As best as can be determined, James Jesse Strang (1813–1856) was the only monarch ever crowned within the borders of the United States. Strang was an influential and senior member within the Mormon church community. Following the murder of Joseph Smith by an angry mob in 1844, he sought to gain the mantle of church leadership. [Cue South Park "Dum, dum, dum" music from the episode on Mormons.] Although Strang produced two gold tablets covered in strange writing, purportedly "proving" that he was the indisputable successor (appointed by a deity, no less), Brigham Young was the man with whom most Mormon allegiance lay. Strang, along with several hundred loyal followers, withdrew to Beaver Island, a desolate wilderness on Lake Michigan.
The sect named their rugged new home "Zion", a move that clearly shows a lack of originality, in my opinion. On the eighth of July, 1850, Strang, dressed in a flowing robe that once belonged to a Shakespearean actor, accepted a base metal crown ornamented with glass stars and assumed the title James I, King of Zion. (Supposedly, refashioning the strange tablets, if he still had them, into a gold crown was out of the question.) THe new monarch instituted a new model of the welfare state, providing social security and old-age pensions, as well as legalising polygamy. [Repeat South Park "Dum, dum, dum music.]
At first, the government considered this little monarchy too weak and insignificant to be worth concern, so they left it alone as a bit of an oddity. However, when the king's army began to intercept "enemy" lake shipping, interrupting and interfering with the profitable business of smuggling whiskey to the First Nation's People (known then as Indians), federal and state officials sprang into action. James I was arrested and brought to Detroit for trial on charges of treason. However, the state prosecutors were not prepared for the soaring eloquence of His Highness. Strang argued persuasively that he was "being persecuted for religion's sake" and he was acquitted by the sympathetic frontier jury.
Source: The Best, Worst & Most Unusual: Noteworthy Achievements, Events, Feats & Blunders of Every Conceivable Kind (1976, reprinted 1994); Bruce Felton and Mark Fowler ; ISBN-10: 0-88365-861-5; Pp. Pgs. 119-120
The entry continues with an additional paragraph about the eventual demise of the short reign of the only King of Zion, but I'm not reproducing it here. If you want to find out more (not just about King James I of Zion), buy the book; it's a rich source of some fantastic (and unusual) tidbits, which I intend to share on noise.cash in the coming months. (There doesn't seem to be any online information about King James I of Zion, as far as I could find, only material on the King James version of the bible and Zion in scripture.)
Post thumbnail photo by J.J. Jordan from/on Pexels
