SOURCE: “Perpetuation of a Myth: Mormon Danites in Five Western Novels, 1840-90,” in Brigham Young University Studies, Vol. 23, No. 2, Spring, 1983, pp. 147-65.

In the following essay, Cornwall and Arrington examine how five nineteenth-century novelists treated the theme of the Danites in their fiction.

In Caldwell County, Missouri, during the spring and summer of 1838, there had been instances of vandalism, theft, and terrorism against Mormon settlements. Mormons, fearing a repeat of the occurrences in Jackson and Clay counties, from which they had been driven by force and political maneuver in 1833 and 1836, were determined not to lose their properties again. Therefore, over a period of eight to sixteen weeks, a small group of Mormon men met in private homes to plan defensive tactics against “gentiles” and dissenting Mormons.

The initial targets of these Brothers of Gideon, as they called themselves, were Mormon “dissenters”—several leaders who, by violating economic or...