On Friday the 13th, 1862, a thousand armed men surrounded a muddy little fort on the Weber River, where Joseph Morris and his followers waited for the Second Coming. What followed was a three-day siege, cannon fire, disputed murders, mass arrests, and one of the strangest, bloodiest, and least-known breakaway movements in Utah history. In this episode, Lindsay and Bryan unpack the Morrisite War, a tragic story of prophecy, power, apocalyptic faith, and what happens when a millennial community collides with the state.
Show Notes
- For Christ Will Come Tomorrow: The Saga of the Morrisites by C. LeRoy Anderson
- The Spirit Prevails: Containing the Revelations, Articles, and Letters Written by Joseph Morris by Joseph Morris
- A History of Davis County by Glen M. Leonard
- Differing Visions: Dissenters in Mormon History, edited by Roger D. Launius and Linda Thatcher
- “Men, Motives, and Misunderstandings: A New Look at the Morrisite War of 1862”, G. M. Howard
- “The Morrisites and Their Prophet Cainan”, C. LeRoy Anderson
- “The Mormons and the Morrisite War”, C. LeRoy Anderson & Larry J. Halford
- The Morrisites, Utah History Encyclopedia
- Wilford Woodruff Papers
- Church History Catalog
- Kington Fort, Morrisite War Site
- Church of the Firstborn (Morrisite)
- Benchmark Books