Mormon History
Mormon Splinter Groups - 1851
Saint Joseph Gazette – October 1, 1851
MORMONISM. --
A correspondent of the Philadelphia Ledger, writing from Nauvoo, states
that Mormonism at this day is as different and distinct from anything which the
Prophet Smith ever taught or ordained, as Mahometanism is different from
Christianity. The sect is already split into seven different bodies, each
repudiating the other. They are as follows: "Rigdonites, who are the simon-pure
of the sect, are scattered throughout the land; Brighamites, usurpers, occupying
the valley of Utah; Strangites, at Force [sic - St. James?] Beaver Island, Lake
Michigan; Hydeites, squatters on the unsurveyed public lands in Western Iowa --
Kanesville, their headquarters; Cutlerites, settled on Silver Creek, Mills
county, Iowa; Brewsterites, at Socorro, New Mexico; Bishopites, at Kirkland,
Lake county, Ohio. The Strangites, Brewsterites, and Bishopites are new lights;
the Cutlerites are reformers; and the Hydeites are the Whig branch of the
usurpers of the government of the church after the assassination of Prophet
Smith."
Note: The writer missed listing the followers of Apostle Lyman Wight, living in
Texas, and the followers of Apostle William Smith, living primarily in Illinois
and Wisconsin. These two groups attempted a union in 1850, but it never went
beyond the planning stages. William Smith's church soon split into what became
Reorganized Latter Day Saints (incorporating some dissident Strangites) and a
few, diehard Smithites, (whose group disintegrated during the mid-1850s).