During the Mormon War of 1838, Stout was a member of the Danites, a Latter Day Saint vigilante group and took a central role in the events of the 1838 Mormon War, and fought in the Battle of Crooked River.
Shortly after the death of Joseph Smith and his brother Hyrum in 1844 at the hands of a unit of the Illinois State Militia, their brother Samuel H. Smith also died under allegedly suspicious circumstances.