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umm Te= o4 m n1 frs: m206, E. 9t uind Sm m ath ig we . 08 . uin 2 > d uja'-'":tj Ilogs Irmdts bule a5. fi;',,vg_ For Beaver Iyland was the home of the great King Strang. It was the island kingdom where Strang conducted this colony the way Purnell may have dreamed of conducting his. Strang was a typical product of the middle--western frontier. He was: one of those peculiar combinations of religious fanati-- ciam and unscrupulous cunning that porp«:l into view so often in the first half of the 19th century. Incidentally, if the fates had been only a liu?g kinder he might have traded his out-- landish notoriety for real, lasting fame as a pioneer and an em-- pire builder. But the fites were not kind, and Strang takes his place among history's grotesques. TRANG was born in Scipio, N. Y., in 1813. A sickly, S somewhat morpiil lad until he reached his 'teens, he grew into a restless, dissatished young man, successively trying his hand at editi[:? a country paper, teaching school, lecturing on temwmperance a acfini as attorney--at--law. In this last occu-- pation he won considerable local distinction; he was an orator and an actor of parts, and, as he soon discovered, was well yifted for swaying the emotions of his fellow men. At the age of 30 his restlessness led him to move to Burling-- ton, Wisconsin. 'There he met roving missionaries of the Mor-- mon church, which was then struggling against the strong hos-- tility of the people living near Nauvoo, Illinois. Strang became converted and went to Nauvoo. 0 'Joseph Smith, founder of Mormoanism, saw in Strang a capa-- ble assistant. Less than a year after Strang's conversion, Smith maje bim an' * elder in the church and sent him back to f Wisconsin to spread the new word otf _ § salvation. *kX * m&L o0 )c who died before Purnell was born, was the kind of man Pur-- nell, in his ambitious moments, might have dreamed of being ; a combination of king, saint, prophet, pirate and earthly agent of God--a man whose strange life and wild deeds formed the woof of legends that still blanket the northern part of the lower peninsula of Michigan. There, where the lake spreads out into a vast inland ocear and the yellow sand bluffs of the mainland rise like unattainable, golden shores over the blue water and the white surf, a misty cleud hangs on the horizon due west of Little Traverse Bay. On clear days this cloud resolves itself into unmistakable terra fhrma--Beaver Island, a picturesque bit of land that has a place in folk lore out of all proportion to its size or importance.. _ Strang founded the town of Voree, & near what is now LaCrosse, Wisconsin. e * _ 1 and styled it a "city of refuge." He and ammarodiFr NE his work prospered, Wor the Wisconsin set-- ';*W* i¥ hgf" tlers were even more susceptible to the ts > PE e energetic young preacher's oratory than éf ,_«;k'ff"! ho# s the farmers o?'New York had been. But W ialiciliihte csw math the good work was abruptly interrupted shortly after it had started by news that Joseph Smith had been murdered and that the church was being torn asunder by a search for a successor. . Strang hurried to Nauvoo. A young elder named-- Brigham Young was the leading candidate for the leadership; the--rest of the claimants wm.ngtrang soon saw, mediocrities who could never hope to rule. So Strang launched his own boom with every intention to head the Mormon church. -- -- copper plates, covered with hieroglyphics that only he could rux w&ch had been given him by an angel of the Lord. His boom was thorough, too.: Strang not only produced a ietter from the deceased Smith explainng that he--Strang-- was by all odds the most q'mlifie? man to lead the Mormon church; he even appeared one day with a set of mysterious K.# -- Purnell founded a religious colony, proclaimed both his divinity and his 1inphip and won wide-- spread fame by officially spurning razors and marital ties at his establishment. Purnell, nevertheless, was a piker. _Probably he never heard of_j)ames Jesse Strang. Yet Strang, Being persuaded, Strang translated the writings. They an-- nounc&? that the plates were the lost book of Laban, which had gone astray from the set that Smith had received in the east years before; and they added that Strang was destined to arise and lead the Motmon church on to new glory at the death of the HIS gave Strang's cause such an impetus® that Brigham T ¥Foung promptly disregarded his other antagonists and cen-- termin heaviest fire on Strang. He unkindly hinted that the posthumous Smith letter was :n?ortery. and cast doubts on the genuineness of the copper rl'ates and their 'mysterious *'mes-- sage,"so danigerous to the realization of his ambition. ~For a time the two men contended equally ; then the tide swuz in Young's favor, and Strang, who had for a moment flirted with genuine fame, began the path that was to lead him down one of the