Members of The Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints contributed to the nation’s westward expansion in the nineteenth century and to Wisconsin’s early development. In 1835, Moses Smith helped establish Burlington and in 1837 organized Wisconsin’s first Mormon congregation, with his cabin standing across the river from here. Mormons helped develop communities in southwest and western Wisconsin, including Jenkynsville in 1837, Blanchardville in 1842, and near La Crosse in 1844-1845, where they mined lead ore and farmed, and at sites along the Black River from 1841 to 1844, where they harvested pine and floated it down the Mississippi River to build the Mormon Temple in Nauvoo, Illinois. Oliver Cowdery, second only to Joseph Smith in the church’s early history, was a lawyer and newspaper editor in Elkhorn. After Smith’s 1844 murder in Illinois, Wisconsin Mormons either joined the migration to Utah or formed separatist churches here. Few remained after 1850, but by 1875 Mormons re-established a growing presence in Wisconsin.