History of Utah, 1540-1886 - Brigham Young University

THE GLADDENITES. 643
uals fell away during the migration from Nauvoo,
many of the stakes becoming settlements of recusant
Mormons, while numbers of the saints settled at
Omaha, Nebraska City, and other towns on the Missouri
and its tributaries. Some, as I have said, merely
remained in the western states to obtain means for
their journey to Zion, but of the twenty thousand
persons who followed the apostles from Nauvoo, it
is probable that nearly one third were eventually absorbed
among gentile communities.
In Utah, between 1852 and 1869, four distinct and
organized attempts were made to throw off the yoke of
Brigham, and establish what the apostates claimed to
be a more perfect faith. These were the Gladclenite
secession in 1852, the Josephite schism in 1860, the
Morrisite movement in 1861, and the Godbe-Harrison
schism in 1869.
When the doctrine of polygamy was openly avowed
in 1852, some of the saints were sorely offended, and
accusing the hierarchy of having fallen from grace in
other respects, formed themselves into a new sect, appointing
as their leader Gladden Bishop, whence the
name of Gladdenites. Together with other recusants,
Gladden, who was several times disfellowshipped and
readmitted on profession of repentance, had again rejoined
the church, 2 but being now disgusted with this
new feature in the policy of the church dignitaries,
worked with heart and soul against them. Among
his followers was one Alfred Smith from St Louis, a
man of great tenacity of purpose, and a bitter foe of
Brigham, by whom, as he alleged, he had been
stripped of his property. For a time the cause nourished,
but on Sunday, the 20th of March, 1853, while
Smith was holding services in front of the councilhouse,
the gathering, though orderly and j
was dispersed by the city marshal. Anoth
'Ferris states that Gladden was cut off and rebapti. i d nine ~. l't%h
and the Mormons, 326. See also OUiausen, Mormonen, I 2.