Castellite

Possibly from a very brief 19th-century Mormon settlement in Castell, Texas, which, like all Mormon communities, sent out missionaries. Identifying "Utah" as the source of the Castellite missionaries in the quote below may have been based on the common contemporaneous assumption that all Mormons were based in Utah.

• Hyphenation: Cas‧tel‧lite

Castellite (plural Castellites)

1. A religious group in western North Carolina during the late 19th century. Mormon missionaries encountered them and found that they were enemies, not converts.
   • 1913, Horace Kephart, Our Southern Highlanders:

     Of late years Mormon missionaries from Utah have reaped a rich harvest in this region, and in parts of Swain and Haywood counties a peculiar sect, known as Castellites, has arisen whose exercises seem to be of a highly emotional character, as it is a common remark that every one who joins the Castellites goes crazy.

2. A resident of Castelle,Texas.
   • 2001, Richard Zelade, Hill Country:

     Life here was not easy. For the first couple of years, Castellites depended heavily on supplies and support from the people of Fredericksburg, who had problems enough of their own. A round trip to Fredericksburg—about 50 miles—took 4 days.

• Mormon

• Our Southern Highlanders Kephart, Horace. (1913) in Chapter XII: Home Folks And Neighbor People, p. 270. Accessed online August 6, 2007.

• Mountaineer As Religious excerpt from the Kephart book hosted at West North Carolina Heritage site. Accessed online August 6, 2007.

• Lyman Wight's Mormon Colony in Texas excerpt from "Mormon Trails" chapter in Hill Country travel guide by Richard Zelade (2001). Accessed online August 6, 2007.