Portal:Michigan/Selected biography/5

James Jesse Strang (March 21, 1813 – July 9, 1856) was one of three major contenders for leadership of the Latter Day Saint movement during the 1844 Succession Crisis. Rejected by the principal body of Mormons in Nauvoo, Illinois, he became the founder and prophet of the Church of Jesus Christ of Latter Day Saints, claiming it to be the sole legitimate continuation of the Church of Christ founded in 1830 by Joseph Smith, Jr.. In this capacity, he served as the crowned "king" of an ecclesiastical monarchy that existed for six years within the U.S. state of Michigan. Building an organization that eventually rivaled Brigham Young's, Strang gained nearly 12,000 adherents prior to his murder in 1856, which brought down his Beaver Island kingdom and all but extinguished his sect. In contrast to Joseph Smith, who had served as "president" of his church, Strang taught that Smith's prophetic office embodied an overtly royal attribute, by which its occupant was to be not only the spiritual leader of his people, but their temporal king as well.