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Series 4

Bibliography

Primary texts and scholarship, in Chicago style.

Primary texts

  • Articles of Faith. San Francisco: Committee of the Firstborn, 1887.
  • Bear, John L. (Johann Lebrecht Bär). “The Autobiography of John L. Bear.” Journal of History (Lamoni, IA), 1911–12. Anderson, Revisited, cites pp. 207–8 for Bear’s account of Morris’s death. A biographical sketch appears in Inez Smith Davis, The Story of the Church.
  • Brighouse, James, and Lars Peterson. The Voice at Midnight. Independence, MO, December 25, 1884. Four-page tract of the Order of Enoch.
  • Brighouse, James, and Henry I. Doremus. The Voice of the Seventh Angel! Salt Lake City and South Cottonwood, UT, 1887–1892. Five parts. HathiTrust · Google Books. Its title takes up Morris’s claim to be the Seventh Angel; the transcription checked for this guide does not name Morris.
  • Connor, P. Edward. Report to Lt. Col. R. C. Drum, June 2, 1863, on the expedition from Camp Douglas to Soda Springs, May 5–30, 1863. In The War of the Rebellion: A Compilation of the Official Records of the Union and Confederate Armies, ser. 1, vol. 50, pt. 1, 226–29. Washington, DC: Government Printing Office, 1897. The founding of Morristown and the removal of Morrisites to Carson City. OSU eHistory
  • Dove, George S., and James Dove. A Voice from the West. San Francisco: Church of the Firstborn, 1879.
  • Dove, James. A Few Items in the History of the Morrisites. San Francisco: Church of the Firstborn, 1892.
  • Eardley, John R. Gems of Inspiration: A Collection of Sublime Thoughts by Modern Prophets. San Francisco: Joseph A. Dove, printer, 1899. Internet Archive
  • Gibbs, Josiah F. Lights and Shadows of Mormonism. Salt Lake City: Salt Lake Tribune Publishing, 1909. Includes an account of the Morrisite War.
  • Gilbert, Frank T. Historic Sketches of Walla Walla, Whitman, Columbia and Garfield Counties, Washington Territory, and Umatilla County, Oregon. Portland, 1882. Includes an interview with William W. Davies.
  • Hickman, Bill. Brigham’s Destroying Angel: Life, Confessions and Startling Disclosures. Salt Lake City: Shepard Book Company, 1904.
  • Morris, Joseph. The Spirit Prevails: Containing the Revelations, Articles and Letters Written by Joseph Morris. San Francisco: George S. Dove and Company, 1886. Internet Archive
  • Stenhouse, T. B. H. The Rocky Mountain Saints: A Full and Complete History of the Mormons. New York: D. Appleton, 1873.
  • Watson, Kirk, ed. The Morrisites: Writings and Revelations. Writings of Joseph Morris, George Williams, William W. Davies, George S. Dove, and James Dove. Independently published, 2026. New

Books

  • Anderson, C. LeRoy. For Christ Will Come Tomorrow: The Saga of the Morrisites. Logan: Utah State University Press, 1981.
  • Anderson, C. LeRoy. Joseph Morris and the Saga of the Morrisites. 2nd ed. Logan: Utah State University Press, 1988.
  • Anderson, C. LeRoy. Joseph Morris and the Saga of the Morrisites (Revisited). Logan: Utah State University Press, 2010. Buy from the publisher · Digital edition (member libraries) Final edition
  • Arbaugh, George. Revelation in Mormonism. Chicago: University of Chicago Press, 1932.
  • Ardent, John. Over the Wall of Oppression. Self-published, 1995.
  • Black, Susan Easton, comp. Early Members of the Reorganized Church of Jesus Christ of Latter Day Saints. 6 vols. Provo, UT: Religious Studies Center, Brigham Young University, 1993. Members born before 1849, with sources; the entries for Margaretta Cook and Lena Hanson record their years as Morrisites before joining the RLDS Church. FamilySearch Digital Library (free account)
  • Bringhurst, Newell G., and John C. Hamer, eds. Scattering of the Saints: Schism within Mormonism. Independence, MO: John Whitmer Books, 2007.
  • Chase, Neal. Ezekiel's Temple in Montana. Self-published, 1990.
  • Frazer, Robert W. Forts of the West: Military Forts and Presidios and Posts Commonly Called Forts West of the Mississippi River to 1898. Norman: University of Oklahoma Press, 1965. Camp Connor.
  • Jensen, Leland. The Seventh Angel Sounded. Missoula, MT: Acme Press, 1994.
  • Kraut, Ogden. The One Mighty and Strong. Salt Lake City: Pioneer Press, 1991. 137 pp. Its survey of claimants (83–100) includes James Brighouse (91–92), page references as cited by Brian C. Hales and by Shields; the paperback itself not examined. The shorter paper of the same title that Kraut gave at the Sunstone Symposium in August 1991 is online; its note on Brighouse (p. 10) does not mention Morris.
  • Launius, Roger D., and Linda Thatcher, eds. Differing Visions: Dissenters in Mormon History. Urbana: University of Illinois Press, 1994. See Holzapfel under Articles.
  • Madsen, Brigham D. Glory Hunter: A Biography of Patrick Edward Connor. Salt Lake City: University of Utah Press, 1990.
  • Reid, Agnes Just. Letters of Long Ago. Tanner Trust Fund ed. Introduction by Brigham D. Madsen, xi–xviii. Salt Lake City: University of Utah Library, 1973. Letters of Emma Thompson Just, a Morrisite and original settler of Soda Springs.
  • Reid, Agnes Just. The Lost Letters. Boise: Cedar Creek Press, 2006.
  • Seegmiller, Janet Burton. Be Kind to the Poor: The Life History of Robert Taylor Burton. Robert Taylor Burton Family Organization, 1988.
  • Shields, Steven L. Divergent Paths of the Restoration: An Encyclopedia of the Smith–Rigdon Movement. 5th ed. Salt Lake City: Signature Books, 2021. “Order of Enoch” (§5.4) and James Brighouse’s later Salt Lake City group (§5.4.1); the entry does not mention Morris. Google Books. Earlier editions include the 3rd ed., rev. and enl. (Bountiful, UT: Restoration Research, 1982), where the Order of Enoch is at p. 106, as cited by Wikipedia; not examined.
  • Varley, James. Brigham and the Brigadier: General Patrick Connor and His California Volunteers in Utah and Along the Overland Trail. Tucson: Westernlore Press, 1989.

