Mormon Passage through Missouri

On October 27, 1838, Missouri Governor Lilburn W. Boggs issued the infamous extermination order that caused thousands of Latter-day Saints to flee the state and seek refuge in Illinois across the Mississippi River. The forced exodus during the frigid winter of 1838-39 deeply embittered the Mormons against Missourians, and continued to fester long after the Saints had gathered in the Salt Lake Valley a decade later.

On Wednesday, November 11, the State Historical Society of Missouri and the MU Department of History will sponsor a talk by Brigham Young Professor Fred E. Woods. Woods will discuss the emigration experience of Latter-day Saints who passed through the state of Missouri during the three decades following the extermination order and present several Mormon emigrant accounts recorded during the mid-nineteenth century. Woods reveals a neglected period in Mormon and state history when the Saints continued their journey over hundreds of Missouri miles by boat, rail, and trail in spite of an official government death threat to all those who dared trespass upon Missouri soil.

Professor Woods holds the Richard L. Evans Chair of Religious Understanding in Brigham Young University’s Department of Religious Education. The lecture will begin at 4:00 p.m. in the Jesse Wrench Auditorium, Memorial Union, University of Missouri campus; a reception in the Wrench lobby will follow the talk. The event is free and open to the public.