Ep.43 - The King of Beaver Island

This epiosde takes us to 19th century Michigan, where a kingdom briefly flourished.

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Produced, written, edited, and hosted by Steve from Great Lakes True Crime.

SOURCES:
Buhk, T. T. (2011). True Crime: Michigan : the State's Most Notorious Criminal Cases. United States: Stackpole Books.

https://www.findagrave.com/mem...:~:text=He%20was%20first%20buried%20in,1876.

Episode Transcript

(00:00):
Once upon a time, the Stateof Michigan had a king, well sort
of, an island within the Stateof Michigan had a king, although not
many people recognized him as such.James Jesse Strang, also known as the
King of Beaver Island, was areligious leader and self proclaimed prophet who founded
the Strangite Mormon sect on Beaver Island, Michigan, in the mid nineteenth century.

(00:24):
And while his kingdom flourished for awhile, it didn't work out so
well for James in the long run. From the south shore of Lake Erie,
this is Great Lake's True Crime.At fifty eight square miles, Beaver

(00:55):
Island is the largest island in LakeMichigan and is located in the northern part
of the lake. The island hasa rich and varied history, dating back
to the time of the indigenous peopleswho lived in the area. The Annishanabe
are also known as the Ojibway orChippewa, where the first known inhabitants of

(01:15):
Beaver Island. They lived on theisland for centuries and used it as a
hunting and fishing ground. The islandwas also an important spiritual site for the
Annishanabe, who believed it to behome of the Great Spirit. In the
early eighteen hundreds, European settlers beganto arrive on the island. The first

(01:37):
permanent settlers were Irish immigrants who establisheda fishing village. They were later joined
by other settlers from various backgrounds,including French, Canadians and Scandinavians. James
Jesse Strang was born in eighteen thirteenin New York State and grew up in
a religious family on a farm inthe Upstate area. He was the second

(02:00):
of three children and was quite sicklyas a youngster, only attending school until
age twelve. James was exposed ofvarious Christian denominations growing up, and by
all accounts was very intelligent, quickwitted, and charismatic. He also developed
the visions of grandeur as a youngman. In his diary, James admitted

(02:23):
that he wanted to be a worldfameless leader like Julius Season or Napoleon.
He dreamt of royalty and power,having visions of marrying Queen Victoria of England.
But James's visions didn't quite come toreality, as in eighteen forty twenty
year old Queen Victoria married her cousinAlbert, and James Strang married a Baptist

(02:45):
minister's daughter and named Mary Pearse.The couples settled on a farm in upstate
New York, but James quickly grewtired of the mundane farm life he wanted
more. So James enrolled and lostschool, earned his law degree, and
moved to what was known at thetime as the Wisconsin Territory. James opened

(03:07):
up a law practice there and wasimmediately successful, being served well by his
wit and intellect. In eighteen fortyfour, a thirty one year old James
Strang heard about the Mormon prophet JosephSmith Junior. Intrigued, he traveled to
the Mormon hot spot of Nauvoo,Illinois and met with Smith, and he

(03:29):
was very intrigued by the Mormon leader, so much so, in fact,
that James converted to the LDS religionand became an elder in the church.
He eventually returned to Wisconsin, wherehe opened up a Mormon colony. Only
a few months later, however,Joseph Smith and his brother Hiram were murdered

(03:50):
by a mob in a jail inCarthage, Illinois, where the two brothers
were being held ironically on charges ofinciting riot and treason. With both brothers
deceased, the Mormon Church was withouta leader. A power struggle developed between
James Strang, Sydney Ridgin, andBrigham Young. To bolster his claim,

(04:15):
James produced a letter signed by JosephSmith and postmarked from Navoo, Illinois,
eight days before his assassination. It'sunclear whether the letter was legitimately written by
Joseph Smith or was a forgery.In any case, the letter stated that
if anything weren't happened to Smith,he wanted James to take over leadership of

(04:38):
the Mormon Church as his successor.As you may have guessed, or maybe
you already knew, Brigham Young ultimatelywon the power struggle, but the LDS
Church was somewhat fractured after that.While about twenty thousand Mormons followed Brigham Young
to Utah, a fair number betweenfour thousand and six thousand decided to follow

