1.
Mormon fundamentalism
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Mormon fundamentalists seek to uphold tenets and practices no longer held by mainstream Mormons. The principle most often associated with Mormon fundamentalism is plural marriage, a form of polygyny first taught in the Latter Day Saint movement by Joseph Smith, a second and closely associated principle is that of the United Order, a form of egalitarian communalism. Mormon fundamentalists believe that these and other principles were abandoned or changed by the LDS Church in its efforts to become reconciled with mainstream American society. Today, the LDS Church excommunicates any of its members who practice plural marriage or who otherwise closely associate themselves with Mormon fundamentalist practices, There is no single authority accepted by all Mormon fundamentalists, viewpoints and practices of individual groups vary. Fundamentalists have formed numerous small sects, often within cohesive and isolated communities in the Western United States, Western Canada, and northern Mexico. At times, sources have claimed there are as many as 60,000 Mormon fundamentalists in the United States, however, others have suggested that there may be as few as 20,000 Mormon fundamentalists with only 8,000 to 15,000 practicing polygamy. The largest Mormon fundamentalist groups are the Fundamentalist Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-Day Saints, the LDS Church began prohibiting the contracting of plural marriages within the United States in 1890 after a decree by the president of the church, Wilford Woodruff. However, the practice continued underground in the U. S. and openly in Mormon colonies in northern Mexico and southern Alberta. According to some sources, many men in the United States continued to live with their plural wives with the approval of church presidents Woodruff, Lorenzo Snow. They make their argument based upon evidence and the fact that the Manifesto is not worded in accordance with similar revelations in the LDS scriptures. The LDS Church prevents any of its members who sympathize with Mormon fundamentalist teachings from entering its temples, during the 1920s, a church dissenter named Lorin C. Woolley claimed a line of priesthood authority from the LDS Churchs hierarchy. Most of the Mormon polygamous groups can trace their roots to Woolleys legacy, for the most part, the Utah state government has left the Mormon fundamentalists to themselves unless their practices violate laws other than those prohibiting bigamy. For example, there have been recent prosecutions of men who belong to fundamentalist groups for marrying underage girls, in one highly publicized case, a man and one of his polygamist wives lost custody of all but one of their children until the wife separated herself from her husband. The largest government effort to crack down on the practices of fundamentalist Mormons was carried out in 1953 in what is today Colorado City, Arizona, most Mormon fundamentalists embrace the term Fundamentalist. Mormon fundamentalists share certain commonalities with other fundamentalist movements, but also possess some clear distinctions of their own, in this view, ordination lineage becomes all-important and an external organization such as a church may lose its theological authority while the priesthood may continue via an alternative lineage. Mormon fundamentalists frequently assert that priesthood is prior to the Church, Mormon fundamentalists dislike the term polygamy and view polygyny as a term used only by outsiders. They also refer to plural marriage generically as the Principle, celestial marriage, the practice of plural marriage usually differs little from the manner in which it was practiced in the nineteenth century
2.
Joseph Smith
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Joseph Smith Jr. was an American religious leader and founder of Mormonism and the Latter Day Saint movement. When he was twenty-four, Smith published the Book of Mormon, by the time of his death fourteen years later, he had attracted tens of thousands of followers and founded a religious culture that continues to the present. In 1830, Smith published what he said was an English translation of these plates, the same year he organized the Church of Christ, calling it a restoration of the early Christian church. Members of the church were later called Latter Day Saints, or Mormons, in 1831, Smith and his followers moved west, planning to build a communalistic American Zion. They first gathered in Kirtland, Ohio, and established an outpost in Independence, Missouri, during the 1830s, Smith sent out missionaries, published revelations, and supervised construction of the expensive Kirtland Temple. In 1844, Smith and the Nauvoo city council angered non-Mormons by destroying a newspaper that had criticized Smiths power, after Smith was imprisoned in Carthage, Illinois, he was killed when a mob stormed the jailhouse. Smith published many revelations and other texts that his followers regard as scripture and his teachings include unique views about the nature of God, cosmology, family structures, political organization, and religious collectivism. Joseph Smith Jr. was born on December 23,1805, in Sharon, Vermont, to Lucy Mack Smith and her husband Joseph Sr. a merchant, after suffering a crippling bone infection when he was seven, the younger Smith used crutches for three years. During the Second Great Awakening, the region was a hotbed of religious enthusiasm, although Smiths parents disagreed about religion, the family was caught up in this excitement. Smith later said he became interested in religion at about the age of twelve, he participated in church classes, as a teenager, he may have been sympathetic to Methodism. With other family members, Smith also engaged in folk magic. Both his parents and his grandfather reportedly had visions or dreams that they believed communicated messages from God. Smith said that although he had become concerned about the welfare of his soul, years later Smith said that in 1820 he had received a vision that resolved his religious confusion. While praying in an area near his home, he said that God, in a vision, had told him his sins were forgiven. Smith said he told the experience to a preacher, who dismissed the story with contempt, but the experience was largely unknown, even to most Mormons, until the 1840s. Although Smith may have understood the event as a conversion, this First Vision later grew in importance among Mormons. Smith said he attempted to remove the plates the next morning but was unsuccessful because the angel prevented him, Smith reported that during the next four years, he made annual visits to the hill but each time returned without the plates. Meanwhile, the Smith family faced financial hardship due in part to the November 1823 death of Smiths oldest brother Alvin, Family members supplemented their meager farm income by hiring out for odd jobs and working as treasure seekers, a type of magical supernaturalism common during the period
3.
