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Carson City & California
Nevada · California. The western congregations in Carson Valley and San Francisco, where George Dove published The Spirit Prevails.
The western congregations, where George Dove published The Spirit Prevails and led the California church after 1882. In May 1863 Connor gave 150 Morrisites passage to Carson City in an empty quartermaster’s train bound there for stores (Connor’s report, June 2, 1863, OR).
VisitNo surviving sites identified for this guide. Information welcome.
In the chronology
- May 1863Many Morrisites leave Utah under the protection of Patrick Edward Connor, commanding the District of Utah. On May 5 a party of 160 (53 families, seven single men, and four widows) sets out with a company of California Volunteers; it reaches Soda Springs on May 20, where Connor has a town site surveyed on the north bank of the Bear River beside a new military post, Camp Connor (established by order of May 23). The Morrisites call their town Morristown. Connor also gives 150 Morrisites passage to Carson City, Nevada, in an empty supply train. Others settle in California. (Connor’s report, June 2, 1863, Official Records, ser. 1, vol. 50, pt. 1, 226–29.)
- 1860s–Some Morrisites return to the Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints, in Utah and elsewhere. The 2006 monument at South Weber notes that a few were rebaptized and remained there. Others find a home in the Reorganized Church (RLDS): the former Morrisite apostle Mark Hill Forscutt joins it in Salt Lake City in 1865, and John L. Bear (Johann Lebrecht Bär, 1838–1919), a Swiss convert from Affoltern am Albis who emigrated from Zürich in 1860 and lost his wife and child at Kington Fort, later serves as an RLDS missionary to Switzerland and Germany, dies in Independence, Missouri, and publishes his autobiography in the RLDS Journal of History. In 1865 RLDS missionaries at Malad, Idaho, baptize several people who appear on the roll. Others join only after years in the Morrisite groups: Erick and Caroline Eliason are baptized together at Soda Springs on June 9, 1870; Margaretta Cook leaves the Morrisites in Nevada in 1870 and is baptized RLDS in 1873; and Lena Hanson, at Soda Springs and then Deer Lodge, in 1895 (see the roll).
- 1882Williams dies, and the movement splits among rival successors. In Montana, where the church is known as the Church of Jesus Christ of Saints of the Most High, William James, its local president under Williams, is sustained in May 1882 over opposition, with Andrew Hendrikson and John R. Eardley as counselors. (Eardley, later a stake president, leaves Montana about 1900.) George Dove leads the California congregation.
- 1892In San Francisco, James Dove publishes A Few Items in the History of the Morrisites for the California congregation.
Records, documents and questions
- Documents The Spirit Prevails (1886)
- Documents Roll of Membership (1886)
- Documents Not yet online
- Repositories Eliza Eardley Hardin reminiscence
- Repositories Henry Hendrickson interview, April 19, 1962
- Repositories Diaries, letters, and federal records
- Questions Who were the Morrisites?
- Questions What became of the California congregation?
- Questions Where did the Morrisite teaching of reincarnation come from?
- Questions Why did some Morrisites join the RLDS Church?
In the bibliography (8)
- Articles of Faith. San Francisco: Committee of the Firstborn, 1887.
- 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
- 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
- Varley, James. Brigham and the Brigadier: General Patrick Connor and His California Volunteers in Utah and Along the Overland Trail. Tucson: Westernlore Press, 1989.
- 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.
People
People on the 1861–62 roll whose notes or pages mention this place (27). Each name links to the name index.
Bowman, John; Bull, William F.; Cook, Hannah; Cook, Margaret; Cook, Mary; Cook, Richard page; Davies, William page; Dove, James; Eardley, John R.; Jones, John E.; Jones, Rhoda page; Klemgard, Peter C. page; Livingstone, R. J.; Magee, William; Morrison, Niels; Moss, Edward; Moss, James; Moss, Joseph; Moss, Mary; Park, Ann; Park, David Sr. page; Park, Hugh; Parson, John page; Smith, Hans Peter; Trolsen, John; White, Hannah page; White, William page
This page gathers entries from across the guide by the place’s names, so a few may mention it only in passing. Corrections and additions: contact@morrisite.org.
Rogers, Eric Paul, ed. “Carson City & California.” Morrisite.org. https://morrisite.org/place/carson-city-california.html. Add the date you consulted it.