Editing James Strang (section)

==Childhood, education and conversion to Mormonism==
James Jesse Strang was born March 21, 1813, in [[Scipio, New York|Scipio]], [[Cayuga County, New York]].<ref>{{cite book|last=Rodgers|first=Bradley A.|title=Guardian of the Great Lakes: The U.S. Paddle Frigate Michigan|date=1996|publisher=University of Michigan Press|page=60|url=https://books.google.com/books?id=U38ka8Rm3NMC&pg=PA60 |isbn=0472066072}}</ref> He was the second of three children, and his parents had a good reputation in their community. Strang's mother was very tender with him as a consequence of delicate health, yet she required him to render an account of all his actions and words while absent from her.<ref>Post, Warren. "[http://www.strangstudies.org/James_Jesse_Strang/ History of James Strang: The Birth and Parentage of the Prophet James]". ''StrangStudies.org''. Retrieved on 2007-10-28.</ref> In a brief autobiography he wrote in 1855, Strang reported that he had attended grade school until age twelve, but that "the terms were usually short, the teachers inexperienced and ill qualified to teach, and my health such as to preclude attentive study or steady attendance." He estimated that his time in a classroom during those years totaled six months.<ref name="Strang, the Man">"[http://www.mormonbeliefs.com/strang,_the_man.htm Strang, the Man] {{Webarchive|url=https://web.archive.org/web/20071010113135/http://www.mormonbeliefs.com/Strang,_The_Man.htm |date=2007-10-10 }}". ''MormonBeliefs.com''. Retrieved on 2007-10-31</ref>{{Better source needed|reason=The current source is insufficiently reliable ([[WP:NOTRS]]). Appears to have been someone's personal website. No apparent institutional background or editorial oversight.|date=February 2024}}

But none of this meant that Strang was illiterate or simple. Although his teachers "not unfrequently turned me off with little or no attention, as though I was too stupid to learn and too dull to feel neglect," Strang recalled that he spent "long weary days&nbsp;... upon the floor, thinking, thinking, thinking&nbsp;... my mind wandered over fields that old men shrink from, seeking rest and finding none till darkness gathered thick around and I burst into tears."<ref name="Strang, the Man"/><ref>{{cite journal |last=Legler |first=Henry Eduard |year=1897 |title=A Moses of the Mormons: Strang's City of Refuge and Island Kingdom |page=150 |issue=15–16 |journal=Parkman Club Publications |url={{Google books|u33hAAAAMAAJ|page=150|plainurl=y}}}}</ref> He studied works by [[Thomas Paine]] and the [[Comte de Volney]],<ref name=Weeks/> whose book ''Les Ruines'' exerted a significant influence on the future prophet.<ref>Fitzpatrick, pp. 26–27.</ref>{{Better source needed|reason=The current source is insufficiently reliable ([[WP:NOTRS]]), per Klaus J. Hansen's review in the 1971 volume of the journal ''Dialogue'' (DOI:10.2307/45227513) which says, "the book is so bad that my first reaction was that any kind of review, even a critical one, would give it a dignity that it didn't deserve".|date=February 2024}}

As a youth, Strang kept a rather profound personal diary, written partly in a secret code that was not deciphered until over one hundred years after it was authored. This journal contains Strang's musings on a variety of topics, including a sense that he was called to be a significant world leader the likes of [[Julius Caesar|Caesar]] or [[Napoleon]] and his regret that by age nineteen, he had not yet become a general or member of the [[State legislature (United States)|state legislature]], which he saw as being essential by that point in his life to his quest to be someone of importance.<ref>Strang, Mark. (1961). ''The Diary of James J. Strang: Deciphered, Transcribed, Introduced, and Annotated''. East Lansing: Michigan State University Press. Entry for March 21, 1832.  The diary was deciphered by Strang's grandson Mark Strang, a banker in Long Beach, California.</ref> However, Strang's diary reveals a heartfelt desire to be of service to his fellow man, together with agonized frustration at not knowing how he might do so as a penniless, unknown youth from upstate New York.{{citation needed|date=July 2018}}

At age twelve, Strang was baptized a Baptist. He did not wish to follow his father's calling as a farmer, so he took up the study of law. Strang was admitted to the bar in New York at age 23 and later at other places where he resided. He became county [[Postmaster]] and edited a local newspaper, the ''Randolph Herald''.<ref>Jensen, Robin (2005). [http://scholarsarchive.byu.edu/etd/591/ ''Gleaning the Harvest: Strangite Missionary Work 1846–1850''], p. 32.  Retrieved on 2016-02-09.</ref>{{Better source needed|reason=The current source is a thesis, which is not bad but is not the best. Robin Scott Jensen's research on Strangites was later published as a chapter in the John Whitmer Books anthology ''Scattering of the Saints: Schism Within Mormonism''; an academic chapter like that, representing a revised version of this thesis research, would be a better source to cite from.|date=February 2024}} Later, in the midst of his myriad duties on Beaver Island, he would find time to found and publish the ''Daily Northern Islander'', the first newspaper in northern Michigan.<ref>Fitzpatrick, p. 208.</ref>{{Better source needed|reason=The current source is insufficiently reliable ([[WP:NOTRS]]), per Klaus J. Hansen's review in the 1971 volume of the journal ''Dialogue'' (DOI:10.2307/45227513) which says, "the book is so bad that my first reaction was that any kind of review, even a critical one, would give it a dignity that it didn't deserve".|date=February 2024}}

Strang, who once described himself as a "cool philosopher"<ref name=Weeks/> and a [[Freethought|freethinker]], became a Baptist [[minister of religion|minister]] but left in February 1844 to join the [[Church of Christ (Latter Day Saints)|Church of Jesus Christ of Latter Day Saints]]. He quickly found favor with Joseph Smith, though they had known each other only a short time, and was baptized personally by him on February 25, 1844.<ref>Fitzpatrick, p. 27.</ref>{{Better source needed|reason=The current source is insufficiently reliable ([[WP:NOTRS]]), per Klaus J. Hansen's review in the 1971 volume of the journal ''Dialogue'' (DOI:10.2307/45227513) which says, "the book is so bad that my first reaction was that any kind of review, even a critical one, would give it a dignity that it didn't deserve".|date=February 2024}}<ref>Greene, John P. (Nauvoo City Marshal in 1844). "[http://www.strangite.org/Famous.htm 150 people who each knew more about Joseph Smith than anyone alive today]." ''Strangite.org'', item 48. Retrieved on 2007-10-28.</ref>{{Primary source inline|date=February 2024|reason=Preceding note says it is from 1844, and John Greene was marshal of Nauvoo during that time; this may constitute original research.}} On March 3 of that year he was ordained an [[Elder (Latter Day Saints)|Elder]] by Joseph's brother [[Hyrum Smith|Hyrum]] and sent forthwith at Smith's request to Wisconsin, to establish a Mormon [[Stake (Latter Day Saints)|stake]] at [[Voree, Wisconsin|Voree]]. Shortly after Strang's departure, Joseph Smith was murdered by an anti-Mormon mob in [[Carthage, Illinois]].{{citation needed|date=July 2018}}