Lyman Wight & Mormon Colonies in Texas (Part 2 of 8)

Did you know Joseph Smith considered moving the Church to Texas? Melvin Johnson talks more about apostle Lyman Wight’s Texas colony.

Mel: So, in February, Wight, George Miller–and Miller was Bishop of the community–and his counselors, wrote a letter to Joseph Smith, saying, “We’re almost done here. We’re going to send our latest lumber rafts down the Mississippi River, and then we’re going to exchange them, we hope, with you for the steam ship Maid of Iowa, and then we want to go to–not state but Republic of Texas.” They wanted to create a Mormon colony outside of the United States. Of course, by that time, Joseph Smith knew the Mormons could not stay in Nauvoo. … Mel: The Council of Fifty, some of them like the idea of Texas. So they send the pagan prophet Lucien Woodworth on a mission down to Sam Houston, President of the Republic of Texas. GT: Why do you call him a pagan prophet? Mel: Well, that’s what Joseph called him.

But the most interesting part of the interview was to learn about the Zodiac Temple! Apostle Lyman Wight started a Mormon group!

Mel: They’ll also build the first diaspora Mormon temple, west of the Mississippi. It was not St. George, it was in Zodiac, Texas.

GT: So they have an endowment ceremony and everything?

Mel: Endowment, depending upon which definition you use, yes. They had a temple, and on the second floor, they had sealings, anointings, adoptions, the washing feet, the oiling in the head in the sealing of blessings. They did marriage for time and eternity. John and his wife, Sylvia, were married and endowed there.

What are your thoughts concerning this temple that was built by 1847 in Texas? Check out our conversation….

- Lyman Wight & Mormon Colonies in Texas (Part 2 of 8) - Mormon History Podcast — Historian Mel Johnson describes the Lyman Wight colony that built the Zodiac Temple in Texas by 1847!

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Get more information on the people and things discussed in this episode:

Guest: Melvin Johnson
Denomination: Wightites
LDS Leaders
Historical Mentions John Pierce Hawley, Lyman Wight, Sam Houston
Tags: GT Podcast, iTunes, John Pierce Hawley, Lyman Wight, Mormon schisms, Republic of Texas, Sam Houston, Zodiac Temple

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3 Responses

Martha Bott says:

May 11, 2019 at 6:13 pm

Thank you for sharing this information. We lived and attended church in Fredericksburg, Tx and Burnet, Texas (Marble Falls, Tx. )Morman Mill Road is a beautiful back road drive between Marble Falls and Burnet. There is now a branch at Buchcanan Dam. We love it that the church was in Texas before it was in Utah. The grave of Lyman Wight is unknown, but I think I read it was around Bulverde, outside of San Antonio, where San Antonio Temple is. Let’s all pray for a temple in Austin!
MELVIN C JOHNSON says:

July 9, 2019 at 7:40 pm

Wight’s body was carried to what is now the Schmidtzinsky farm on E. Schmidtzinsky Lane outside of Fredericksburg. He was buried in the old Mormon graveyard there in his masonic regalia. The cemetery was harrowed under about eighty years ago so that State could not alter the property for any reasons, and the former grave site was planted in wheat. A Texas Historic Marker now spots the location.
Melvin Johnson says:

March 6, 2021 at 10:58 am

Wight’s grave is located in the cemetery off East Schmidzinsky Drive, about a 1/4 east and north of the farm house. It was harrowed under about 80 years ago, but I found it. I know exactly where LW is buried.