On February 22, 1839, members of The Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints, refugees driven from Missouri under Governor Lilburn Boggs's “Extermination Order,” settled on property owned by Thomas Edwards, who later joined the church. Led by Silas Smith, a high priest in the church and uncle of Joseph Smith, the community grew to more than 300 members. Silas Smith died on September 13, 1839, at age 58 and was buried here near his home. He was succeeded by John Lawton and later by Harlow Redfield, who presided over the congregation until it disbanded in 1845. In October 1842, Brigham Young and Heber C. Kimball preached at a church conference held here. The settlement later became known as Mormontown and extended on both sides of the road, with cabins and wells, a schoolhouse, and a church on the south side. In later years the 60-by-80-foot cemetery fell into disrepair, its gravestones were bulldozed into a ditch and the graveyard plowed over, and the church building was relocated to Pittsfield for use as a parish hall by Saint Mary’s Catholic Church, while the pews and pulpit were moved to a church near Pleasant Hill.