Sioux City Academy of Science and Letters. 95 
saying, “I appoint Chas. B. Thompson Chief Steward of 
my house * * * and to receive, hold and manage 
and direct all the sacred Treasures of my house, the obli- 
gation gifts, tythings and sacrifices of my people, that he 
and his family shall dwell in my house, eat at my table, 
and be clothed in my raiment.” 
At their Solemn Assembly held at St. Louis, April 
15, 1853, they voted to “recommend to their committee on 
location, selected by revelation, to re-consider their action 
and select a more suitable place than Kanesville, but 
near there, and to make the selection quickly,” and they 
appointed a sub-committee of three to act with them. 
’ Finally Thompson and his family on September 9, 
1853, with a new printing press, left St. Louis on the 
steamer El] Paso and arrived at Council Bluffs, as he then 
names it, on the 16th. The brethren had to raise part of 
the money to pay the freight. A location had in the 
meantime been selected at a place they named Prepara- 
tion, near the south line of Monona county, lowa, near 
the stream called the “‘Soldier.”” A house for Thompson 
was in course of construction and he moved to this No- 
vember 4, 1853, and set up his printing press there, and 
November 26th published the September number of his 
paper there, and his colony was fairly started. 
The town was laid out into acre lots and all the 
timber within six miles was pre-empted by members of 
the colony under United States laws, and at first this 
timber and the town were all that was contemplated to 
be held by the Church, or Presbytery. Thompson held 
the claim to the town plat. The form of the town organi- 
zation was much the same that had been formerly adopt- 
ed by the Mormons in their settlements, especially at 
Nauvoo: to give each settler a block or lot of one acre for 
a home, and the farming to be carried on outside by those 
living in the town. By the time of the important Solemn 
Assembly, December 27, 1853, the colony had its settle- 
ment established at Preparation, and at this meeting up- 
wards of one hundred persons were present, though not 
all members of the colony, and a religious service was 
held and a feast given on each of the three days and the 
real business and organization of Jehovah’s Presbytery 
of Zion began. 
