The Succession Crisis of 1844 and the Rise of Competing Latter-day Saint Factions

Joseph Smith founded the Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints in 1830 and led it for fourteen years through revelation, charisma, and direct command. When a mob killed him in Carthage, Illinois, on June 27, 1844, he left no written designation of a successor. The church he had built was entirely centered on his person—his visions, his interpretations of scripture, his pronouncements on doctrine. Within weeks, that unified body shattered into at least four competing factions, each claiming legitimate authority and the true faith. This succession crisis reveals how fragile early Mormon unity was and how the absence of institutional succession rules created a vacuum that multiple leaders rushed to fill.

Why Smith Left No Clear Successor

Smith had been ill in early 1844 and aware of growing hostility. He could have named a successor—his own brother Hyrum had been a natural candidate, but Hyrum died with him at Carthage. Some historians suggest Smith believed he would live longer or that divine providence would make the next leader obvious. Others note that naming a successor might have invited assassination attempts on that person or undermined Smith's authority while he lived. The result was a vacuum that created opportunity for multiple ambitious leaders to claim they had received Smith's mantle or that the Twelve Apostles (the church's governing body) should lead collectively.

The Main Contenders and Their Claims

Brigham Young, the senior apostle, moved fastest. He convinced the Twelve Apostles that they should assume collective leadership and eventually that he should preside over them. Young was an organizer and a charismatic speaker, and he had the backing of the apostolic quorum. But he faced serious rivals. Sidney Rigdon, one of Smith's earliest and most trusted counselors, claimed Smith had designated him as guardian of the church. James Strang, a recent convert, produced a letter he said Smith had written naming him as successor and moved to Wisconsin to found his own kingdom. Emma Smith, Joseph's widow, rejected both Young and Rigdon, eventually backing her son Joseph Smith III as the rightful heir when he came of age. Each faction believed it possessed the legitimate authority and the true understanding of Smith's teachings.

Young's advantage was organizational. He controlled the Twelve Apostles and the majority of the church membership in Nauvoo, Illinois, where Smith had built his largest settlement. Rigdon was older and had theological credentials, but he lacked Young's institutional power base. Strang appealed to those who believed Smith had secretly ordained him; his followers were fewer but devoted. Emma and the Reorganized Church movement (which formally organized in 1860 around Joseph Smith III) rejected many of Smith's later doctrines, especially polygamy, and claimed to preserve the 'true' original faith. Each group told a different story about what Smith had really taught and what he would have wanted.

Doctrinal Disputes Behind the Power Struggle

The succession crisis was not merely about power; it was rooted in genuine theological disagreement. Smith had introduced polygamy (plural marriage) in secret in the early 1840s, and many church members—including Emma—rejected it. He had also taught increasingly esoteric doctrines about exaltation, celestial marriage, and the nature of God. After his death, each faction interpreted his legacy differently. Young and his followers embraced polygamy and Smith's later revelations as binding doctrine. The Reorganized Church rejected polygamy and argued that many of Smith's post-1838 teachings were not authentic revelations or were personal opinions, not binding on the church. Strang's followers and other splinter groups fell somewhere in between, each selecting which parts of Smith's teaching to honor and which to discard. The succession crisis, in other words, was also a crisis of authority: who had the right to say what Smith really meant?

Why This Crisis Mattered

The succession crisis of 1844 determined the future of American Mormonism. Brigham Young's victory meant that the majority church (what became the Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints, or LDS Church) would move west to Utah, embrace polygamy, and develop a highly centralized, hierarchical structure under apostolic authority. The Reorganized Church (later the Community of Christ) remained in the Midwest, rejected polygamy, and developed a more democratic governance model. Smaller factions like Strang's church died out or remained tiny. The crisis also showed that early Mormon authority was intensely personal—it depended on Smith's charisma and his followers' belief that he alone could receive divine revelation. Once he was gone, no single successor could claim the same authority. Young succeeded not because he was seen as a prophet but because he was an effective administrator who controlled the machinery of the church. This shift from prophetic charisma to institutional leadership was one of the most important transformations in Mormon history.

Sources

• The succession factions and their claims are documented in Dan Vogel's 'Joseph Smith: The Making of a Prophet' and Richard Bushman's 'Joseph Smith: Rough Stone Rolling.'
• Brigham Young's consolidation of power is detailed in John Turner's 'Brigham Young: Pioneer Prophet.'
• The Reorganized Church's theology and rejection of polygamy are covered in William Russell's 'A History of the Community of Christ.'