The comic is about Utah, specifically, not Massachusetts. Utah was handed to the United States from Mexico as part of the settlement of the Mexican-American War. But settlement in Utah was slow compared to California and the Pacific Northwest, because Utah does not have the gold and fertile land that those other places had. The Mormons moved from the east coast to Utah specifically because Utah was “unorganized territory”. This meant they could do stuff like polygamy without a lot of interference.
The comic is about Utah, specifically, not Massachusetts. Utah was handed to the United States from Mexico as part of the settlement of the Mexican-American War. But settlement in Utah was slow compared to California and the Pacific Northwest, because Utah does not have the gold and fertile land that those other places had. The Mormons moved from the east coast to Utah specifically because Utah was “unorganized territory”. This meant they could do stuff like polygamy without a lot of interference.