On August 6 , 1838 , non-Mormons in Gallatin tried to prevent Mormons from voting , and the election-day scuffles initiated the 1838 Mormon War . Non-Mormon vigilantes raided and burned Mormon farms , while Danites and other Mormons pillaged non-Mormon towns . In the Battle of Crooked River , a group of Mormons attacked the Missouri state militia , mistakenly believing them to be anti-Mormon vigilantes . Governor Lilburn Boggs then ordered that the Mormons be " exterminated or driven from the state " . On October 30 , a party of Missourians surprised and killed seventeen Mormons in the Haun 's Mill massacre
Haun 's Mill massacre
Haun's Mill massacre
Joseph Smith