Articles and papers

  • Anderson, C. LeRoy. “The Scattered Morrisites.” Montana: The Magazine of Western History 26, no. 4 (Autumn 1976): 52–69.
  • Anderson, C. LeRoy, and Larry J. Halford. “The Mormons and the Morrisite War.” Montana: The Magazine of Western History 24 (October 1974): 42–53.
  • Anderson, Peter H. “The Wound That Never Healed.” Frontier Times (July 1965).
  • Balch, Robert W., Gwen Farnsworth, and Sue Wilkins. “When the Bombs Drop: Reactions to Disconfirmed Prophecy in a Millennial Sect.” Sociological Perspectives 26, no. 2 (1983): 136–58.
  • Balch, Robert W., John Domitrovich, Barbara Lynn Mahnke, and Vanessa Morrison. “Fifteen Years of Failed Prophecy: Coping with Cognitive Dissonance in a Baha’i Sect.” In Millennium, Messiahs, and Mayhem, edited by Thomas Robbins and Susan J. Palmer, 73–90. New York: Routledge, 1997. On the Missoula sect that adopted Morrisite prophecies. Online
  • Bryant, Seth L. “Reviving the Millennial Kingdom: Mormons, Morrisites, and Massacre.” John Whitmer Historical Association Journal 29 (2009): 115–39.
  • Cannon, M. Hamlin. “The Morrisite War.” The American West 7 (November 1970): 4–9, 62–63.
  • Godfrey, Kenneth. “The Morrisites.” In Utah History Encyclopedia, edited by Allan Kent Powell. Salt Lake City: University of Utah Press, 1994. Online
  • Halford, Larry J., C. LeRoy Anderson, and Robert E. Clark. “Prophecy Fails Again and Again: The Morrisites.” Free Inquiry in Creative Sociology 9, no. 1 (May 1981). Online
  • Holley, Val. “Slouching Toward Slaterville: Joseph Morris’s Wide Swath in Weber County.” Utah Historical Quarterly 76, no. 3 (Summer 2008).
  • Holzapfel, Richard N. “The Flight of the Doves from Utah Mormonism to California Morrisitism: The Saga of James and George Dove.” In Differing Visions: Dissenters in Mormon History, edited by Roger D. Launius and Linda Thatcher, 196–219. Urbana: University of Illinois Press, 1994.
  • Howard, G. M. “Men, Motives, and Misunderstandings: A New Look at the Morrisite War of 1862.” Utah Historical Quarterly 44, no. 2 (1976): 112–32. Online
  • Quinn, D. Michael. “To Whom Shall We Go? Historical Patterns of Restoration Believers with Serious Doubts.” Paper presented at the Sunstone Symposium. Audio recording SL04361. Listen
  • Rogers, Eric Paul. “‘Instead of Retarding Me’: Marriage, Missionary Availability, and Ministerial Authority in the Forscutt Record, 1866–1868.” John Whitmer Historical Association Journal 47, no. 1 (Spring 2027). Forthcoming
  • Rogers, Eric Paul. “Mark Hill Forscutt: Mormon Missionary, Morrisite Apostle, RLDS Minister.” John Whitmer Historical Association Journal 21 (2001): 69–100. Author’s copy (Zenodo)
  • Rogers, Eric Paul. “The Morrisite War.” Presentation, Utah State Historical Society, September 2012.
  • Rogers, Eric Paul. “The Morrisite War.” Presentation, South Weber, Utah, October 2017.
  • Rogers, Eric Paul. “The Morrisites and the Sociology of Religious Schism.” Paper presented at the annual meeting of the John Whitmer Historical Association, Independence, MO, 2006. Slides
  • Shepard, Bill. “‘To Set in Order the House of God’: The Search for the Elusive ‘One Mighty and Strong.’” Dialogue: A Journal of Mormon Thought 39, no. 3 (Fall 2006): 18–45. Treats James Brighouse among claimants to be the One Mighty and Strong. A 2006 draft of the article checked for this guide does not mention Morris.
  • Thomas, Tyler. “The Political, Religious, and Legal Justifications of the Morrisite War.” Paper presented at Utah State University Research Week, April 9, 2015. Online
  • Young, Richard W. “The Morrisite War.” Contributor 11 (1889–90): 281–84, 348ff., 369ff., 428ff., 466–71. Published in installments.

