Random What-If: The Church In Texas

[Ironhold]

This is something that, it turns out, a lot of members of the church don't know about, let alone non-members. 

https://www.tshaonline.org/handbook/entries/mormon-mill-colony

Before Joseph Smith's death, he was looking to send a scouting party to Texas to see if it was suitable for settlement in case the church needed to leave Illinois. Joseph's death and the forced flight to Utah meant that the main body of the church wouldn't arrive in the state for some time, but an offshoot group did in fact set up camp in Texas. Their colony was located near the present-day city of Marble Falls, and in fact Mormon Mill Road is a rural road running through a part of that region. Yes, there is now a chapel in Marble Falls, and it's actually not that far from where the road runs. 

To me, this is something of a curious what-if scenario. 

Suppose, for a second, that Joseph had in fact lived long enough to order the church to start colonizing Texas. How might that have played out? 

The most pressing thing I can think of is the Civil War. The church largely managed to sit it out due to Utah being strategically unimportant and neither side really pushing for the members to join up, but Texas went for the Confederacy and suffered some significant losses accordingly.

[Still_Small_Voice]

Interesting history of the Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-Day Saints in Texas.  Thanks for posting this information.

[NeuroTypical]

Every time I read church history it just gets more and more fascinating.

 

[mordorbund]

19 hours ago, NeuroTypical said:

Every time I read church history it just gets more and more fascinating.

 

Here’s a short version (it skips over the Civil War): https://newsroom.churchofjesuschrist.org/country/usa-texas

[zil2]

One thing is absolutely certain: if the Church had gone to Texas and made that its headquarters, it would be BIGGER.

[JohnsonJones]

That makes a Lot of Sense!!!! 

I have visited Texas many times (Last time being this past Spring during April/May for the eclipse).  When in the areas near Northern San Antonio to Austin it struck me odd that in many of the Stores they had Latter-day Saint books and novels as well as other paraphernalia associated with the Church.  I had only seen this in areas such as Utah, Northern Arizona and Eastern Idaho before this.  It was like they had a high Latter-day Saint population there or something similar.

That it was the home of an LDS colony long ago, and thus there may actually be a higher number of Saints in the area would explain that weird phenomena that I experienced there. 

[Ironhold]

23 hours ago, JohnsonJones said:

That makes a Lot of Sense!!!! 

I have visited Texas many times (Last time being this past Spring during April/May for the eclipse).  When in the areas near Northern San Antonio to Austin it struck me odd that in many of the Stores they had Latter-day Saint books and novels as well as other paraphernalia associated with the Church.  I had only seen this in areas such as Utah, Northern Arizona and Eastern Idaho before this.  It was like they had a high Latter-day Saint population there or something similar.

That it was the home of an LDS colony long ago, and thus there may actually be a higher number of Saints in the area would explain that weird phenomena that I experienced there. 

Remember, we have a temple in San Antonio, and one is being constructed in Austin. 

The I-35 Corridor is *very* surprisingly active when it comes to members of the church, as are a few of the border communities. 

A few weeks ago someone posted online a county-by-county breakdown showing members of the church by percentage of population, and there were a few places in Texas, like Coryell and Maverick counties, that were above the 2% threshold needed to be noted. Sadly, I didn't bookmark it, but it shouldn't be too hard to find.