102 Stoux City Academy of Science and Letters. 
After the trials and tribulations encountered in man- 
aging the small colony already there, Thompson seems to 
have lost interest in the great hopes he had entertained 
of making it an organization of all the Mormons to take 
the place of what was expected of the Nauvoo settle- 
ment; and he decided not to send out missionaries, and 
that proselyting was all wrong and that it was the cause 
of Joseph Smith’s downfall. 
After the colony had thus gone into the order of sac- 
rifice for two years, Thompson became a sort of dictator 
in a communistic settlement and the utmost economy of 
living was observed. They were instructed in the health- 
fulness of a vegetable diet. Rich foods were an abomina- 
tion and for their spiritual welfare and physical health 
plain food was required; meat was forbidden. At one 
time butter was regarded as a useless and unknown 
luxury, and though an extensive dairy of 40 cows was 
carried on, the butter and cheese were all sold at Council 
Bluffs. Some pork and beef fattened for meat was killed 
and sold with the butter to increase the fund to buy the 
land for an inheritance. 
It was claimed by the irreverent that the Chief 
Teacher, Thompson, did not share in all this self-denial. 
He taught that this abstemiousness was not to be per- 
petual, but was essential in those two years to sacrifice 
themselves for the common good of themselves and 
others who might join so that in the end after purification 
they would all come again into their inheritance in the 
spiritual and good things in store for them. 
Some became discontented and left without settling 
with Thompson and left their sacrifices, tythings and 
oblations with him. Others would make a settlement, 
and get some of their property back and exchange re- 
ceipts, for Thompson was getting to be careful in putting 
his dealings in writing, and only by a show of fairness to 
those who had left, was he able to hold those who re- 
mained; but he grew more cautious and sought to get 
renewed binding contracts according to accepted busi- 
ness forms at every possible opportunity. At and after 
the Solemn Assembly of August, 1855, Thompson pre- 
pared to put his business on a legal basis. He organized 
two corporations, one called the “Sacred Treasury of 
Jehovah’s Presbytery of Zion,” and the other the “House 
of Ephriam.”’ 