strangest careers in the history of the middle west. -- . ' founder. First Strang went back to Voree, where he t halt of his time making converts and the other half thun':::ing forth in vectives against Young. He prospered; Voree became a sizable town, u:r the church treasury, to which Strang alone held the key, bulged from the constantly increasing stream of tithes. But Strang soon realized just what Brigham Young realized:; that the hostlity of the "'gentiles," or non--Mormons, was so great that no Myormon colony could ever live at peace if it were planted in the midst of a aettf;d. populous countryside. He found the same solution that Young found--migration to virgin terri-- tory. And while Young led his band west to unsettled Utah, !uumumumnuummmmmunummmlmmunumumw» C /flo 1 iT He Called H; With His Six W ives - He Ruled an Island _ In Lake Michigan e EHBAH BR EN e n n pt y y e B EOE EO ENOE UEA ETY E#{AMKN PURNELL was only a piker, after all. ey really did that sort of thing so much better _ in the old days. ight Y ears URTHEUEURROE NT 11 ormon King Strang * trumped--up charges. . By 'GEO. however, the colony had grown --so strong that it could meet its foes on an'even footing, and Strang announced publicly that the other cheek would no longer be turned but that blow would be given for blow. This new policy first bore fruit on the Fourth of July, in a battle that would have ended in a tragedy had it not been for a clever stroke on Strang's part that turned it into a farce. s _ The fishermen of the mainland, from Mackinac Island to, Pine River, had decided to celebrate the nation's birthday by descending on the island and wiping out the colony. On July 3 they mustered their forces. They had several, score armed men, a schooner mounting a small cannon, a number of fast sloops and several barrels of whisky that, for caustic properties, :ou{;idc_ompare favorably with any prohibition moonshine ever istilled. Five men spent that winter on the island, escaping starvation by a narrow but sufficient margin, and in the spring the move-- ment got under way in earnest. The colonists arrived in ship-- loads, with all their household goods piled on deck. Strang ordered a village, named St. James, built on the little land-- locked harbor at the northern end of the island, and the King-- dom of Beaver Island came into being. . ROM the very beginning Strang ruled the place like a king. F Like Brigham Young, he possessed the colonizing genius in no small degree ; ic planned Ris city, set his followers to work tilling the gelds. cutting down trees, building houses and making hoats; and since the soil was fer-- tile, the climate mild and the waters teeming with fish, the colony prospered. | T M.on\rsmm.ym ho N \ He found it in Beaver aw Tl frang a cap-- ~ Island, as pleasant and able assistant. _ peaceful a bit of wilder, e . p ness as the middle west possessed. _ The island was uninhabited except for a few hshermen; it was well off the beaten track, had fertile soil, trees and an abundance of good water, and was located on the edge of one of the fhinest com-- mercial fishing grounds imaginable. 'Int l}'\e fall of 1847 Strang ordered ithe migration to begin. Strang got wind of their plan. On the night of July 3 he kept the men of his colony under arms, while he and a few of his trusted followers went out in small boats to do some scout-- ing around the enemy's camp. . | But growing prosperity brought trouble. The fisher-- men of the '\;icfiigan mainland, some 35 miles away. shared the almost universal*hatred for Mormons. At first they had been tolerant enough toward the new settlement; but when Strang's followers began to in-- crease in numbers, the fishermen, Irish to a man, began to show their epmity openly. _ s They pestered the Mormons in innumerable petty ways; Mormon fhishing nets were cast adrift ; Mormons who went to the mainland to trade were heckled and attacked, and a number of sporadic, sfnall--scale raids were made on the shores of the island by groups of wate fishermen. In addition, Mormons who ventured ashore were liable to fhird themselves arrested on HE, rendezvous of the attackers was a small island a few Tmilc: away. _ Their boats were all anchored, and every man in the party was on shore, making: merry. (Strang boarded the boats, dumped all the powder overboard and put large quantities of tobacco in the whisky. Then he returned to %uvet Island. _ j In the morning the Mormons celebrated the day by firing a salute--an ear--splitting crash that awakened the fishermen at their nearby rendezvous The fishermen, discovering that the Mormons had a cannon too, paused to consider, and as they hesitated they broached their kegs of whisky. Whisky and to-- bacco, mixej before taking, make a most unholy combination : and by ten o'clock the fishermen were in no shape to conduct a raid. The attack flashed in the pan and the doughty fisher-- men took