From the Annals of the Texas Polygamists –  In 1858, Mormon leader Lyman Wight died near San Antonio while attempting to lead his band of Mormon fundamentalists back to the North after he had a premonition of the coming Civil War.  Wight was an early convert to Mormonism when he met Joseph Smith in Ohio in 1826.  Wight was among the 50 Mormon leaders tried in Missouri for treason and other crimes that resulted in the Mormon migration to Utah.  After Smith and his brother were murdered by a mob, Wight was opposed to Brigham Young ascension to leader and the move to Utah. Wight refused to accept Young’s authority – claiming that Smith had instructed him to found a Mormon colony in Texas.  Wight led his 200 followers to Texas in 1845, and received John O. Meusebach’s permission to found the Zodiac colony near Fredericksburg in 1847.  The Mormon community quickly established itself as vital part of the area’s economy operating the first sawmill in Gillespie County and supplying seeds, lumber and flour to the German immigrants in the area. In 1848 Young sent two messengers to Texas to convince Wight to come to Utah.  Wight, nicknamed “the Wild Ram of the Mountains” by his fellow Mormons for his stubborn independence, refused. He was disfellowshiped by the Mormon church in 1849. In 1851, after a flood destroyed much of Zodiac,  Wight and his followers left Gillespie County settling near Bandera before fleeing the state for good.