Brigham Young
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Brigham Young was an American leader in the Latter Day Saint movement and a settler of the Western United States. He was the second President of The Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints from 1847 until his death in 1877 and he founded Salt Lake City and he served as the first governor of the Utah Territory. Young also led the foundings of the precursors to the University of Utah, Young was dubbed by his followers the Lion of the Lord for his bold personality and was also commonly called Brother Brigham by Latter-day Saints. Young was a polygamist and was involved in controversies regarding black people and the Priesthood, the Utah War, and the Mountain Meadows massacre. Young was born to John Young and Abigail Nabby Howe, a family in Whitingham, Vermont. Young was first married in 1824 to Miriam Angeline Works, though he had converted to the Methodist faith in 1823, Young was drawn to Mormonism after reading the Book of Mormon shortly after its publication in 1830. He officially joined the new church in 1832 and traveled to Upper Canada as a missionary, after his wife died in 1832, Young joined many Mormons in establishing a community in Kirtland, Ohio. In 1844, while in jail awaiting trial for treason charges, Joseph Smith, several claimants to the role of church president emerged during the succession crisis that ensued. Young opposed this reasoning and motion, the majority in attendance were persuaded that the Quorum of the Twelve Apostles was to lead the church with Young as the Quorums president. Many of Youngs followers would later reminisce that while Young spoke to the congregation, he looked or sounded exactly like Smith, Young was ordained President of the Church in December 1847, three and a half years after Smiths death. Rigdon became the president of a church organization based in Pittsburgh, Pennsylvania. Repeated conflict led Young to relocate his group of Latter-day Saints to the Salt Lake Valley, Young organized the journey that would take the Mormon pioneers to Winter Quarters, Nebraska, in 1846, then to the Salt Lake Valley. By the time Young arrived at the destination, it had come under American control as a result of war with Mexico. Young arrived in the Salt Lake Valley on July 24,1847, Youngs expedition was one of the largest and one of the best organized westward treks. On August 22,29 days after arriving in the Salt Lake Valley, after three years of leading the church as the President of the Quorum of the Twelve Apostles, Young reorganized a new First Presidency and was declared president of the church on December 27,1847. As colonizer and founder of Salt Lake City, Young was appointed the territorys first governor, during his time as prophet, Young directed the establishment of settlements throughout present-day Utah, Idaho, Arizona, Nevada, California and parts of southern Colorado and northern Mexico. Young was also one of the first to subscribe to Union Pacific stock, Young organized the first legislature and established Fillmore as the territorys first capital. Young organized a Board of Regents to establish a university in the Salt Lake Valley and it was established on February 28,1850, as the University of Deseret, its name was eventually changed to the University of Utah
4.
