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15 Deer Lodge: The Heavenly City In February 1868, the Prophet Cainan wrote from Salt Lake City to the Saints in Montana expressing his intention to move there and take up a claim as soon as possible. However, a few months later, probably because he realized that much of his Nevada and California support had diminished, he changed his mind and made preparations to return to his native land to preach the gospel. He departed in January 1869. Along the way he visited here and there with Morrisites, and in Council Bluffs Cainan held a meeting with a group from Iowa and Nebraska. There on January 24 he was sustained by unanimous vote as prophet, seer, and revelator of the Church of Jesus Christ of Saints of the Most High. Soren Peter Guhl, the leader of the Council Bluffs group, was sustained as Cainan’s first counselor. Guhl was also set apart to be an apostle and “doctor in theology.” Andrew Hendrikson became the clerk and recorder. Little is known of Guhl, except that he was born in Jyland, Denmark, August 18, 1821, had migrated to America, and had been with Joseph Morris at South Weber. Cainan had appointed him president of the Montana Morrisites sometime after 1865. Whether or not he assumed that office is uncertain, but he was released in February 1868 when William James was appointed to preside there. Although Cainan had called Guhl to a Scandinavian mission in 1865, he experienced numerous delays and had gotten no farther than Council Bluffs when Cainan arrived in 1869. Guhl presided in the Council Bluffs area for about two months, following Cainan’s visit in 1869. In April or May he responded to a missionary call to Denmark, and Andrew Hendrikson succeeded him as president. It is evident that Guhl was a trusted follower of Cainan at that time. However, once he got to Denmark he began to develop his own ideas about the leadership of the Morrisites. He, along with a Mr. Laurentzen and a Mr. Poulson, rejected the leadership of Cainan and set up their own church. A few years later Cainan wrote to the Saints in Montana. “Here I am struck with a view of feeling after Guhl, Laurentzen, and Poulson in Denmark who outrageously 194 The Dispersion disagreed with me; that it became wisdom to leave them until more reason overtook them.1 Apparently Guhl and his compatriots were never overtaken by more reason, for they remained estranged from Cainan. Andrew Hendrikson (originally Henrikson) was also a native of Jyland, Denmark, born July 29, 1843. He migrated to America about 1861. Like so many of his contemporaries, he left Scandinavia to avoid the military draft and to seek his fortune in America. He arrived in New York and found employment with a farm family in that state. When the family moved, to Council Bluffs, he accompanied them and there came in contact with members of the Morrisite church. He was baptized January 22, 1869. In January 1869 there were fifteen members in the Omaha congregation and twelve members in Council Bluffs. By October 1871 the names of forty-two persons were listed in the Omaha records and twenty-seven in Council Bluffs. In addition, eight children were recorded in the Omaha record book. Seven of them had been born between September 1869 and November 1870. Two children died in early 1871.2 Although the number of Morrisites in the region of Omaha and Council Bluffs was not large, it represented the most cohesive group backing the ProphetCainanin1869.Fromthatgroupcamenumerouspersonswhoplayed a significant role in the settlement of the Deer Lodge Valley in Montana. Headquarters in England The Prophet Cainan continued on his journey and arrived in England probably in late spring or early summer. On August 17, 1869, he addressed a letter to the Saints in Omaha from Norfolk, England. In it he remarked upon the progress of the work there and intimated that he was grief-stricken to be separated from his wife, Susannah Adelaid Louise Williams, and his children , who had not accompanied him but still lived in Salt Lake City. He asked the Saints to write to them and comfort them in their separation. On January 10, 1870, he wrote to the Saints in Montana, and after telling them of his many trials and vicissitudes, including physical suffering in his journeys and labors, he asked Sister Margaret (Thomas) to write to his family in Salt Lake. Apparently they were not only separated from him...

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