James C. Brewster

James Colin Brewster (October 26, 1826 – January 8, 1909) was the co-founder of the Church of Christ (Brewsterite), a schismatic sect in the Latter Day Saint movement.

Brewster was born in Black Rock, Buffalo, New York, son of Zephaniah H. Brewster and Jane Higby. When Brewster was a child, his parents were converted to Mormonism and joined the gathering of Latter Day Saints in Kirtland, Ohio.

In 1836, at the age of 10, Brewster began to claim that he had been visited by the Angel Moroni, the same angel that Joseph Smith claimed had led him to the golden plates. In November 1837, due to his persistent claims of being a prophet, Brewster was disfellowshipped from the Church of the Latter Day Saints.

By 1842, Brewster had finished a book entitled The Words of Righteousness to All Men, Written from One of the Books of Esdras, Which Was Written by the Five Ready Writers, In Forty Days, Which Was Spoken of by Esdras, in His Second Book, Fourteenth Chapter of the Apocrypha, Being one of the Books Which Was Lost, and Has Now Come Forth, by the Gift of God, In the Last Days. After the death of Joseph Smith in 1844, Brewster began to accumulate followers in Springfield, Illinois, from Latter Day Saints who were searching for a new prophet leader.

In 1848, Brewster and Hazen Aldrich founded the Church of Christ, which they claimed was the true successor to the Church of Christ Smith had founded in 1830. Aldrich was selected as the sect's first president with Brewster and Jackson Goodale as counselors in the First Presidency.

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