Freedom of religion in the United States
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In the United States, freedom of religion is a constitutionally protected right provided in the religion clauses of the First Amendment. The United States Constitution addresses the issue of religion in two places, in the First Amendment, and the Article VI prohibition on religious tests as a condition for holding public office. The First Amendment prohibits the Congress from making a law respecting an establishment of religion and this provision was later expanded to state and local governments, through the Incorporation of the Fourteenth Amendment. However, New Amsterdam Director-General Peter Stuyvesant issued an edict prohibiting the harboring of Quakers, on December 27,1657, the inhabitants of Flushing approved a protest known as The Flushing Remonstrance. This contained religious arguments even mentioning freedom for Jews, Turks, and Egyptians, Freedom of religion was first applied as a principle in the founding of the colony of Maryland, also founded by the Catholic Lord Baltimore, in 1634. The Maryland Toleration Act was repealed with the assistance of Protestant assemblymen, in 1657, Lord Baltimore regained control after making a deal with the colonys Protestants, and in 1658 the Act was again passed by the colonial assembly. This time, it would last more than thirty years, until 1692, in addition in 1704, an Act was passed to prevent the growth of Popery in this Province, preventing Catholics from holding political office. Full religious toleration would not be restored in Maryland until the American Revolution, as well as banning Quakers and Anabaptists. These colonies became safe havens for persecuted religious minorities, Catholics and Jews also had full citizenship and free exercise of their faiths. Williams, Hooker, Penn, and their friends were firmly convinced that democracy, williams gave the most profound theological reason, As faith is the free gift of the Holy Spirit, it cannot be forced upon a person. Therefore, strict separation of church and state has to be kept, Pennsylvania was the only colony that retained unlimited religious freedom until the foundation of the United States. The inseparable connection of democracy, freedom of religion, and the forms of freedom became the political and legal basis of the new nation. The Free Exercise Clause states that Congress cannot prohibit the exercise of religious practices. The Supreme Court of the United States has consistently held, however, the Court reasoned that to do otherwise would set precedent for a full range of religious beliefs including those as extreme as human sacrifice. The Court stated that Laws are made for the government of actions, for example, if one were part of a religion that believed in vampirism, the First Amendment would protect ones belief in vampirism, but not the practice. The Fourteenth Amendment to the United States Constitution guarantees the religious civil rights, Constitution also provides that No religious Test shall ever be required as a Qualification of any Office or public Trust under the United States. Several states have included in their constitutions that requires state office-holders to have particular religious beliefs. These include Arkansas, Maryland, Massachusetts, North Carolina, Pennsylvania, South Carolina, Tennessee, some of these beliefs were historically required of jurors and witnesses in court
5.
John Taylor (Mormon)
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John Taylor was an English religious leader who served as the third president of The Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints from 1880 to 1887. He is the president of the LDS Church to have been born outside of the United States. Taylor was born in Milnthorpe, Westmorland, England, the son of James and Agnes Taylor and he had formal schooling up to age fourteen, and then he served an initial apprenticeship to a cooper and later received training as a woodturner and cabinetmaker. He claimed that as a man, he had a vision of “an angel in the heavens, holding a trumpet to his mouth. He was christened in the Church of England, but joined the Methodist church at sixteen and he was appointed a lay preacher a year later, and felt a calling to preach in America. Taylors parents and siblings emigrated to Upper Canada in 1830, Taylor stayed in England to dispose of the family property and joined his family in Toronto in 1832. He met Leonora Cannon from the Isle of Man while attending a Toronto Methodist Church and, although she rejected his proposal. Between 1834 and 1836, John and Leonora Taylor participated in a study group in Toronto. The group discussed problems and concerns with their Methodist faith, other members included Joseph Fielding and his sisters Mary and Mercy, who later also became prominent in the Latter Day Saint movement. While in Toronto Taylor continued to work in his trade as a woodturner, Taylor and his wife first came in contact with the Church of the Latter Day Saints in 1836 after meeting Parley P. Pratt, an apostle in the church, in Toronto. Leonora was the first to join the church and she persuaded Taylor to continue his studies with Pratt, after the couples baptism into the church, they were active in preaching and the organization of the church in Upper Canada. They then moved to Far West, Missouri, where Taylor was ordained an apostle on December 19,1838 and he assisted other church members as they fled frequent conflicts to Commerce, Illinois. In 1839, Taylor and some of his fellow apostles served missions in Britain, while there, Taylor preached in Liverpool and was responsible for Mormon preaching in Ireland and the Isle of Man. Taylor returned to Nauvoo, Illinois to serve as a city councilman, a chaplain, a colonel, an editor. Taylor edited two newspapers in Nauvoo, Times and Seasons and the Nauvoo Neighbor, Taylor also edited the more politically concerned Nauvoo Neighbor and the Wasp, the predecessor of the Nauvoo Neighbor, for about a year. Taylor was thus the editor of Nauvoos two main papers from 1842 to 1846, in 1844, Taylor was with church founder Joseph Smith, his brother Hyrum Smith, and fellow apostle Willard Richards in the Carthage, Illinois jail when the Smiths were killed by a mob. Taylor was severely wounded in the conflict and his life may have been spared when a musket ball directed towards his chest was stopped by a pocket watch which he was carrying at the time. However, recent analysis shows the watch may instead have been damaged when Taylor fell against the windowsill, in 1845 Taylor became the president of the Nauvoo Tradesmen Association
6.
