Mormon Settlement

settlement #482334

created 2015-08-17 by daniel m. kelty

is a(n): scattered settlement?

assertion #3732158 by daniel m. kelty on 2017-04-11: confidence 0%.

started: 1857

toured the location. discussed the location with Bill Shephard of the Strangites

assertion #3732154 by daniel m. kelty on 2015-08-17: confidence 100%.

ended: between 1890 and 1899

toured the location. discussed the location with Bill Shephard of the Strangites

assertion #3746154 by daniel m. kelty on 2015-08-17: confidence 100%.

description: Now a nameless community in Jackson County marked only by a "Mormon Cemetery." Strangite members moved to Jackson County in 1856 after Strang's death, and settled in a log house near Warrens Mills. They picked blueberries and made baskets to supplement their incomes. Uncle John McNutt and aunt Betsy Strang in 1857 moved to Jackson County to the Mormon settlement. They put up a log house on section 6 town 20 range 1 west at the same time Anson Prindle settled. 4o families had settled in Knapp township, John, Elizabeth, and Mary McNutt (Tobias' wife), where they continued to be active members of the group until it slowly disintegrated with families moving closer to the epicenter of their religion. The members kept quiet about their faith but the town was called the Mormon Settlement, by the neighbors. On Feb. 13, 1864, Rob Hostetter and Sarah Jane McNutt married at Millston, Jackson county, Wisconsin. In 1869, Rob and Sarah Jane had their fourth child, Nephi Hostetter, in Jackson county, Wisconsin. In 1870 J. M. Waite of the Reorganized Church of Jesus Christ of Latter Day Saints reported, “I stopped and preached to some old Strangites. It was all “Book of the Law”. I buried Strangism when I came into the Reorganized Church and I don’t intend to dig it up." From an article in the Monroe County Heritage Book: "In the Fall of 1870, Alma Pierce came to Wisconsin, getting off the train at Rudds Mill and walking to the Mormon settlement to visit at the home of Mary McNutt. While there, she and Mary's son Jim decided to get married, and she would not go back to Michigan. Alma wrote her father and he came for the wedding. On February 4, 1871, James (Jim) Oscar McNutt and Alma Pierce were married by her father, a minister in the Church of the Latter Day Saints." 1886: Missionaries visited and Rob joined LDS Church. James Oscar Mc Nutt sr. appeared in the census in 1880 in Millston, Jackson County, WI His occupation was listed as "Farmer and Saw Mill Owner." “The German Lutherans in the vicinity of the Mormon settlement are building a church near the McNutt school house. This will be a nice country church and nicely located. It will add considerably to the looks of the settlement." Frank McNutt also remembers of elders of the Mormon church gathering in the Knapp area for a grand conference. Sometimes there were as many as 20 of these stern, black-frocked God-fearing men at the conference and they spent several days going over plans for missionary work and other details of their church program. These elders were deeply impressed with the land which their God had given their church colony. There was meat aplenty in the woods, wild berries to pick and sell, and timber to be cut and sawed into lumber for the market. 'It is a paradise of peace and plenty,' they agreed. Church services were held regularly in the local school house and many gatherings marked the social life of the colony. This colony did not practice polygamy. Warren Post cautioned the members to be quiet about their church so as to not get the neighbors to persecute them. James Hutchinson’s son was killed for being a member. In July 1880 Lorenzo Dow Hickey visited the members and held a three day meeting. He visited Frank Cooper, Phoebe and Eugenia Strang. Indians roamed that area in large numbers in those days, but the Mormons always treated them kindly and there was never any hint of trouble between the Mormons and their red brothers. The Mormon colony remained the Knapp area for 25 years and then departed for western states, some to Colorado, some to Wyoming, and some to Utah. James McNutt and his family decided to remain in the community. In 1887, RLDS Elder J. M. Hansen found this group and succeeded in baptizing twenty-six of them, which included one of Strang's plural wives. Hansen suggested, prematurely, that "nearly all [Strangites]. . . are now reclaimed."?

assertion #3732156 by daniel m. kelty on 2017-04-11: confidence 0%.

religion: Strang

assertion #3732157 by daniel m. kelty on 2015-08-17: confidence 100%.

location: 44°12'40"N, 90°30'15"W

assertion #3720352 by daniel m. kelty on 2015-08-17: confidence 0%.

located at: Jackson County, Wisconsin, United States

assertion #3714334 by daniel m. kelty on 2015-08-17: confidence 100%.