The Evening and The Morning Star - Printing in Missouri

Printing in Missouri

The Evening and the Morning Star was the first Latter Day Saint newspaper. It was initially published in the printing office of William Wines Phelps in Independence, Missouri. The first issue was printed in June 1832 as volume 1 number 1. Printing continued until the office was destroyed by a mob on 20 July 1833, in response to an article published in The Evening and the Morning Star about U.S. and Missouri laws regarding slavery, African-Americans, and mixed-raced Americans. According to a letter written by John Whitmer and Phelps, proslavery Missourians responded with an outraged manifesto, in which Mormons were decried as "...deluded fanatics, or weak and designing knaves..." and so forth. The mob destroyed Phelps' printing office and numerous incomplete copies of the Book of Commandments. Volume 2 number 14 was the last issue published in Missouri.