Brewer's: Mormonism

The religious and social system of the Latter-day Saints; so called from their gospel, termed The Book of Mormon. Joe Smith, the founder of the system,. was born in Sharon, Windsor county, Vermont; his partner was Rigdon. The manuscript, which he declared to be written on gold plates, was a novel written by Spalding. He was cited thirty-nine times into courts of law, and was at last assassinated by a gang of ruffians, who broke into his prison at Carthage, and shot him like a dog. His wife's name was Emma; he lived at Nauvoo, in Illinois; his successor was Brigham Young, a carpenter by trade, who led the “Saints” (as the Mormons are called), driven from home by force, to the valley of the Salt Lake, 1,500 miles distant, generally called Utah, but by the Mormons themselves Deseret (Bee-country), the New Jerusalem. Abraham is their model man, and Sarai their model woman, and English their language. Young's house was called the Bee-hive. Every man, woman, and child capable of work has work to do in the community.

Source: Dictionary of Phrase and Fable, E. Cobham Brewer, 1894
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