Smith and his followers experienced relatively low levels of persecution in New York and Ohio, although one incident involved church members being tarred and feathered..</ref> They would eventually move on to Missouri, where some of the worst atrocities against Mormons would take place. Smith declared the area around Independence, Missouri to be the site of Zion, inspiring a massive influx of Mormon converts. Locals, alarmed by rumors of the strange, new religion (including rumors of polygamy), attempted to drive the Mormons out. This resulted in the 1838 Mormon War, the Haun's Mill massacre, and the issue of the Missouri Executive Order 44 by Governor Lilburn Boggs, which ordered "" ... Mormons must be treated as enemies, and must be exterminated or driven from the state ... "". </ref> The majority of Mormons would flee to Illinois, where they were received warmly by the village of Commerce, Illinois. The Mormons quickly expanded the town and renamed it Nauvoo, which was one of the largest cities in Illinois at the time. The economic, political, and religious dominance of the Mormons (Smith was mayor of the city and commander of the local militia, the Nauvoo Legion) inspired mobs to attack the city, and Smith was arrested for ordering the destruction of an anti-Mormon newspaper, the "Nauvoo Expositor", although he acted with the consent of the city council. He was imprisoned, along with his brother Hyrum Smith, at Carthage Jail, where they were attacked by a mob and murdered.