Though Latter-day Saints in St. Louis, Mo., have just observed the 50th anniversary of the formation of a stake there, Church presence in the Gateway City began much earlier than 1958.
In fact, St. Louis was regarded by the Mormon people as a "safe haven of tolerance" in a bitter and turbulent period epitomized by the 1838 "extermination order" issued by Missouri Gov. Lilburn W. Boggs, this according to BYU Church history professor Fred E. Woods and local historian Tom Farmer.
The two scholars presented a fireside lecture at the jubilee celebration of Church members in St. Louis on June 1 and are co-authors of When the Saints Came Marching In, a new history of the Church in the St. Louis region prepared with the jubilee in mind.
In a text prepared for their presentation, the authors noted that the history covers the period from when a few Church members "first stepped foot on St. Louis soil (1831) until the occasion of the jubilee celebration in 2008. It was written with gratitude for the tolerant spirit manifest by the city of St. Louis both then and now.
"For some, the (Gateway Arch) represents not only a gateway to the West, but also a symbol of tolerance and brotherhood where peoples of all cultures and faiths can pass through with the assurance of mutual respect and acceptance."
For example, in the bitter aftermath of the extermination order, newspapers in St. Louis expressed sympathy for the suffering saints fleeing across the river to Illinois, and some residents of the city even raised funds to aid the Mormon exiles.
In 1841, two years after the settlement of Nauvoo, the St. Louis Atlas printed this notice: "THE MORMONS: An intelligent friend, who called upon us this morning, has just returned from a visit to Nauvoo and the Mormons.... He believes — just as we do — that they have been grossly misunderstood and shamefully libeled.... The people are very enterprising, industrious, and thrifty. They are at least quite as honest as the rest of us.... Their religion is a peculiar one .... But it is a faith they say encourages no vice... At this moment they present the appearance of enterprising, industrious, sober and thrifty population — such a population needed as, in the respects just mentioned, have no rivals east, and we rather guess, not even west of the Mississippi."
The authors quoted this passage printed in 1855 in the Church periodical, the St. Louis Luminary: "This city has been an asylum for our people from 15 to 20 years.... There is probably no city in the world where Latter-day Saints are more respected and where they may sooner obtain an outfit for Utah.... The hand of the Lord is in these things."
Latter-day Saints continued to gather at St. Louis for two decades in the mid-19th century, wrote the authors. "One push-and-pull factor was the 1846 Nauvoo exodus which sent about 1,500 displaced saints south seeking employment and shelter in the Crescent City (St. Louis). The following summer, Brigham Young established a new Zion in the West. Subsequently, thousands of Mormon European immigrants, having made their way across the Atlantic and up the Mississippi, sought additional funds in St. Louis to continue their journey to the Salt Lake Valley."
President Young was always mindful of Church members clustered in St. Louis, the authors wrote, and continually corresponded with local leaders. At the same time, missionaries en route to their fields of labor passed through St. Louis, and received needed funds from local saints.
In 1854, President Young approved creation of the St. Louis Stake, the 16th stake of the Church and the only stake actively functioning outside of Utah Territory at the time. It was created Nov. 4 of that year.
"Over the next few years, the numbers of local Latter-day Saints swelled to thousands," the two historians wrote. "However, with the threat of cholera and yellow fever, in 1855 the Mormon emigration route changed to bypass the port of New Orleans and thus the Mississippi River through St. Louis. In addition, the following year the railroad extended its track as far west as Iowa City (in Iowa). From here, the saints terminated their rail ride and began to push handcarts to Zion on the northern route, again bypassing the Crescent City. Finally the last blow occurred in 1857, when Church members were urgently called to gather to the Salt Lake Valley with the impending threat of the Utah War."
A century later, June 1, 1958 (Brigham Young's birthday anniversary), a stake was organized in St. Louis for the second time, with Roy W. Oscarson as president. (In the 1970s, President Oscarson would be called to preside over a mission in England while two of his sons, Richard and Paul, were serving simultaneously as mission presidents in Sweden.)
Less than four decades later, President Gordon B. Hinckley dedicated a temple in St. Louis, the 50th operating temple of the Church. The temple dedication also occurred on Brigham Young's birthday, June 1, 1997.
Today in the St. Louis metropolitan area, there are four stakes — St. Louis, O'Fallon, St. Louis South and St. Louis North — with 42 units and 13,348 members, authors Woods and Farmer noted.
E-mail to: rscott@desnews.com
