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Due to the poor treatment and harassment they got in Missouri, Ohio, and Illinois because of their religion, they started the movement west.

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The main problem before they went west was that they were lashed for their religion and beliefs. This was one of the main reasons that they went west in the first place.

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They wanted to alienate themselves from the rest of the community so they went west to plant crops and be in a community without non-mormons.

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Their experience on their journey west was not the best one, at subzero temperatures and many mormons walking, it was a hardship to walk the way.

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At the beginning of the journey there was 1,600 mormons ready to march to Utah to colonize it with their religion. Since they wouldn't be able to make it in one long walk, they divided it into sections, their first stop was at the Missouri River.

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When they first got to their destination in Utah, they hadn't developed many problems, but some bigger problems started to emerge at early 1848.

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Their lives consisted of only mormons and no non-mormons, the year they had arrived, 1,600 more mormons arrived in Utah to continue settlement. The very next year, 2,500 more mormons had followed through to Utah, by 1877, more than 100,000 people had populated the area, most of them being mormons still

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They had a lot of hardship because of the Mormon War, this war was mostly because of the beliefs of the mormons. The war was between mormons and non-mormons. Later mormons established a new Zion ( in their religion this would be the place jesus would return) in Salt Lake City, Utah.

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The Websites I used had the titles of The Mormon's Settlement in the West and Mormons begin exodus to Utah. The links to these sites are listed below.

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The Mormons started their movement into the West in 1846 due to their persecutions in Missouri, Ohio, and Illinois, for their strong religious beliefs. The Mormons had numerous reasons for moving there, the West was mostly unsettled and free from those who opposed polygamy, they could freely practice their religion without being punished and ridiculed from everyone around them, and finally, they wanted a land where they could start their own Mormon society. They were trying to alienate themselves and they were seeking a community free from non-Mormons. The Mormons immediately started trying to provide for themselves by planting and irrigating crops. Despite initial struggles, large numbers of Mormons were migrating to Utah and by 1950 there were hundreds of Mormon settlements established.

Joseph Smith - founder of the Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints

The first leader of the Mormon religion was Joseph Smith Jr.; he said he received visions calling him to restore primitive Christianity. Joseph Smith and his wife Emma arrived in Susquehanna, Pennsylvania in 1827; this is where he would spend the next two years translating the Book of Mormon into English. The Book of Mormon was a translation of a set of golden plates containing a religious history of people; the book is a companion to the bible. Smith founded the Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints on April 6, 1830. The church was one of the America's most successful native-born religious institutions and a major force in the settlement and development of the West. Along with the followers of the church came those who opposed it. Smith had to deal with many challenges while trying to convert people to Mormonism; he had to serve time in a Missouri jail for supposed treason and for plotting the murder of a Missouri gentile. After the church was established rumors which were later confirmed stirred that the Mormons were practicing polygamy. Smith himself was rumored to have 27 wives, although only one was publicly acknowledged. Smith was ultimately assassinated due to opposing beliefs and Brigham Young assumed the leadership role.

The Mormons had to deal with many conflicts throughout their settlement and movement to the West but the most well known was the Mormon War. It started when Joseph Smith settled many of his Mormon followers at Independence, MO. Smith referred to Independence as "Zion", or the place where Jesus Christ would return. Because the Mormons viewed slavery different from the people in Missouri, they were forced out of Independence and into Clay County, Missouri. Violence continued and legislature set aside Caldwell County for the Mormons. Unfortunately, some Mormons strayed into some of the neighboring towns that were opposed to the Mormons; tensions grew between the Mormons and non-Mormons which ultimately led to the Mormon War. Many people were growing upset with the Mormons and their beliefs which were the reasons behind the war. Later in 1849, most Mormons had left Missouri and Illinois and established the new "Zion" in Salt Lake City, Utah.