(05:00):
James Strang and moved to Wisconsin.That's a pretty big large number when you
think about it. One major differencebetween the two, and likely the reasons
some of them decided to follow James, was that Brigham Young was in favor
of plural marriage. While James wasan outspoken critic of it, Strang ultimately
used his charisma and persuasive rhetoric toattract those large number of followers to his

(05:24):
sect, and they became known asStrangites. In eighteen forty seven, James
Strang claimed to have had a vision. In this vision, he saw his
congregation following him to an entirely newlocation. This location turned out to be
in Michigan, an island in LakeMichigan, to be precise, called Beaver

(05:45):
Island. It's not clear whether BeaverIsland was chosen by Strang, but if
he wanted an isolated area with plentyof land, this was it. Beaver
Island is about twenty miles from mainland, Michigan, and at the time the
Strangites settled there, it had veryfew other residents, most of whom were
Chippewas. Strang and his followers movedout of Wisconsin and into Beaver Island,

(06:12):
Michigan. There they established a theocraticcommunity and built a temple which served as
the center of their religious and politicalactivities. Strang declared himself the king of
Beaver Island and established a government withhimself as the absolute ruler. He even
held a coronation for himself I meanwhy not, and went by the title

(06:34):
King James the First. He alsoestablished a newspaper, The Northern Islander,
which he used to promote his messageand defend his actions. And now here
comes the Shocker. Strang quickly changedhis stance on plural marriage, although that
decision lost him a fair number offollowers, including his wife Mary. Strang

(06:59):
went on to have at least sevenwives during his lifetime. James Strang was
far from a benevolent dictator. Hisrule on Beaver Island was marked by authoritarianism,
violence, and corruption. He imposedstrict rules on his followers and punished
those who disobeyed him with fines,imprisonment, or expulsion from the island.

(07:21):
He also used his power to getrich through land and property confiscation and trade
monopolies. For example, Strang wasa teetotaler and completely banned the sale of
liquor on Beaver Island, even thoughhe had no legal authority to do so.
Strang levied ridiculously high fines for anyoneviolating his alcohol band, and he

(07:44):
used his made up enforcement powers toboard ships, search people's houses, and
enter local shops looking for supposed contrabandhis extremely high property taxes were also used
to swindle people out of their property. Eventually, Strang's illicit methods garnered the
attention of the United States federal government, particularly after some of the Strangites removed

(08:09):
lumber from the island without government approval. Strang and his followers, however,
were successful in defending themselves in courton those charges. The media provided pretty
favorable coverage to Strayng as well.He got so popular, in fact,
that Strang was elected to the MichiganState Legislature. He was said to have

(08:33):
been an effective legislator too. Thosesame powers of persuasion and charisma that he
used in the religious sector led Stryngto have a number of his bills and
acted into law. He was evenelected to a second term and started thinking
about running for governor, but Dessentwas heating up back on Beaver Island,
so he needed attend to that.In eighteen fifty five, King James implemented

(08:58):
a new dress code for women only. Of course, String declared that women
should stop wearing the popular long,fancy dresses that were fashionable at the time,
and instead they must wear short kneelength dresses with matching bloomers. Supposedly,
this would make it easier for womento traverse the rough terrain on the
island. While most women went alongand followed this new dictate, four women

(09:22):
on the island refused to do so, and they and their husbands faced swift
retribution. Particularly hit hard by thispunishment was a man named Thomas Bedford,
who had leans placed on his propertyby the Mormon Church. While other Strangites
refused to pay Bedford money that wasowed to him. In turn, Thomas

(09:46):
Bedford started telling anyone in the yearin the area who would listen to him
about the thefts and illegal taxes leviedby Strang and his followers on the island.
When word of this got out,Strang would not sit idly buying that
had happened. Thomas was summoned tothe island's print shop and was told that
he was found guilty of making falseaccusations against King James. Other accounts say

(10:11):
he was found guilty of adultery.In any case, Bedford was found guilty
of something, and his punishment wasto be on the receiving end of thirty
nine lashes with a horsewhip This wasthe last straw for Thomas Bedford, so
he decided to murder James Strang.He quickly found two other men who wanted

