Question: Who was James Strang?

James Jesse Strang (21 March 1813 – 9 July 1856) was a Mormon leader who established a Mormon sect after the murder of Joseph Smith, Jr.

After Joseph Smith, Jr.--founder of the Latter day saint movement--was murdered, there were several claimants to his role as leader and prophet of The Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints. One of these was James J. Strang, a recent convert to the church, several prominent families, including many members of the Smith family accepted Strang's claims, which were based on a letter which Strang said Smith had writen appointing him as President of the church should Joseph Smith be killed. For a period Strangs group rivaled in numbers the Saints in Utah.

Strang's group is formally called the Church of Jesus Christ of Latter Day Saints (notice, no hyphen and the different capitalization) but Strang's church and his followers are commonly called the "Strangites".

Strang and his associates settled for several years on Beaver Island in Lake Michigan, where he was pronounced king. Strang, who was an almost patholigicl over achiver, was also a lawyer, land developer, news correspondent for the New York Tribune, and a scientist for the Smithsonian Institution.

Strng was killed in 1856 by some of his disafected followers at Beaver Island, Michigan. Following his death his movement started to disband. Today there are less than 500 members of the Church of Jesus Christ of Latter Day Saints living mostly in Michigan and Wisconsin.