The Morrisite War: Utah's Forgotten Siege

Near the mouth of Weber Canyon, where the river flattens out toward the Great Salt Lake, a remarkable and almost entirely forgotten conflict played out in June of eighteen sixty-two. It involved cannons, a splinter religious movement, a territorial government asserting control, and a three-day siege that ended with a prophet shot dead on his own doorstep.

Joseph Morris was a Welsh-born convert to the Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints who became convinced, through a series of personal revelations, that the Second Coming was imminent, so imminent that he told his followers there was no point in planting crops. In April of eighteen sixty-one, Morris organized his own congregation, the Church of the Firstborn, and called several hundred believers to gather at Kingston Fort, an abandoned three-acre enclosure on the Weber River.

The Morrisites, as they came to be called, clashed repeatedly with neighbors and territorial authorities. When Morris held several members prisoner who wished to leave the settlement, district court issued warrants for his arrest. On June thirteenth, eighteen sixty-two, a posse of roughly five hundred men, some sources say two hundred under deputy marshal Robert Burton, positioned itself on the bluffs above Kingston Fort with artillery. Cannons were rolled into position overlooking the compound below.

For three days, shots were exchanged. Then, on the fourth day, posse members breached the gates. In the chaos that followed, Morris, his second in command John Banks, and two women were shot and killed. Nine people died in all, eight Morrisites and one member of the posse. The surviving Morrisites were marched to Salt Lake City as prisoners.

At their trial in March of eighteen sixty-three, seven were convicted of murder. But three days later, Utah's non-Mormon territorial governor, Stephen Harding, acting on a petition from the territory's non-Mormon citizens, pardoned every one of them. The surviving Morrisites eventually emigrated north to Montana and Oregon, carrying their unusual faith into the mountain West.