(10:33):
to help him kill Strang, andtheir opportunity arose in June eighteen fifty six,
when a ship called the Michigan wascoming to the island, captained by
a man named Charles McClair, whohad heard that some Beaver Island residents might
be looking to get off the island. The Michigan would provide an ideal getaway
for the three assassins, as wellas others on the island who had been

(10:56):
excommunicated or otherwise fell out of favorwith the Strangites. Let's pause for a
quick break here. When the Michiganarrived on June sixteenth, eighteen fifty six,
Captain mc blair met with some islandresidents in their home to hear about
the underhanded ways Strang used to rulethe island. Looking to have a fair

(11:22):
discussion, the captain invited Strang tocome to the house and defend himself against
the many allegations. This was theopportunity Bedford and the other men had been
waiting for. As Strang approached thehouse. Two of the men drew their
pistols and fired at Strang point blank, and King James immediately fell to the

(11:43):
ground, but he was still alive. One of the three men fired a
third shot at Strang as he layon the ground, and the three revolted
for the ship, assuming Strang wasfinally dead. He in fact survived the
third shot, though, although hewas severely wounded. When word got out

(12:05):
on the island about what had happenedto their King James, the Strangites on
Beaver Island demanded that Captain Mclair turnover the three would be assassins for a
trial, but he let them remainon the ship, fearing there was no
way they would receive a fair trialon Beaver Island. Instead, the men
were taken to a jail on MackinawIsland, Michigan, where they were treated

(12:30):
like royalty. People stopped by tobring them gifts of tobacco, whiskey and
other items, not clear why,but they did. Three days later,
the men had a brief court hearingand they were fined a dollar twenty five
each and released. Theo's fines wouldbe equivalent to about forty eight dollars today,

(12:50):
so while the shooters only received aslap on the wrist at most.
James Strang was taken back to Wisconsinto heal and to avoid any further assassination
attempts. He was still in prettybad shape before he left. Strang warned
his followers on Beaver Island that theycould be subject to a variety of reprisals,

(13:13):
and most of them also left theisland. Not too long after.
On July ninth, eighteen fifty six, James Strang succumbed to his injuries from
those gunshots. He died in hisparents before he Wisconsin home at the age
of forty three. Like Joseph Smith, he apparently did not appoint its successor,

(13:39):
and the Strangite community pretty much fizzledout. Many of them joined other
religions. Most of the buildings onBeaver Island were destroyed. Today, there
are still a few Strangites around,but very few, and there's very little
evidence of Strang's kingdom on Beaver Islandtoday. The print shop where Thomas Ford

(14:00):
was found guilty of something still stands. In fact, it houses a museum
operated by the Beaver Island Historical Society. James Strang's killers were never charged further
for their crime. Strang was originallyburied at Vorhee Cemetery in Racine County,
Wisconsin. His remains were later movedto Burlington Cemetery, also in Racine,

(14:24):
Wisconsin, where they remained interred today. Regarding James as many wives, it's
not known what became of them.As I said, after Strang's death,
the Strangite church membership fell off drastically. While it didn't completely disappear, there
are not a whole lot of Strangitesout there today, and it seems like

(14:46):
there must be some type of moralto the story here, probably something about,
you know, not starting up cultsnever seems to end well for well
for anyone involved. Really. Andthat's all for this episode of Great Lakes
True Crime. You can follow theshow on Facebook and Twitter just search for
Great Lakes True Crime. You canalso check out links in the show notes

(15:09):
for our social media handles, theweb address, and the show merchandise page.
Before we go, I did wantto give you a very quick streaming
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(15:31):
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It was an excellent show. Theplace was packed. It's amazing how much

(15:52):
energy Bruce still has, so checkhim out on tour if you get the
chance. Many thanks to those ofyou who recently left some five star reviews
that I saw on the podcast appsmost appreciated. If you haven't left a
five star review, please take aminute to do so. Amongst the millions
of podcasts out there, positive reviewsreally help get the word out about the
show. For Great Lakes True Crime. This has been Steve, your host

(16:17):
and producer. Thanks for listening.BYES