A previous article in The Community News Brief about Colchester history recounted the experiences of the Stevens brothers who moved out of the area to seek their fortune. Earlier in the 1800s, a trio of sisters moved into the Colchester area and spent the rest of their lives as part of the community. They were the sisters of Joseph Smith, Jr., the founder of the Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-Day Saints.
Most everyone around here knows some details about the Mormons at Nauvoo and the mob that assassinated Joseph and Hyrum Smith at the old Carthage Jail. They may also know that Nauvoo was once the largest city in Illinois back in the early 1800s, bigger than Chicago. Then, the community was known as Commerce, but the Latter-Day Saints purchased the village in their western exodus from New York state to Illinois and beyond.
The community boasted a population of 12,000-15,000 citizens, depending on who's counting, while Chicago numbered only about 8,000 by the mid-1800s. The Mormon population also had the biggest private militia in the state and were a theocratic entity unto themselves. No wonder early intolerant non-Mormon settlers felt threatened by these invaders with their strange religious practices.
Sisters
Matters percolated and then boiled until eventually the majority of the Mormon population headed west with Brigham Young as their leader (after many squabbles). But three of those families remained in the area, three sisters: Sophronia, Katharine and Lucy. The oldest sister is buried in Mt.
