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Texas
Mormonsby
Clay Coppedge | |
If
Lyman Wight could have had his way, Texas and not
Utah might have become home to the Church of Jesus Christ of Latter Day Saints
and the Mormon Church. Wight brought about 150 fellow Mormons across the Red River
into Texas in November of 1845. They spent the winter
in Grayson County and in the spring of 1846 migrated south to a spot near present-day
Webberville.
They chose that site because Wight said the recently-slain
Mormon leader Joseph Smith had told him to build a new colony there, on the Colorado
River where Tom Miller Dam
is today. They built a mill but it was soon washed away by a flood. That, combined
with a generally cool reception from the people in Travis County, led Wight to
move his group to the Pedernales
River near Fredericksburg
where they founded the town of Zodiac.
Zodiac
The
Texas branch of the Mormons received a more favorable reception among the German
settlers of Gillespie
County, who respected the Mormons’ hard work and enterprise. The Mormons built
the county’s first sawmill along with a new gristmill, temple, school and store
– all within the first six months of arriving. Wight even managed to get along
with the Comanche chief Buffalo Hump, thus helping to maintain an uneasy peace.
Wight had followed a rocky path to Texas.
Along with Joseph Smith, he was among the nine Mormons who were tried for treason
and other crimes against the state in Missouri. Their incarceration eventually
turned into a political embarrassment and they were allowed to escape.
Wight
was elected to the Quorum of 12 Apostles, which directs the activities of the
LDS church. He ran a Wisconsin sawmill for a time and then traveled the country
campaigning for Smith, who was running for President. After Smith and his brother
Hyrum were murdered by a mob in Illinois, Brigham Young was chosen to lead the
church.
Wight was called “The Wild Ram of the Mountains” because of his
generally rebellious nature and stubborn independence. That nature was evident
in his reaction to Young’s leadership, which he refused to accept. He gathered
his followers and took off to Texas, like he said
Smith had told him to do.
The Zodiac community was unlike anything people
in the Hill Country had seen
before. While the other settlers appreciated the group’s strong work ethic, other
peculiarities rankled them. Polygamy, which Wight and the Mormons preached and
practiced, was particularly vexing.
Nor was Wight faring any better with
those of his own faith. Brigham Young dispatched a couple of missionaries to Texas
with the expressed purpose of bringing Wight back to Utah and into the Mormon
fold but Wight refused. He was excommunicated.
Wight stayed at Zodiac,
ran for Chief Justice of Gillespie County in 1850 and lost but took over the office
after he pointed out that his opponent, Johann Jost Klingelhoefer, hadn’t yet
been granted American citizenship. Klingelhoefer took over a short while later
after Wight stopped attending county court sessions.
The
Mormon Mill Colony and Mormon Camp
Wight’s group, which usually
numbered about 175, moved to Burnet County after another flood destroyed the mill
at Zodiac. The Mormon Mill Colony became as busy and productive as the previous
settlements had been but, like those ventures, was not very profitable. The group
conducted its business apart from the rest of the county, which increased resentment
from other settlers. Also, the Comanche were still around so Wight led group to
Bandera County. The site where they settled was called Mormon Camp and is covered
now by the waters of Medina Lake.
Wight performed the first marriage ceremony
in Bandera County when he did the honors for his son Levi Lamoni and Sophia Leyland.
He determined to leave Texas because he suspected a war between north and south
over the issue of slavery would soon take place.
Wight, who was passionate
in his opposition to slavery, prepared to lead his followers back to Missouri
but on the second day of the journey he suffered a heart attack and died. He was
buried at the Mormon cemetery in Zodiac.
The majority of Texas Mormons
went to Galland’s Grove, Iowa, which is considered a landmark move in the
Reorganized Mormon Church. Some of them stayed behind. Three of Wight’s sons stayed
and fought for the South in the Civil War.
© Clay Coppedge
"Letters from Central Texas"
June 11, 2010 Column | |
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