Polygamy on the Pedernales: Lyman Wight's Mormon Village in Antebellum Texas

by Melvin C. Johnson

In the wake of Joseph Smith Jr.’s murder in 1844, his following splintered, and some allied themselves with a maverick Mormon apostle, Lyman Wight. Sometimes called the "Wild Ram of Texas," Wight took his splinter group to frontier Texas, a destination to which Smith, before his murder, had considered moving his followers, who were increasingly unwelcome in the Midwest. He had instructed Wight to take a small band of church members from Wisconsin to establish a Texas colony that would prepare the ground for a mass migration of the membership. Having received these orders directly from Smith, Wight did not believe the former’s death changed their significance. If anything, he felt all the more responsible for fulfilling what he believed was a prophet’s intention. Antagonism with Brigham Young and the other LDS apostles grew, and Wight refused to join with them or move to their new gathering place in Utah. He and his small congregation pursued their own destiny, becoming an interesting component of the Texas frontier, where they had a significant economic role as early millers and cowboys and a political one as a buffer with the Comanches. Their social and religious practices shared many of the idiosyncracies of the larger Mormon sect, including polygamous marriages, temple rites, and economic cooperatives. Wight was a charismatic but authoritarian and increasingly odd figure, in part because of chemical addictions. His death in 1858 while leading his shrinking number of followers on yet one more migration brought an effective end to his independent church.

Genres: Nonfiction

240 pages, Paperback

First published March 31, 2006

Reviews

[Christopher Angulo · Rating 4 out of 5]

Enjoyable read.

[Trevor Wolfe · Rating 5 out of 5]

A great and insightful book about an apostle to Joseph Smith Jr.that many may not remember. After Joseph Smith's death people were wondering who was to be the next successor. Lyman took his group of no more than 175 to Texas. He believed that it was supposed to Smith's son to be the successor once Joseph Smith III came of age. One of the biggest differences between Lyman's group and the RLDS is the issue of polygamy. Wight was a polygamist while the RLDS does not practice it. While Wight never joined the RLDS many of his followers did once Wight died. Was Wight right about polygamy and the RLDS? Would Wight have to give up polygamy?

[Amanda · Rating 3 out of 5]

Wow Mormon studies has come a long way since 2007. Parts of this book read like a Wikipedia article - lacking the nuance of the period that other books have since supplied. The end of it was too speculative to be called a history book. The middle was filled with a nice sketch of Lyman Wight’s Texas Colony, though even that felt lacking a lot of details I wish it could have supplied. I learned things, but I’m used to learning a lot more from similar books in the genre.

[Anthony · Rating 3 out of 5]

This is the first book I've read that covers a bit of the beginning of the RLDS. I live 30 minutes from two of these Wight settlements. It was educational.

[allison · Rating 3 out of 5]

Pretty interesting, though more academic than I had hoped. Follows a band of early LDS settlers who were among the first white settlers in the Texas Hill Country. The introduction draws generally connection to Warren Jeffs and the FLDS compound in Texas that was recently raided, but the book itself (which was published before the raid) doesn't take the connection any further. Instead, the book focuses on the history of the various Mormon settlements in Texas and how polygamy initially strengthened the bonds between the families of the settlements, but then caused tension and ultimately extinction, because a few old dudes married all the young hotties, which meant that the young dudes had no one....

[Mom · Rating 2 out of 5]

This book is about a break-away group from the Mormons in the early-to-mid 1800s. The leader of the group was Lyman Wight, who had once been one of the high-ups in the LDS church. Wight led his followers hither and yon looking for peace and prosperity. He ended up in Fredericksburg, Texas and then Bandera, Texas. These are my stomping grounds, and I have never known about this group, so thought this would be informative. I was really most interested in how the group lived their daily lives, and how they interacted with the community at large. The book did not really go into that, however, and was more about the breaking away from the main church (all the disagreements among the various parties, and so forth).

[Evan Hadfield · Rating 4 out of 5]

Thorough, well-documented, academic read loaded with information. A bit dry at times and there are some serious assumptions of pre-existing knowledge of Mormon and Texan history. Great read overall for some insight into an often neglected story of early Mormonism as well as the settling of Texas Hill Country.