Mormon leader, "King" of Strangite Mormons, b. Scipio, Cayuga County, N.Y. He attended Fredonia Male Academy, and, although regarded as mentally deficient while a child, his supposed stupidity concealed a precocious intellect that he channeled into omnivorous reading and a morbid preoccupation with fame. Strang studied law in New York, was admitted to the bar in 1836, and worked at various occupations in the East. In 1843 he moved to Wisconsin, settling in Burlington, where he practiced law for a time with considerable success, and soon became attracted to Mormonism. In 1844 he journeyed to Nauvoo, Ill., to observe Mormon practice, visited Mormon prophet Joseph Smith, and became an ardent convert. On Smith's death in 1844, Strang put forth vigorous claims as his successor, challenged the leadership of Brigham Young, and was excommunicated by Young's followers. Returning to Wisconsin, Strang established his own Mormon community at Voree in Walworth County, eventually attracted some 2,000 settlers, and between 1844 and 1847 propagandized his theology through the Voree Herald, claimed numerous revelations, and allegedly uncovered sacred plates that established fundamental laws for his sect. However, mounting hostility from neighboring communities and internal dissension caused Strang to move his congregation to Beaver Island in Lake Michigan in 1847, and there, in 1850, he was crowned "King." Shortly thereafter, Strang proclaimed the sanctity of plural marriage, a practice he had formerly opposed, and himself took four wives. His large following enabled him to be twice elected to the Michigan legislature (1852, 1854), and in 1851 he was acquitted on charges of counterfeiting, robbing the mails, and trespassing on federal lands. The increasing arbitrariness of Strang's "divinely appointed rule" led to internal conflicts, however, and in June, 1856, he was fatally wounded in an assassination attempt by his own subjects. Taken to the old community at Voree, he died one month later without naming a successor and the Strangite community disintegrated and was forcibly and violently dispersed by neighboring communities. View more information elsewhere at wisconsinhistory.org.
View a related article at Wisconsin Magazine of History Archives.
Dict. Amer. Biog.; M. M. Quaife, Kingdom of Saint James (New Haven, 1930); 0. W. Riegel, Crown of GIory ... (New Haven, 1935); Wis. Mag. Hist., 42; WPA MS.
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[Source: Dictionary of Wisconsin biography]
