James Strang

Who was James Strang?

James Jesse Strang was an American religious leader, politician and self-proclaimed monarch who founded the Church of Jesus Christ of Latter Day Saints, a faction of the Latter Day Saint movement. A major contender for leadership of the Church of Jesus Christ of Latter Day Saints during the 1844 succession crisis, Strang vied with Brigham Young and Sidney Rigdon for control of the main body of Latter Day Saints in Nauvoo, Illinois before his rejection by that group led him to start his own sect. While serving as Prophet, Seer and Revelator of his church—which he claimed to be the sole legitimate continuation of the Church of Christ founded by Joseph Smith, Jr. in 1830—Strang reigned for six years as the crowned "king" of an ecclesiastical monarchy that he established on Beaver Island in the US state of Michigan. Building an organization that eventually rivaled Young's in Utah, Strang gained nearly 12,000 adherents prior to his murder in 1856, which brought down his kingdom and all but extinguished his sect.