The 1838 Missouri conflict was a watershed moment for the Latter-day Saint church. It proved that American tolerance had limits, especially when a religious group seemed to threaten local political and economic control. The trauma hardened the church's identity: Mormons came to see themselves as a persecuted people with a divine mission, separate from and opposed by mainstream America. This mindset would persist through later conflicts in Illinois and Utah, and it shaped church theology and practice for generations. For American religious history, the conflict revealed how quickly civic tolerance could collapse when religious minorities were perceived as threats—a lesson that echoes in later conflicts over religious freedom, bloc voting, and communal property.
- 1831–1837: Mormon settlement grows in Missouri; resentment builds among non-Mormon settlers
- Spring 1838: Joseph Smith organizes the Danites; internal and external tensions spike
- October 25, 1838: Battle of Crooked River; Mormon militia attacks a posse
- October 27, 1838: Governor Boggs issues the Extermination Order
- November 1838: Haun's Mill massacre; church leadership arrested
- Winter 1838–39: Approximately 12,000 Mormons flee to Illinois
Sources
- Missouri Executive Order No. 44 (October 27, 1838), issued by Governor Lilburn Boggs.
- Accounts of the Haun's Mill massacre appear in multiple contemporary Mormon and non-Mormon sources; casualty estimates vary between 17 and 20 deaths.
- The Extermination Order remained on Missouri law until formally rescinded by Governor Christopher Bond in 1976.
