28 Facts About Lyman Wight

Lyman Wight was an early leader in the Latter Day Saint movement.

Lyman Wight was the leader of the Latter Day Saints in Daviess County, Missouri, in 1838.

Lyman Wight was ordained president of his own church, but he later sided with the claims of William Smith, and eventually of Joseph Smith III.

Sometime around 1826, Lyman Wight moved to Warrensville Township, Ohio, and was baptized into the Reformed Baptist faith by Sidney Rigdon in May 1829.

In February 1830, Lyman Wight united with Isaac Morley and others in forming a common stock utopian society in Kirtland, Ohio.

Lyman Wight eventually married four wives and had eleven children.

Lyman Wight was baptized a member of the Church of Christ by Oliver Cowdery on November 14,1830.

Lyman Wight was ordained to the high priesthood in June 1831 by Joseph Smith Jr.

Shortly afterwards, Lyman Wight went to Missouri, and later Cincinnati, Ohio, to preach, where he baptized over 100 people.

Lyman Wight served eleven missions as a member of the church.

On July 23,1833, Lyman Wight signed an agreement with the vigilantes which specified that the Latter Day Saints would leave Jackson County by 1834.

Smith and Lyman Wight recruited about twenty individuals, including Hosea Stout, who was not a church member at the time but was impressed with their preaching.

In 1835, Lyman Wight was encouraged to travel to the temple at Kirtland.

Lyman Wight knew that people in the area were antagonistic towards the Mormons, yet he made an appointment to preach at the courthouse.

Lyman Wight preached about two hours, reproving them most severely for their meanness, wickedness and mobocratic spirit.

Between his several roles, Lyman Wight became the preeminent leader of the Latter Day Saints in the county.

Lyman Wight was accused, along with Joseph Smith, of organizing an army and threatening and harassing various old settlers of the county.

Smith and Lyman Wight agreed to be tried in order to ease the tensions in the area.

When Far West fell under siege after the Missouri Executive Order 44, Lyman Wight organized members in Adam-ondi-Ahman to assist them.

Lyman Wight was ordained an apostle of the church by Smith on April 8,1841, to replace Patten, who had died in the Battle of Crooked River in 1838.

Brigham Young attempted several times to persuade Lyman Wight to join the main body of Latter-day Saints, which he had organized as the Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints in the Alta California area of Mexico, which would become the Utah Territory in 1850.

Lyman Wight was eventually excommunicated by Young on December 3,1848; his most prominent follower, Bishop George Miller, was disfellowshipped.

Lyman Wight moved his group of Latter Day Saints to the Republic of Texas and he would eventually found several communities on the central Texas frontier.

Lyman Wight's followers built the first Latter Day Saint temple west of the Mississippi.

Lyman Wight died on March 31,1858, in Mountain Valley, Texas at the age of 61.

Lyman Wight had been living in Texas with a small remnant of his colony.

Lyman Wight's group had been traveling to Jackson County, Missouri, where he wished to rejoin the remainder of the mid-western Latter Day Saints.

Lyman Wight was buried in his temple robes at the Mormon cemetery at Zodiac, which no longer exists.