President of the Church (LDS Church)
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In The Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints, the President of the Church is the highest office of the church. It was the held by Joseph Smith, founder of the church. The President of the LDS Church is the leader and the head of the First Presidency. Latter-day Saints consider the president of the church to be a prophet, seer, and revelator, and refer to him as the Prophet, when the name of the president is used by adherents, it is usually prefaced by the title President. The President of the Church serves as the head of both the Council on the Disposition of the Tithes and the Council of the Church, the President of the Church also serves as the ex officio chairman of the Church Boards of Trustees/Education. The concept that the Church of Christ would have a single presiding officer arose in late 1831, initially, after the churchs formation on April 6,1830, Joseph Smith referred to himself as an apostle of Jesus Christ, and elder of the church. However, there was another apostle—Oliver Cowdery—and several other elders of the church, for he receiveth them even as Moses. This established Smiths exclusive right to lead the church, in early June 1831, Smith was ordained to the high priesthood, along with twenty-two other men, including prominent figures in the church such as Hyrum Smith, Parley P. Pratt, and Martin Harris. As high priests, these men were higher in the hierarchy than the elders of the church. However, it was unclear whether Smiths and Cowderys callings as apostles gave them superior authority to that of other high priests. And again the duty of the President of the priesthood is to preside over the whole church. Smith was ordained to this position and sustained by the church on January 25,1832, at a conference in Amherst, in 1835, the Articles and Covenants of the Church of Christ were revised, changing the phrase an. Elder of the church to the first elder of this Church, thus, subsequent to 1835, Smith was sometimes referred to as the First Elder of the church. The 1835 revision also added a verse referring to the office of president of the high priesthood, in 1844, while in jail awaiting trial for treason charges, Joseph Smith was killed by an armed mob. Hyrum Smith, his successor, was killed in the same incident. Smith had not indisputably established who was next in line as successor to President of the Church, several claimants to the role of church president emerged during the succession crisis that ensued. Young would not be ordained President of the Church until December 1847, thomas S. Monson is the 16th and current President of the LDS Church. As president, Monson is considered by adherents of the religion to be a prophet, seer, a printer by trade, Monson has spent most of his life engaged in various church leadership positions and in public service
7.
The Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints
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The Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints is a Christian restorationist church that is considered by its members to be the restoration of the original church founded by Jesus Christ. The church is headquartered in Salt Lake City, Utah, and has established congregations, according to the church, it has over 70,000 missionaries and a membership of over 15 million. It is ranked by the National Council of Churches as the fourth-largest Christian denomination in the United States and it is the largest denomination in the Latter Day Saint movement founded by Joseph Smith during the period of religious revival known as the Second Great Awakening. Adherents, often referred to as Latter-day Saints, or, less formally, Mormons, view faith in Jesus Christ and his atonement as fundamental principles of their religion. The church has a canon which includes four scriptural texts, the Bible, the Book of Mormon, the Doctrine and Covenants. The current president is Thomas S. Monson, individual members of the church believe that they can also receive personal revelation from God in conducting their lives. The president heads a hierarchical structure with various levels reaching down to local congregations, Bishops, drawn from the laity, lead local congregations. Male members, after reaching age 12, may be ordained to the priesthood, Women do not hold positions within the priesthood, but do occupy leadership roles in some church auxiliary organizations. Both men and women may serve as missionaries, and the church maintains a large missionary program which proselytizes, faithful members adhere to church laws of sexual purity, health, fasting, and Sabbath observance, and contribute ten percent of their income to the church in tithing. The LDS Church was formally organized by Joseph Smith on April 6,1830, Smith intended to establish the New Jerusalem in North America, called Zion. In 1831, the moved to Kirtland, Ohio, and began establishing an outpost in Jackson County, Missouri. However, in 1833, Missouri settlers brutally expelled the Latter Day Saints from Jackson County, the Kirtland era ended in 1838, after a financial scandal rocked the church and caused widespread defections. Smith regrouped with the church in Far West, Missouri. Believing the Saints to be in insurrection, the Missouri governor ordered that the Saints be exterminated or driven from the State, in 1839, the Saints converted a swampland on the banks of the Mississippi River into Nauvoo, Illinois, which became the churchs new headquarters. Nauvoo grew rapidly as missionaries sent to Europe and elsewhere gained new converts who then flooded into Nauvoo, meanwhile, Smith introduced polygamy to his closest associates. He also established ceremonies, which he stated the Lord had revealed to him, to allow people to become gods in the afterlife. He also introduced the church to an accounting of his First Vision. This vision would come to be regarded by the LDS Church as the most important event in history since the resurrection of Jesus
8.