Theses

  • Bachman, Danel W. “Joseph Morris and the Morrisites.” Graduate paper, Brigham Young University, 1970. MS 0260, J. Willard Marriott Library, University of Utah.
  • Banks, John. “A Document History of the Morrisites in Utah.” BA thesis, University of Utah, 1909. Online
  • Bryant, Seth L. “Latter-Day Anguish and the Epic of Greater Mormonism.” Master’s thesis, University of Florida, 2008. Chapter 2 treats the Morrisites; it was also given as a paper at the 2008 JWHA meeting and appeared as “Reviving the Millennial Kingdom” (see Articles).
  • Cornelius, D. E. “Mormonism in Montana, 1857–1898.” Master’s thesis, University of Montana, 1962.
  • Halford, Larry Joseph. “Mormons and Morrisites: A Study in the Sociology of Conflict.” PhD diss., University of Montana, 1972. Directed by C. LeRoy Anderson. Record (campus access only)
  • Holley, Henry Orvil. “The History and Effect of Apostasy on a Small Mormon Community.” Master’s thesis, Brigham Young University, 1966. On Slaterville, Weber County, and the Morrisites. Online

Local and county histories

  • Barnard, Lula, Faundy Bybee, and Lola Walker. Tosoiba. Soda Springs, ID: Daughters of Utah Pioneers, Camp Meads, 1958. Soda Springs and Morristown.
  • Bell, Lee D. South Weber: The Autobiography of One Utah Community. South Weber, UT: South Weber Town Council, 1990.
  • Carney, Ellen. Historic Soda Springs: Oasis on the Oregon Trail. Wayan, ID: Traildust Publishing, 1998.
  • Carr, Annie Call, ed. East of Antelope Island: History of the First Fifty Years of Davis County. Bountiful, UT: Daughters of Utah Pioneers, 1948. Includes South Weber.
  • Christensen, K. C. “Early Soda Springs History.” Joel R. Ricks seminar paper 23, Utah State University, 1940.
  • Hunter, Milton R., ed. Beneath Ben Lomond’s Peak: A History of Weber County, 1824–1900. Salt Lake City: Daughters of Utah Pioneers, Weber County Chapter, 1944; 5th ed. 1995.
  • Leonard, Glen M. A History of Davis County. Salt Lake City: Utah State Historical Society and Davis County Commission, 1999. Chapter 3 treats the Morrisite conflict. Online
  • Nelsen, Braden. “Hometown History: The Morrisite War.” Davis Journal, October 26, 2023. Online
  • Shupe, Verna Irene. Caribou County Chronology. Colorado Springs, CO: Print Craft Press, [1930]. Soda Springs from 1863, with an early list of the Morrisite families who came with Connor (p. 13). HathiTrust (full view)
  • South Weber City. “The History of South Weber City.” With a collection of residents’ personal histories. Online
  • Wheeler, Jerome. “History of Slaterville.” Unpublished manuscript, ca. 1963. Marriott-Slaterville City History Collection, MS 351, Special Collections, Stewart Library, Weber State University, Ogden, UT. Digital copy

Newspapers

  • Bonner County Daily Bee, July 9, 2013. “Descendants of Morrisites Sought,” on a descendants’ reunion at Soda Springs, August 3, 2013. Website
  • Boston Herald, July 27, 1863. “From Washington,” summarizing Connor’s report of the Soda Springs expedition.
  • Brooklyn Eagle, February 6, 1863.
  • Caribou County News (Soda Springs, ID), December 18, 2025. “The Morrisites and Founding of Morristown.” Website
  • Deseret News, June 18, 1862, 404; June 25, 1862; April 1, 1863.
  • San Francisco Chronicle, June 19, 1892.
  • Soda Springs Sun, May 30, 1931 (memorial dedication); June 11, 1931.

