The Righteous Branch has approximately 100 to 200 members, most near Modena on Utah State Route 56 in Iron County, 7 miles (11 km) west of Beryl.

The Righteous Branch was organized on April 6, 1978, by Gerald Wilbur Peterson Sr. (born October 8, 1917, in Lusk, Wyoming, died January 1981).

[3] Peterson joined The Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints after affiliating with its members as a young man.

[4] Peterson eventually joined the Apostolic United Brethren and claims to have developed a close working relationship with its leader Rulon Allred.

Later being counselled by Rulon Allred to stop paying tithing to the council, to open a mission in Richmond, Utah, to establish a community in Cedar Valley, and to begin receiving revelation to guide this group as its leader.

Peterson further claimed that after Rulon Allred was killed (by followers of Ervil LeBaron) that he was seen entering his office within an hour of his death.

[4] Peterson organised the Righteous Branch on April 6, 1978, two months before the LDS Church's 1978 revelation, which allowed priesthood ordination to black people.

[citation needed] His son Gerald Peterson Jr., who led the group after his father, was also a doctor of osteopathic medicine,[7] practicing homeopathy in Tonopah, Nye County, Nevada.