James Jesse Strang

"Few lives experience a meteoric rise and fall like that of James Jesse Strang's. An unsuccessful lawyer from upstate New York, he converted to Mormonism in 1844 and quickly entered the inner circle of the controversial new faith's founder, Joseph Smith Jr. Upon Smith's assassination, Strang sought to be named his successor as leader of the Mormons. Instead, he was excommunicated in 1850, though not before gathering a group of followers, who settled with him on remote Beaver Island in northern Lake Michigan and ordained Strang king of the small enclave. King Strang elicited both ire and…