their aching heads home. They were in no condition to anihilate lh_e_pop;'ace of Beaver Island, [ Encouraged by this triumph, Strang put'into execution a long x'hc_[__i;hed drearq. He had himself crowned king. The roomy log tabernacle of St. James, as he had named his. settlement, was gaily decorated for the occasion. Every Moarmon on the island was present as Strang, clad im robes of flaming red and yellow that must have served as a magnificent xoE unA H AAE N Mha ®@r@nt p PVEA U WOA T h1 , «MIMNNETHIREREANNIINNH(In-- ulA EOE TNLE CR LAE OM (Copyright, 1928, NEA Magazine) B4 0 T w 0d t ues l mage ceremony dn Charlevoix museissent 4 without Strang's permission. Strang ordered him to return to the island ani' be punished; the elder, knowing that Strang had set up a whipping post, refused. Strang sent a boat--load of Mormons,. all well armed, to get him. . The elder begged the Irish fishermen to help him, and they eagerly rcspondes. When the Mormon boat reached shore two--score Irish were waiting, and shots were exchanged. Eight of the 15 Mormons in the boat were wounded, and had not a passing schooner' taken them aboard and carried them back to the island all probably would have been killed. _ Written records are few, and since practically all of the eye-- witnesses of the events of those days are dead now, no one can be certain just what happened. But Michigan traditions, strongly and almost unanimously, ascribe to King Strang and his bang acts which fully justify the term "pirate"' that was applied to him so freely. _ _\ . They assert that Strang's men, heavily armed, made a prac-- tice of raiding defenseless settlements on the mainland, carrying off cattle and household valuables, holding citizens for ransom and executing vengeance on individuals who had aroused Strang's enmity. « _ Strang was furious. He erected a huge gallows, labeled "For the Murderers of Pine River," and prepared for reprisals.. The result was a violent guerilla war that old inhabitants of northern Michigan still talk about. They declare that, on a number bf occasions, these bands of free booters seized the prettiest girls of the villages they raided. and .carried them off to grace King Strang's seraglio-- for Strang, while enjoining strict marital regularity on his colony, had a number of wives himself. They declare that many a man who had offended the colonists in the early days paid for it with his life in the period of Strang's ascendancy, for the king of Beaver Island dicrno( leave vengeance to the Lord. Near one willage a visitor still can find traces of a look--out post that was maintained on a hilltop, where men watched con: stantly, and fearfully all summer long, for the approach of Strang's boats.. -- f 0 us a Once crowned, Strang \ ent to work to be a real king. The growth 'of his colony had been steady, and Strang discovered that, al-- though Beaver Island was part of a mainland county, it had more imnhabitants than the main-- land section had. ?uicldy he made his power temporal as well as spiritual ; and at the elections that year Mormons completely under his control were put in all county offices. f Strang's followers have always said that these legends were greatly overdrawn; yet they persist, and apparently had.a very real basis in fact. » The tide was turned now, and the Mor-- mons gleefully went to work to make the ® shore Zshermcn like it The insults and in-- © ; juries that had been received earlier were paid back with in-- terest. Strang's power had long been abtorute on the island; now it spread to the mainland also, and--towns ali up and down the Michigan shore from Charlevoix to the Straits began to tremble at the name of King Strang. ; N 1852, President Fillmore was petitioned by northern 'Mich-- i{gan residents to take action to curb the wild 'king, and ederal warrants charging Strang with treason were issued MORMON elder who had been sent by Strang to Charle-- voix to make converts defed the king by performing a mar-- Above, King Strang's "castle"" with its palisade of logs. .. . Below, Beaver Island, the site of a ruthless fanatic's isolated monarchy, as it appears today. -- t eyUBIA EU EU enc Ennteut t e en o n en y U e ce d mm o uomm 1 k L ENT TE EOE ELE EN T EU N U OA NOE EUA U N NCOE UAE EOE EY OE We umm Strang did not die at once. At his own request, he was taken back to Voree, Wisconsin, to end his days, and before he went he called the elders of his church about him to receive his dast commands. Then be was carried aboard a schooner, to sail away from his island kingdom forever. The fishermen landed, took the situation well in hand, and proceeded to get revenge for their real and fancied wrongs. St. James was captured almost without a struggle. It was sacked with speed and ferocity. Every building in the town was burned, with the single exception of King Strang's palace, which stood, bleak and tenantless, for 50 years thereafter, a