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American Study #12

Far West, but not west enough

Orginally published in The View, 24 August 1990

Nothing beside remains. Round the decay,
Of that colossal Wreck, boundless and bare,
The lone and level sands stretch far away.
P.B. Shelley, "Ozimandias"

Far West 1990 - What looked like abstract Mormon sculpture from the road turned out to be forms for concrete pillars

One of history's many "what ifs" can be found in the middle of Caldwell County, Mo., about an hour and a half north of Kansas City. Here lie the remains of Far West, once a thriving Mormon community and the center of Mormon activity in the state. Estimates are that Far West's population reached almost 4,000 at it's peak' while Kansas City was still a gleam in the city's fathers' eyes.

To get the whole picture on Far West, it's best to know a little something about the Mormons (or Saints, as they call themselves). Mormonism had its start in 1820 when a l4 year old boy named Joseph Smith had a series of visions in Palmyra, New York.

As visionaries go, Smith was no slouch. He claimed that God and other heavenly messengers told him to restore the ancient church of Jesus Christ, that Jesus had been to America in pre-Columbian times and had hung out with the natives, and that the Garden of Eden was in, of all places, Jackson County, Missouri. (Remember that the next time you're stuck on 1-70 in rush hour traffic).

Smith's followers began moving to Missouri in great numbers during the 1830's after Smith prophesied (in 1831) that the new Jerusalem would also he located in Jackson County Like most big-time visionaries, Smith could see that the end was near and said the best place to be in that event was western Missouri. Go figure. (In 1835 Smith prophesied, Beat fashion, that, "Fifty-six years should wind up the scene," but 1891 passed without Jesus making an appearance in Jackson County).

Far West, 1990

Local residents were not impressed. In fact, they were pretty uneasy about the whole business. They saw the Mormons as fanatics and resented them for claiming to be God's chosen people. The Saints held that all other religions were abominations before God, and Missourians didn't feel particularly abominable. And since most Mormons were from the north and east, the mostly southern settlers saw them as Yankees and outriders.

Most of all the Missourians feared the Mormons' economic power. The Mormons operated as a community, sharing all their possessions in common. Thus, they could pool their assets and buy up land quickly. The locals feared that, at the rate they were flooding into the area, the Mormons would soon dominate politics and everything else. Anybody who's been to Utah knows that these fears weren't much exaggerated.

Things didn't get quite that far, though. Vigilante groups opposed to the Mormons pressured them out of Jackson and then Clay counties. Conflict between the two groups grew more and more common.

In December 1836, the state legislature made an effort to solve what had become known as "the Mormon Problem". At the urging of Gen. Alexander Doniphan, the Mormons' lawyer and a state legislator, Caldwell County became a Mormon refuge.

The plans for Far West, the county seat of Caldwell County, were nothing it not grandiose. The central square of the town was 396 feet wide and its four main streets were each 100 feet wide. Given these dimensions. Both the Liberty and Independence Square would have fit comfortably inside it. The city's other streets were all to be 87.5 feet wide. A temple site 110 feet by 80 feet was marked off and excavated in the square and cornerstones were laid.

By the summer of 1838 there were 150 log cabins in Far West with as many under constriction. There were four dry goods stores, three family groceries, six blacksmith shops, two hotels and a large school. Saloons and the selling of "spirituous liquors" were banned.

With a population of nearly 2,000, Far West was the second largest city in western Missouri, after Liberty. And growing. From March to October of 1838, 5,000 Mormons migrated to northwest Missouri and thousands more were expected. In March 1839, Joseph Smith himself moved to Far West from Kirtland, Ohio. A month later, true to form, be prophesied that God had told him it was time to branch out.

To the locals, it seemed that the Mormons had broken their promise not to settle outside their refuge. The Mormons, given their "go ye unto all the world" pledge, apparently didn't take refuge to mean, "the only place we can live". Each side assumed they knew what the other side meant and turned out to he completely wrong.

Shooting incidents of increasing violence broke out between militant Mormons and local vigilantes. In October, Gov. Boggs declared the Mormons "dangerous to the public good" and ordered the Mormons out of the state. County militias organized and headed for Caldwell County. Mormons also armed themselves. On Oct.30, 1838, 250-300 Missouri troops massacred most of the settlers at Haun's Mill, a Mormon settlement in eastern Caldwell County.

On Nov. 1, 1838, Smith and the 800 Saints who remained in Far West walked out from behind their barricade to surrender to the 2,500 state militiamen who besieged them. Gen. Samuel Lucas, co-commander of the state troops and no friend of Mormons, held a hasty (and illegal) court martial which found the Mormon leaders guilty of sedition and treason and similar crimes. Gen. Lucas ordered Gen. Alexander Doniphan to execute the leaders in the square the next morning.

Doniphan, also commander of the Clay County militia, responded that it was "cold blooded murder" and he would take Lucas to court. Lucas backed down and settled for taking all the Mormons' property to pay for the damages incurred by the "Mormon War." He would later deny that the court martial had even been held.

By the following May, almost all the Mormons had left Missouri. Fifty men were arrested and charged with treason, murder, arson, burglary, robbery, larceny and perjury. All but ten were let out on bail. The publicity surrounding the whole affair began to make for pro-Mormon sympathy and the prisoners were moved from one town to the next.

In April 1839 a trial was to be held in Boone County. Perry McCandless writes, in A History of Missouri, Vol.2 , "With a jug of whiskey and a few hundred dollars properly distributed, the prisoners escaped while en route to Boone County and joined their fellows in Illinois".

The buildings of Far West were torn down and their effects either burned or carted off. Only the temple's cornerstones remain to mark the site, although it remained the county seat until Kingston was platted in 1842.

It's easy to find Far West today, though, given all the big blue signs on the highway. Despite its violent past, the place is quite serene. The strip of grass where the temple stones lay buried is kept up by Mormons from Independence. There are a few markers explaining the site, modern restrooms, and a picnic table under a willow tree. In the hour we spent there one Sunday afternoon, only two cars passed down the road and neither one stopped. The fields stretch away and as the wind passes over them unrestricted, ft gives the distinct impression of ocean waves and dessert sands.Ê