History of Utah, 1540-1886 - Brigham Young University

644 SCHISMS AND APOSTASIES.
ing called for the following sabbath was dispersed,
Smith being taken into custody, and detained until
he promised to desist. On the same day Brigham
spoke a few words concerning the apostates in the
tabernacle. The whole matter was regarded of no
great consequence by the church ;
nevertheless it was
deemed best to shun the very appearance of evil, and
consequently the president gave the people clearly to
understand that there must be no more of it. 3
Such
warnings from the president of the church were never
uttered in vain, and now the days of the Gladdenites
were numbered. A few months later most of them
set forth for California, the rest recanted, and after
the year 1854 we hear no more of this apostasy.
The most successful of the recusant sects was the
one established by Joseph Smith, the prophet's son,
who, with his brothers Alexander H. and David Hyrum,
remained at Nauvoo after the exodus. 4 A few
years later the remnants of the Strangites and Cutlerites,
being in search of a leader, organized a new church
and requested Joseph to become their head. He at
first refused, but in 1860, the number of members being
then considerably increased by the breaking-up of other
parties, he accepted the call as prophet, and began to
preach the faith of his father, as he affirmed, in its
original purity, repudiating the claims of Brigham
and the doctrine of polygamy. The schism spread
rapidly throughout Illinois, Missouri, and Iowa, the
apostates being termed Josephites by the followers of
Brigham, but styling themselves the Reorganized
3 Jour, of .Disc, i. 82; Deseret News, Apr. 2, 1853; Waite's The Mormon
Prophet, 120-1; Beadle's Life in Utah, 40S-9; Ferris, Utah and the Mormons,
32S-30. Brigham was followed by Parley Pratt, who said that he had known
Gladden for 20 years, and had seldom heard his name mentioned, except in
connection with some imposition or falsehood in the name of the Lord.
4 Beadle says that the prophet left a considerable fortune, mostly in houses
and lands at Nauvoo. Life in Utah, 428. Even if this is true, we well know
that the houses and lands of the Mormons in, Nauvoo were worth little to
them when the expulsion came.