Tensions had been rising due to the economic and electoral growth of the church community, along with Joseph Smith’s opposition to slavery. The church members were not welcome in the state. Boggs’ order was in response to what he called “open and avowed defiance of the laws” during the conflict between Mormons and their neighbors, known as the Missouri Mormon War. On October 27, 1838, Governor Boggs issued Executive Order 44, known as the “Extermination Order,” which evicted Mormons from Missouri by any means possible, including violence. In Missouri, Porter would also be a suspect in the assignation attempt against former Governor Lilburn Boggs.
It was in Missouri that Porter would become proficient with a gun and would marry his first wife in 1832. At 16, he was the youngest member.Īfter the New York branch of the church relocated to Ohio, Porter was sent on to Jackson County, Missouri, the intended central gathering place for church members. His parents were neighbors of the Smith Family in Massachusetts, and when Smith needed funds to publish The Book of Mormon, Rockwell sold berries and wood to help out.įollowing Smith to New York, the Rockwell family would become some of the earliest members of the Latter Day Saint movement, with Porter being baptized in the church on the day it was founded in April 1830. Conflicting information put his birth as either June 28, 1813, or June 25, 1815, but we know for sure that as a young man, he became personal friends of the slightly older Joseph Smith. Mormon Church founder Joseph Smith, Jr‘s personal bodyguard, Orrin Porter Rockwell, would be known for his loyalty and generosity, as much as his tenacity and ruthlessness as a lawman in Utah.īecause he didn’t keep a diary, Porter Rockwell’s story is blurry.
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