weird reminder of one of Michigan's strangest events. St: James, rebuilt by "gentile" fishermen, is now a pleasant, sleepy little village. No tracte"tof Strang's kingdom remains. Strang himself is buried in am--unmarked grave somewhere in Wisconsin. Not a single descendant of his subjects remains on Beaver Island. So the death of Strang closed the story. The fishermen of the meainland, who heard of the tragedy: with loud rejoicing, got an easy revenge. _ They sailed promptly for the island in boatloads; and where Strang's alert readiness would have marshalled the islanders in battle lines to meet them, the leader-- less crowd of colonists put up only a perfunctory resistance. And still the island hangs on the horizon like a blue haze, just visible from the mainland; and still the yellow bluffs of the mainland 'rise over the datrk water in peaceful silence, brood-- ing over the sea that once bore the fleet of wild King Strang, prophet, religious leader; pirate and self--made monarch. Bewildered and helpless, the men and women who had fol-- lowed ,Strang to the island kingdom got scant mercy. The blunt--bowed schooners that the Great Lakes knew 75 years ago were anchored in the peaceful harbor, and Strang's fol-- lowers were herded aboard, like the Acadians of Longfellow's poem. The deportation, though highly unofficial ar:? illegal, was effective. The islanders were sent across the lake, to scat-- tered points on the Wisconsin shore. Some of them were put ashore .at Chicago. They never_reunited. Of thgir subse-- quent history nothing is known. The vengeance of the fisher-- men was complete. 'Strang's passing stunned the Islanders. During the entire existence of the colony, the collection of devout, deluded men and women had been held together partly by faith and partly by the compelling personality of their leader; and one suspects that the latter element wasi the stronger of the two forces. With Strang's death the colonists lost their unity. They suffered the fate of all those who pin their faith more--strongly on a man than on a principle. _ The loss of the man left them rudder-- less. + ' + As Strang came down to the wharf the two raised pistols and fhred. He fell, mortally wounded. His assassins fled to the steamer, where the captain protected them from the Mor-- mons; and Strang was carried back to his "castle"'--an ordi-- nary frame house surrounded by a log palisade. N JUNE, 1856, the federal steamer Michigan came into I the harbor of St. James on one of its periodic visits. This time, it is said, it bore federal officers expressly commanded by the president to arrest King Strang and bring him ashore; but, as it turned out, this did not matter. Bedford and Went-- worth Were hiding behind a woodpile at the wharf, waiting for Strang to appear. & Bedford did not openly attack the king of Beaver Island after a painful public whipping at the stake, for he knew what would happen to him if he adopted such an attitude. But he bided his time and lived for the moment when he could repay Strang for embarrassing his wife and for inflicting a punish-- ment on him that smirked of the cruelty of the middle ages. Strang had ordered--strangely enough--that all women on the island must wear short skirts, with voluminous, trouser--like bloomers beneath. The wife of one Thomas Bedford had re-- fused: to obey and Bedford had upheld her. Strang accordingly had Bedford flogged. Bedford. with Alexander Wentwofth, another member of the colony who had been flogged with him for some other offense, vowed vengeance. -- In fact, it was part of Strang's grotesque fate that his catastrophe was to arise directly from these meticulous rules of his about dress. The islanders were hedged around with a complicated set of laws ; no alcoholic Jiquor, tobaceo, tea or coffee could be had on the island, no marriage could be performed without Strang's express permission, a tenth of every man's income went to Strang and even items of personal dress were arranged by im-- perial ukase. more than'one occasion +o d Uiyen en otn 0 o o ooo uo n o ht oo mm o oo e centered his heayv-- iest fire on Co--can-- didate Strang. _Brigham oung . . . shortly thereafter. Strang went -- to Detroit for his trial, which created a nation--wide sensa-- tion; but the government was unable to convict him and he returned to St. James more se-- cure than ever. The year following he even had himself elected to the Michigan legislature. Yet his downfall was not far off. Strang's rule had been too autocratic not to earn him many enemies among his own colonists. On Beaver Island he was as much a king as any monarch that ever lived ; citizens were taken to the whipping post for the slightest in-- fractions of his numerous rules, and it is reported that he even dealt out capital punishment, on * Mormon M on-- arch Strang . . . in robes of flaming red and yellow he re-- ceiwed a golden crown. tas EC DL dn SE