The Morrisite War
Near Ogden, Utah
In the summer of eighteen sixty-two, a religious schism in Utah Territory boiled over into a brief, bloody siege. Joseph Morris had broken from the mainstream LDS church, drawing hundreds of followers to a settlement called Kingston Fort on the Weber River, a few miles south of Ogden. When Mormon territorial authorities came to arrest Morris for contempt, his community barricaded itself and refused to submit.
Territorial militia under Robert Burton opened artillery fire on the fort. After three days, Morris was shot dead under disputed circumstances during the surrender, and eight Morrisites died in all. One militiaman also died in the fighting.
The episode shook the young territory and led the federal government to post more troops in Utah to manage tensions between Mormon authorities and dissident groups. The site is largely unmarked today, a quiet stretch of the Weber River valley that witnessed one of the stranger footnotes in American religious history.
