Joseph Smith was a minor player in Missouri. He fled Ohio with the law on his tail. Two close associates said he had just ten or twenty people who would follow him when he got to Missouri. The big orator was Sidney Rigdon who was all apocalyptic, calling for the elders to protect Zion and God would help them be successful. Let this be a war of extermination was his cry on July fourth. The governor took up that call later in the year against the mormons.
At the same time,Sampson Avard was expanding the Danites. A number of apostles became Danites under Avard's leadership.
There were about five thousand mormons in Missouri, most around Far West, the mormon capital in the mormon county created specifically for mormons by the Missouri legislature. The mormons had created problems in Jackson County so they decided to separate them off into their own county. But there was not enough land in the county for that many people and the mormons were expecting a lot more people to come. So the mormons started settlements in nearby counties.
During the elections, the mormons in Gallatin in the adjoining county were prevented from voting. This was back in the time when the ballots for parties were of a particular party so everyone knew who you were voting for. The mormons were voting for the wrong person so a mob stopped them and threatened them. That made them a target.
The Danites had taken over the mormon militia of a thousand people. They sent Danites up to the other county and told everyone they had to leave because the mormons were taking over the county. They were given a deadline and most citizens in the county left out of fear. An army of a thousand was bigger than the cities there. A few stayed. The Danites took the whole army into the county and burned down houses and threatened anyone who had not left.
Soon after, I think after, Rigdon and the leaders of Far West said no one could leave after a certain date and anyone found to be a traitor would regret still being in the city. That night Marsh and Hyde escaped. Others also left.
Militia groups and mobs were everywhere in the area. At one point a militia group captured two mormons. The Danites under the leadership of apostle David Patten at the time attacked the militia and rescued the two mormons, then took all their weapons. Patten was number two after Marsh with Brigham Young as number three in the leadership of the apostles. Patten was killed in the short battle. He was known as Captain Fear not.
That finally convinced the governor that he could send in the combined militias. They surrounded Far West and demanded the return of the weapons stolen. Joseph Smith started to regain his leadership at this point. He ordered that the weapons be returned.
The militias then demanded the surrender of Far West and the leaders. Avard was not one of those demanded. Joseph Smith was. He took it as a hero and was carted off in a prison wagon with the others. That night he was court martialed and sentenced to death at dawn.
He was represented by the church lawyer in Missouri who happened to be one of the generals of the militias, but not the top general. The top general ordered him to kill Joseph Smith at dawn. He refused saying it was an illegal order since Joseph Smith was not in the militia and left. That scared the head general so he took them to other places, hoping to have Joseph Smith killed, but no one would do it, so he left him in one of the state of the art prisons of Missouri so he couldn't escape at Liberty jail.
Hyrum Smith took over the leadership of the church. Joseph Smith told him to not let Sidney Rigdon gain control. His near martyrdom in prison made him a star again. He wrote some prophetic words to his followers who were refugees in Illinois.
When he was moved to a new location for a trial, he bribed the sheriff to let them go. They went to Illinois. He stayed a few days only and left with Hyrum to go look at the property that was to be Nauvoo. He came back and told everyone they had a new gathering place to create Zion and he was back big time. The continuing attempts to arrest him made him an even bigger hero.
It went to his head. He was marrying someone new every month, maybe twice as much if you believe the reports that he had fifty or eighty marriages. When he asked William Law to give up his wife like he had done for all his close associates, Law said no. Soon came the newspaper that announced that Joseph Smith was lying about being a monogamist, exposed the secret council of fifty, and announced the formation of a new church to succeed the fallen prophet, Joseph Smith.
High jinks ensue, Joseph was running with scissors or was it a gun, and he was shot to death. And that was the end of the Mormons. Oh, wait.