Editing Lyman Wight (section)

==Succession crisis and Wightite colony==

===Split with the LDS Church===
During the [[succession crisis (Latter Day Saints)|succession crisis]] after Smith's death, Wight felt compelled to follow the orders Smith had given him to found a safe haven for the Latter Day Saints in the [[Republic of Texas]]. Brigham Young attempted several times to persuade Wight to join the main body of Latter-day Saints, which he had organized as [[the Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints]] in the [[Alta California]] area of [[Mexico]], which would become the [[Utah Territory]] in 1850. However, Wight refused each time.{{Citation needed|date=May 2021}} He rejected Young as a prophet.<ref name=":0" /> Wight was eventually [[Church membership council|excommunicated]] by Young on December 3, 1848;<ref>{{Harvnb|Johnson|2006|p=122}}</ref> his most prominent follower, [[Bishop (Latter Day Saints)|Bishop]] [[George Miller (Latter Day Saints)|George Miller]], was also disfellowshipped.

===Zodiac, Texas===
Wight moved his group of Latter Day Saints to the Republic of Texas and he would eventually found several communities on the central Texas frontier. Wight's followers built the first Latter Day Saint [[Temple (Latter Day Saints)|temple]] west of the Mississippi. The temple was built in [[Zodiac, Texas]],{{sfn|Johnson|2006|p=125}} about three miles from [[Fredericksburg, Texas|Fredericksburg]]. [[Sealing (Latter Day Saints)|Sealings]], [[Ordination#Latter Day Saint movement|ordinations]], [[washing and anointing]]s, and [[Law of adoption (Mormonism)|adoptions]] were performed in this temple by the Wightites.

The only remaining material infrastructure of the colony is the Mormon Mill cemetery near Hamilton Creek, about fifty miles east by north of Fredericksburg.

===President of the Church of Christ (Wightite)===
Wight would later recognize William Smith as the president of the [[William Smith (Mormonism)#Later involvement with Latter Day Saint groups|Latter Day Saints]] for a short time and served as a counselor in Smith's short-lived [[First Presidency]]. After 1849, Wight wrote and stated that he believed the prophetic mantle of church leadership should fall on the shoulders of Joseph Smith's sons. By then, Wight had rejected Brigham Young, William Smith, and [[James Strang]] as pretenders to be Smith's successor. In 1851, after the [[Pedernales River]] overflowed its banks and destroyed Zodiac, the Wightite colonists moved to [[Burnet County, Texas|Burnet County]], establishing [[Mormon Mill, Burnet County, Texas|Mormon Mill]].