Reed Smoot hearings
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The Reed Smoot hearings were a series of Congressional hearings on whether the United States Senate should seat U. S. Senator Reed Smoot, who was elected by the Utah legislature in 1903, Smoot was an apostle in The Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints, one of the top 15 leaders of the church. The hearings began in 1904 and continued until 1907, when the Senate voted, the vote fell short of a two-thirds majority needed to expel a member so he retained his seat. For example, the President of the LDS Church Joseph F. Smith cohabited with his many wives, new plural marriages did end by 1909, but the practice continued until the polygamists died off. Smoot himself only had one wife, earlier, when it was well known that Brigham Young was a polygamist, the U. S. President appointed him twice as territorial governor and the Senate ratified the appointment. Much of the American Protestant establishment viewed the LDS Church with distrust, prior to being called as an apostle of the LDS Church, Smoot had run for a Senate position, but withdrew before the election. After becoming an apostle in 1900, he received the approval of church president Joseph F. Smith to run again in 1902 as a Republican, in January 1903, the Utah legislature elected Smoot with 46 votes, compared to his Democratic competitor, who won 16. When Senator Smoot arrived in Washington, D. C. in late February 1903, he was met with protests and charges that he was a polygamist, charges he could easily disprove. Unlike B. H. Roberts, who upon election to the House of Representatives was not allowed to sit while hearings took place, among the public, old charges of Danites, the Mountain Meadows massacre, and Brigham Youngs plural wives were discussed. In January 1904, Senator Smoot prepared a rebuttal to these criticisms with the help of several non-Mormon lawyers, the actual hearings began in March. LDS Church President Joseph F. Smith took the stand and was interrogated for three days. Apostles Matthias F. Cowley and John W. Taylor did not show up after being subpoenaed, apostle Marriner W. Merrill ignored one subpoena and died soon after being subpoenaed a second time. The public participated actively in the proceedings, in the Capitol, spectators lined the halls, waiting for limited seats in the committee room, and filled the galleries to hear floor debates. For those who could not see for themselves, journalists and cartoonists depicted each days admission, at the height of the hearing, some senators were receiving a thousand letters a day from angry constituents. What remains of public petitions fills 11 feet of shelf space. After years of hearings, the charges of the opposition included. Apostles John W. Taylor and Matthias F. Cowley were still performing plural marriages in Mexico and Canada and that the church was exerting too much influence on Utah politics. That members were required to take oaths in the temples to seek revenge on the United States and that members believed revelation was higher than the laws of the land
9.