The Mormons were diverse people with different ideas that many did not agree with. However, the Mormons mostly tie in with the theme of the Settlement of the West. Without the settlement of the West the Mormons might still be fighting to practice their religion and values today. Their settlement of the West helped establish the religion of the Mormonism and helped the Mormon people feel free to practice their religion without fear of persecution. It mostly gave them the freedom to live their lives how they wanted and by their own standards.

The thing I find most interesting about the Mormons and their settlement to the West is how important the West was to their religion. Without the freedom they had to go to the West and establish communities free to practice their religion and beliefs, who knows what they would be doing now? I also wonder how popular settlement in the West would have been without the Mormon leaders like Joseph Smith and Brigham Young promoting them to move to the West. I was also intrigued to find out how popular Mormonism was, there were 500 mormon communities established in eight states in just the 1800s.

Brigham Young - leader of the Mormons to Salt Lake City, Utah.

The Book of Mormon

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The Mormons started their movement into the West in 1846 due to their persecutions in Missouri, Ohio, and Illinois, for their strong religious beliefs. The Mormons had numerous reasons for moving there, the West was mostly unsettled and free from those who opposed polygamy, they could freely practice their religion without being punished and ridiculed from everyone around them, and finally, they wanted a land where they could start their own Mormon society.

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Their leader assassinated and their homes under attack, the Mormons of Nauvoo, Illinois, begin a long westward migration that eventually brings them to the valley of the Great Salt Lake in Utah.

The members of the Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints had been persecuted for their beliefs ever since Joseph Smith founded the church in New York in 1830. Smith's claim to be a modern-day prophet of God and his acceptance of polygamy proved controversial wherever the Mormons attempted to settle. In 1838, Smith set up a new spiritual colony in Missouri, but by 1839, anti-Mormon prejudice there had proved too virulent. The Latter-day-Saints next set up camp in Nauvoo, Illinois but prejudice followed them there as well. Angry mobs murdered Smith and his brother in June 1844 and began burning homes and threatening members of the group.

Convinced that the Mormons would never find peace in the United States, Smith's successor, Brigham Young, made a bold decision: the Mormons would move to the still wild territories of the Mexican-controlled Southwest. Young had little knowledge of the geography and environment of the West and no particular destination in mind, but trusting in God, he began to prepare the people of Nauvoo for a mass exodus.

On this day in 1846, Young abandoned Nauvoo and began leading 1,600 Mormons west across the frozen Mississippi in subzero temperatures to a temporary refuge at Sugar Grove, Iowa. Young planned to make the westward trek in stages, and he determined the first major stopping point would be along the Missouri River opposite Council Bluffs. He sent out a reconnaissance team to plan the route across Iowa, dig wells at camping spots, and in some cases, plant corn to provide food for the hungry emigrants. The mass of Mormons made the journey to the Missouri River, and by the fall of 1846, the Winter Quarters were home to 12,000 Mormons.

After a hard journey across the western landscape, Young and his followers emerged out onto a broad valley where a giant lake shimmered in the distance. With his first glimpse of this Valley of the Great Salt Lake, Young reportedly said, "This is the place." That year, some 1,600 Mormons arrived to begin building a new civilization in the valley. The next year, 2,500 more made the passage. By the time Young died in 1877, more than 100,000 people were living in the surrounding Great Basin, the majority of them Mormons.

Young, however, had not escaped the troubles that plagued the Church in the East. By early 1848, the Mormons' haven became a U.S. territory after the American victory in the Mexican War. The Mormons had finally found a permanent home along the Great Salt Lake, but its isolation and freedom from persecution was short-lived.

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Their leader assassinated and their homes under attack, the Mormons of Nauvoo, Illinois, begin a long westward migration that eventually brings them to the valley of the Great Salt Lake in Utah. The members of the Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints had been persecuted for their beliefs ever since Joseph Smith founded the church in New York in 1830.

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Their placement in history is that without their settlement west, most mormons would be fearful to practice their religion. Today they do practice their religion and are still plentiful in Utah and more places, the settlement gave them the freedom they wanted to go by their religion without the lash feedback of other people that aren't of the same religion.