Reviews

  • Holley, Val. Review of Joseph Morris and the Saga of the Morrisites (Revisited), by C. LeRoy Anderson. Utah Historical Quarterly 79, no. 3 (2011): 284.
  • Peterson, F. Ross. “Career of a Counter-Prophet.” Review of For Christ Will Come Tomorrow, by C. LeRoy Anderson. Dialogue: A Journal of Mormon Thought 16, no. 4 (Winter 1983): 155ff. Online

Video, audio, and web resources

  • Barlow, Jacob. “The Kington Fort–Morrisite War Site.” February 15, 2022. YouTube video, 2:35. Watch
  • Bear River Heritage Area. “Camp Connor Site.” Website
  • “Episode 113: Kirk Watson on Reincarnation in Early Mormonism.” Scriptural Mormonism, hosted by Robert Boylan. Premieres November 14, 2026. Watch Upcoming
  • “Episode 166: The Morrisite War.” Sunstone Mormon History Podcast, July 9, 2026. Listen
  • “489 | Cuppa Joe: Mark Hill Forscutt.” Project Zion Podcast, with Eric Paul Rogers. Posted to YouTube July 20, 2024, 1:07:40. Listen
  • Gardiner, Kent. “Anna Sidler’s Death.” GatheringGardiners (blog), November 15, 2019. Genealogy of the Sidler and Bär families, with Zürich emigration records and excerpts from John L. Bear’s autobiography. Website
  • Gardiner, Kent. “Lebrecht Bar.” GatheringGardiners (blog), December 2019. Genealogical profile of John Lebrecht Bear (1838–1919). Website
  • Historical Marker Database. “Camp Connor” (Idaho state marker) and “Law & Order on the Frontier: Camp Connor,” Soda Springs. Camp Connor · Law & Order
  • Homebilt Video. “Siege at South Weber.” August 14, 2026. YouTube video, 4:09. Watch
  • Idaho State University. “Rocks, Rails, and Trails: Soda Springs Area.” Digital Atlas of Idaho. Includes Emma Thompson Just’s account of the 1863 journey. Website
  • “James Brighouse.” Lost Mormonism. Profile of the founder of the Order of Enoch. Website
  • Johnson, Brandon. “The Morrisites.” Beehive Archive, Utah Humanities, 2007. Radio segment. Listen
  • Just, Rick. “Emma and the Morrisite War.” Speaking of Idaho (blog). Website
  • Just, Rick. “The First Couple Married in Idaho.” Speaking of Idaho (blog). On Niels and Mary Christoffersen Anderson. Website
  • Just, Rick. “Idaho’s First County Seat.” Speaking of Idaho (blog), May 1, 2022. Website
  • Just, Rick. “Morrisites 2015.” Lecture. March 7, 2015. YouTube video, 57:07. Watch
  • Pinky II. “Last Existing Morrisite Church in the World. Racetrack, Mont.” February 17, 2026. YouTube video, 0:53. Watch
  • Posey, John. “Morrisite Graves of Soda Springs.” April 19, 2022. YouTube video, 11:13. Watch
  • Posey, John. “Morrisite War – Jesus in Montana?” January 11, 2022. YouTube video, 10:54. Watch
  • Rogers, Eric Paul. “From Morrisite to Josephite and Beyond.” Lecture, Community of Christ Historic Sites Foundation, May 25, 2023. Posted May 28, 2023. YouTube video, 1:00:11. Watch. The Zoom chat record of the lecture, courtesy of Barbara B. Walden, is in the editor’s files; it is not published because it names private individuals.
  • Rogers, Eric Paul. “Mark Hill Forscutt: Mormon Missionary, Morrisite Apostle, and RLDS Minister.” Lecture, Community of Christ Historic Sites Foundation. April 16, 2022. YouTube video, 53:02. Watch
  • “616 | Cuppa Joe: From Morrisite to Josephite and Beyond.” Project Zion Podcast, hosted by Karin Peter, with Eric Paul Rogers. August 22, 2023. Listen · YouTube
  • Vickers, Marques. “Montana Morrisite Church: The Dilapidated Remnant of a Fallen Movement and Prophecy.” July 29, 2026. YouTube video, 1:58. Watch
  • “William W. Davies and the Walla Walla Jesus.” Walla Walla 2020. Website