Obscure Believers: The Morman Schism of Alpheus Cutler

by Biloine Whiting Young, Robert Flanders (Foreword), Matt Kania (Illustrator)

Engaging story of a vanished Minnesota community with roots in early Mormonism. Ms. Young tells the tale with consumate skill and deep respect for the small band who struggled the last half of the nineteenth century to establish and maintain stable communal life against the tides of social change. Steeped in Cutlerite traditions and lore, she weaves tale that will mesmerize any reader interested in American religions and the history of Minnesota, southern Iowa, and western Illinois.

Genres: Mormonism, History

Paperback

Published February 1, 1992

Reviews

[Grey Ghost · Rating 4 out of 5]

As the story of the settlement of Old Clitherall and the Cutlerite sect of the Latter Day Saints, this book is one of the best, if not the best, single-volume treatment of that religious movement and its history in rural Minnesota. Written by a descendant of the Cutlerite settlers, the account is rich in primary source material and also contains enough background to place the Cutlerite movement into context in Mormon history and in the history of Minnesota and the Midwest. It may leave Mormon and Restoration-affiliated readers wishing for more doctrinal detail, but it avoids swamping the non-Mormon reader with too much, while still providing the underpinning necessary to help understand the convictions that drove this group, and the groups they separated from, during the turbulent period following the death of Mormon prophet Joseph Smith in 1844.

Young does a good job of keeping the family ties straight, as much as possible, while emphasizing the very personal and family nature of the Cutlerite movement and the complications that caused in later years. For anyone interested in the history of Mormon offshoots and schisms, this is an essential work.

As history, this book could do with a little more rigor. All of the footnotes are in one grand lump instead of being broken out by chapter, and some events could be dated a little more carefully. As an example, Young mentions the relative populations of Battle Lake, Old Clitherall, and New Clitherall in 1900 and in the same paragraph refers to a crystal radio set owned by a bank clerk in New Clitherall. She surely didn't mean to say that the clerk was listening to the radio in 1900, since commercial radio broadcasting get its start in the US until after 1920. Other than this sort of minor thing, the book is well-written and documented. It could do with a few more maps, but the inclusion of photographs of early settlers and buildings in Old Clitherall is a definite plus.

You probably won't find this book at your local bookstore, but it is available from Amazon and, if you're ever in Nauvoo, from the gift shop at the Visitor's Center of the Community of Christ (formerly the Reorganized Church of Jesus Christ of Latter Day Saints), where your purchase will help with the preservation of the Joseph Smith family homes and properties in historic Nauvoo.

[Christopher Angulo · Rating 4 out of 5]

This was better written/researched than I thought it would be. A fascinating read on a faction of the restoration movement.

[Joe · Rating 4 out of 5]

As my personal interest has to do with transmission of ritual (i.e, what did the Cutlerites bring with them from Nauvoo), I was somewhat disappointed on this aspect of the book.

However, it is overall a fine treatment, worth the attention of students of the Restoration Movement and its various parts.