But first I must explain the Rise of this church, which happened because of the death of its founder Joseph Smith in 1844, who wrote the Book of Mormon.
When he died, there were so many bullets in his corpse, they could hardly pick him up to put him in his coffin, to carry him back to Nauvoo, Illinois.
His wife, Emma, did not explain to her little boys what had been the cause of his death. And the oldest one, Joseph Smith III, assumed all his life that his father was innocent of all wrongs, which was hardly true.
Emma did not follow Brigham Young to Utah, but remained in Nauvoo, with her sons.
Meanwhile, another church had been forming in Northern Illiinois of LDS members, who called themselves RLDS. They needed a Religious leader and Joseph Smith III joined them, in this capacity, but remained in Nauvoo, with his family, for a while.
But the Church insisted that he move to join them, in Plano, Illinois.
The RLDS then bought land in Southern Iowa, and built a town on it, they called Lamoni.
JS III then concentred (successfully) on making Lamoni his town. And on making the RLDS church his church. What happened to the original RLDS members I do not know.
He moved the Church to Independence, Missouri, started a building program, and died there.
Later in the 20th Century, many changes happened, and the Church became the Community of Christ church.
These changes were complicated and I cannot say much about them, except the RLDS church was no more.
I got no comments on this posting. Evidently, it was not considered important. Young people, by and large, are not interested in it. And do not care if it is slowly fading out.
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