Joseph Smith started the Mormon Church on April 6, 1830 in Fayette, New York. Smith said he was the recipient of dream and manifestations that enlightened him to a book that was inscribed by an American Indian named Moroni. The Messenger gave Smith a revelation of the fullness of the Gospel of Jesus Christ. That said that Jesus resurrected to the Nephites, a branch of Israelites that inhabited America. Moroni was the son of Mormon. The book is basically an add on to the Bible. It talked about the two tribes in America, the Jaredites and the Nephites. America is also called the "Land of Zion". The book was said to have been 600 pages long and was written on Gold plates and dates all the way back to 400 AD. The revised book "The Book of Mormon" was first publicly published in the spring of 1830. The Mormon Church was set up initially to be a restoration from the primitive Church set up by Jesus Christ. Jesus was seen as the literal Son of God, God being a personal being. Then under God was an appointed prophet, who lay priesthood. The Church accepts the Old Testament, The New Testament, The Book of Mormon and the revelations of a Prophet.
Missionaries preached throughout New England, The Old Northwest, Canada and England. Within Five years there were more than 8,000 converts. The religious beliefs of the Mormons and their attempts to establish a more Godly Government ran against the more Democratic beliefs of the American people. Because of these beliefs only made things harder for the Mormons, they were eventually driven out of New York by mobs, then to Ohio, to Missouri and then to Nauvoo, Illinois. .
In Nauvoo the Mormons built well established /-planned cities. Then began work on a temple. All this "Mormonism" in Illinois rubbed the regular townsfolk the wrong way. Joseph Smith and his brother Hyrum were thrown into a prison and were held for initiating a riot. But in 1844 a mob stormed the jail and the two men were murdered.
