The Masonic Book Club, Vol. 20A

Between the years 1839 and 1846 the people of the State of Illinois, especially the members of the Fraternity of Freemasons and of the Mormon Church, had an unpleasant experience in Hancock County where Joseph Smith and his followers established themselves. The primary concern of this document is an historical description of what happened between the Mormons and the Masonic Fraternity during those trying years. Unfortunately, the subject is one fraught with much emotional heat which is made more intense because of the lack of complete and reliable records from the time. As a researcher studies the literature purporting to describe the relationship between Lodge and Church which existed from 1840 to 1860 in Illinois, he soon discovers that almost all of it has been prepared by partisans who support one group or the other, and whose work always seems polemic in nature with fact, opinion and assumptions intermingled with little support and often with no direct documentation or reasoned rationale. Some writers even vacillate from one position to another within their writings. This document will attempt to present an accurately documented description of the happenings involving Illinois Masons and the Mormons in Western Illinois during 1840-1850. This historical account will be followed by commentaries written by men who admit to being Masons and not of the Mormon faith, an article by Masonic writer, Robert Barnard, who was born and reared in Warsaw, Illinois, and will conclude with a bibliography designed to include the arguments of not only the extreme positions, but also of the middle ground. Hopefully, this approach will allow any reader to judge the merit of the work itself, and also stimulate a more educated discussion of the subject within the Masonic and Monnon communities, especially where their memberships overlap.