all my money, and I was ready
to start the world new and fresh. I had about fifty dollars to
procure things to keep house on, but it was soon gone; yet it
procured, about all we then thought we needed. I commenced
housekeeping near my wife's father's, and had good success in all
that I undertook. I made money, or rather I obtained considerable
property, and was soon comfortably fixed.

CHAPTER III - LEE BECOMES A MORMON

After I moved to Luck Creek I was a fortunate man and accumulated
property very fast. I look back to those days with pleasure. I
had a large house and I gave permission to all sorts of people to
come there and preach. Methodists, Baptists, Campbellites, and
Mormons all preached there when they desired to do so.

In 1837 a man by the name of King, from Indiana, passed by, or
came to my place, on his way to Missouri to join the Mormons. He
had been a New Light, or Campbellite preacher. I invited him to
stay at my place until the next spring. I gave him provisions for
his family, and he consented to and did stay with me some time.

Soon after that there was a Methodist meeting at my house. After
the Methodist services were through I invited King to speak. He
talked about half an hour on the first principles of the gospel
as taught by Christ and his apostles, denouncing all other
doctrines as spurious. This put an end to other denominations
preaching in my house.

That was the first sermon I ever heard concerning Mormonism. The
winter before, two elders, Durphy and Peter Dustan, stayed a few
days with Hanford Stewart, a cousin of Levi Stewart, the bishop
of Kanab. They preached in the neighborhood, but I did not attend
or hear them preach. My wife and her mother went to hear them,
and were much pleased with their doctrine. I was not a member of
any Church, and considered the religion of the day as merely the
opinions of men who preached for hire and worldly gain. I
believed in God and in Christ, but I did not see any denomination
that taught the apostolic doctrine as set forth in the New
Testament. I read in the New Testament where the apostle Paul
recommended his people to prove all things, then hold fast to
that which is good; also that he taught that though an angel from
heaven should preach any other gospel than this which ye have
received, let him be accursed. This forbid me believing any
doctrine that differed from that taught by Christ and his
apostles. I wanted to belong to the true Chur