The Wisconsin magazine of history: Volume 9, number 4, July 1926

              historic spots in wisconsin w a titus voree cromwell i charge thee fling away ambition by that sin fell the angels ; how can man then the image of his maker hope to win by it — shakespeare early wisconsin witnessed the rise and fall of a number of interesting experiments in community effort among which may be mentioned the religious and communistic colony at st nazianz the wisconsin phalanx at ceresco now ripon and the mormon settlement at voree now spring prairie in walworth county a few miles west of burlington the story of the voree colony more spectac ular than the others in its development and downfall will be told in this article the history of any religious or communistic settlement is the story of one man or one woman who by extraordinary energy and capacity for leadership shows others the way to success or failure voree was an outstanding example of the result of autocratic direction by a forceful individual it is worthy of note that the only person who ever aspired to kingship in the united states and who in a small way realized his ambition began his spectacular career in this obscure mormon town in southern wisconsin james jesse strang1 was born in new york in 1813 while still a resident of his native state he came to be recog nized by his neighbors for his restless energy and for his ability to speak convincingly before public gatherings his efforts were always in the direction of the unusual in new york he had by turns been a school teacher a newspaper 1 on this person see also article by the late henry e legler the moses of the mormons in parkman club papers milwaukee 1897