George Q. Cannon
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He was the churchs chief political strategist, and was dubbed the Mormon premier and the Mormon Richelieu by the press. He was also a five-time Territorial Delegate to the US Congress, Cannon was born in Liverpool, England, to George Cannon and Ann Quayle, the eldest of six children. His mother and father were from Peel on the Isle of Man and his fathers sister, Leonora Cannon, had married future Latter Day Saint apostle John Taylor and was baptized in 1836. News reached the elder George Cannon and four years later, when Taylor came to Liverpool, Cannon was 13 years old at the time. Cannons siblings were Mary Alice Cannon, Ann Cannon, Angus M. Cannon, David H. Cannon, in 1842, the Cannon family set sail for the United States to join with the church in Nauvoo, Illinois. On the voyage over the Atlantic Ocean, Cannons mother died, the motherless family arrived safely in Nauvoo in the spring of 1843. George Sr. married Mary Edwards in 1844 and had another daughter, in Nauvoo, Cannons father sent him to live with his uncle and aunt, John and Leonora Taylor. Cannon worked in the office of Times and Seasons and the Nauvoo Neighbor for Taylor. In June 1844, Taylor accompanied Joseph Smith, Hyrum Smith, there, Joseph and Hyrum were killed, and Taylor sustained serious bullet wounds. Cannon tended the printing affairs while Taylor recovered and this training would serve him well in later life. In 1846, Taylor traveled to England to organize the affairs of the church after Smiths death, meanwhile, Cannon accompanied Taylors wife and family as they moved to Winter Quarters, Nebraska. When Taylor returned, Cannon traveled with the entire Taylor family to the Salt Lake Valley, in 1849, Cannon was asked by church president Brigham Young to serve as a missionary for the church in the Sandwich Islands, where he served for four years. While in the islands, Cannon converted many Native Hawaiians, one of the most notable was Jonatana Napela, who assisted Cannon in translating the Book of Mormon into Hawaiian. Joseph F. Smith, a church president, would follow Cannon. Returning to Utah Territory, Cannon married Elizabeth Hoagland He was almost immediately called to assist apostle Parley P. Pratt in publishing a newspaper in California. Meeting Pratt in California, Cannon was told that he would remain behind and became president of the churchs Oregon and California Mission, during this period of time, Cannon published the Hawaiian translation of the Book of Mormon. In February 1856, he started the Western Standard, a publication based in San Francisco. Returning to Utah in 1857 to assist in the Utah War, during this time, Cannon served as printer of the Deseret News while it was publishing in exile in Fillmore, Utah
10.
Mormon colonies in Mexico
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Many of the original colonists came to Mexico due to federal attempts to curb and prosecute polygamy in the United States. The towns making up the colonies were situated in the states of Chihuahua and Sonora. By the early 20th century, many of these were relatively prosperous, however, in the summer of 1912, the colonies were evacuated due to anti-American sentiment during the Mexican Revolution and many of their citizens left for the United States and never returned. Some colonists did eventually return to their settlements, but today only Colonia Juárez, the Colonia Juárez Chihuahua México Temple, built in 1999, is located in Colonia Juárez, and is currently the smallest temple the LDS Church operates. As early as 1874, Brigham Young, President of the LDS Church, in 1875, settlers set out with the dual purpose of proselytizing and finding prospective locations for Mormon settlements. The missionaries returned with positive reports the next year and another group was sent in October 1876, in 1877, Young discussed the idea of colonizing parts of northern Mexico, but it was considered unwise due to the considerable danger from Apache raiders in the area. Young died later that year and leadership of the fell to John Taylor as the president of the Quorum of the 12 Apostles. John Taylor was ordained as prophet in 1880, Taylor continued Youngs policy of missionary work in Mexico, and through the early 1880s colonization was considered on several occasions without effort to begin the process. However, in 1882 the Edmunds Act was passed by the United States Congress and this was part of the by then 20-year struggle by the US government to curb the LDS practice of plural marriage in Utah Territory and other locations in the American West. Among other things, the law felonized the practice of polygamy, as a result, over a thousand Latter-day Saint men and women were eventually fined and jailed. Some were sent as far away as Michigan to fulfill their terms, in 1885 President John Taylor purchased 100,000 acres of land in Mexico. This act allowed over 350 Latter-day Saint families who practiced polygamy from Utah and this was a very strenuous task, but it allowed the men the opportunity to keep their multiple wives without being fined and jailed. These people started their own farming colonies and established their settlements in Chihuahua and Sonora, where they focused their labors on sheep, cattle, wheat, row crops, and fruit orchards. The anti-foreign sentiment of The Mexican Revolution in 1910 made life there for the Latter-day Saint colonists difficult with many threats, the colonists returned to the United States. When it was decided it was safe, less than one-quarter of the previous population re-settled to Mexico, most of the returned to their Utah. The Mexican Latter-day Saints colonies did not return to their previous success due to the living conditions. Only two colonies remain, Colonia Dublán and Colonia Juárez, members of the Romney family have roots in these colonies, including Marion G. Romney and George W. Romney having been born there. Many Mormon settlements in the United States are in areas that at one time belonged to Mexico, Mormon Colonies in Mexico is also the title of a 1938 book by Thomas Cottam Romney
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