The church that Joseph Smith organized in 1830 grew quickly and moved often, driven both by its gathering impulse and by recurring conflict with its neighbours. Early centres rose in Kirtland, Ohio, and in Missouri, where tensions culminated in an 1838 "extermination order" and the expulsion of the Saints. They regrouped in Illinois and built Nauvoo, for a time one of the largest cities in the state, where Smith introduced temple ordinances and, privately, the practice of plural marriage. His killing by a mob at Carthage in 1844 set off a succession crisis.
The largest body accepted the leadership of Brigham Young and the Quorum of the Twelve and undertook the great migration west, reaching the Salt Lake Valley in 1847 and colonizing the Great Basin; this became The Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints. Others rejected Young's leadership: several joined what became, under Joseph Smith III, the Reorganized Church (today the Community of Christ, based in Independence, Missouri), and a number of smaller groups formed, including later "fundamentalist" bodies that continued plural marriage after the main church ended it. The Utah church renounced plural marriage in the 1890 Manifesto, opening the way to Utah statehood in 1896, and in 1978 removed its long-standing restriction of priesthood and temple ordinances by race. It has since become a global faith, with more members now living outside the United States than within it.