Old Mormon Nauvoo 1839-1846 by Richard N. Holzapfel And T. Jeffery Cottle

Old Mormon Nauvoo 1839-1846

Historic Photographs and Guide

By Richard N. Holzapfel

And T. Jeffery Cottle

QUOTES FOR DISCUSSION

WILFORD WOODRUFF HOME pg. 76

Wilford Woodruff’s journal documents the exodus from Nauvoo which took several months. Even while Saints were moving across the river, others were just arriving from Great Britain or other missionary areas. The oddity of the situation is seen in his successive entries:

13^th [April 1846] 

We passed Quincy at 6 o’clock. We stopped at Warsaw. We also stopped at Keokuk for an hour. At about 2 o’clock we started to ascend the rapids. In about 2 hours we came in sight of the splendid Temple built by the Latter Day Saints and also the city of Nauvoo. I immediately got my spy glass and examined the city. The Temple truly looked splendid. We stopped at Montrose. And then crossed to Nauvoo at the upper landing. I soon got a wagon & took my friends to my house where I had the happy privilege of meeting with my dear wife and children. I found them all well as could be expected.

14^th    I had an interview with Br. Hyde and many Saints in Nauvoo. I found all the Saints struggling for life.

15^th  In company with Father and Mother Woodruff and Phoebe’s cousin Betsey Cosset, Sister Smooth and others we visited the Temple. We all went through each apartment of it from the front in the basement to the all of the tower and had a view of all Nauvoo and the surrounding country. And after taking a view of each apartment of the Temple we again descended to the ground.

17^th   I spent the day in making some preparation to get away… In the evening I commenced packing up my trunks once more for a long journey.

18^th   I had a very busy day in packing up my things.

20^th It was a busy day. I am now preparing to get ready to start on the western journey. I have much to do and little time to do it in.

21^st    Spend the day in running about to get my things ready.

22^nd  There is a considerable excitement concerning the mob making threats of coming upon Nauvoo to try to destroy the remainder of the Saints.

29^th   [I finally finished] loading my wagons and took them over the river to Iowa. I took over two wagons, tow yoke of oxen and two cows and sent Br. Ferguson to take care of the same. [I returned to Nauvoo and] repaired to the Temple and dressed in our priestly robes in company with Elder Orson Hyde and about 20 others of the Elders of Israel.

30^th   We dedicated the Temple of the Lord built by the Church of Jesus Christ of Latter Day Saints, unto His Most Holy name. We had an interesting time. Notwithstanding the many false prophesies of Sidney Rigdon and others that the roof should not go on nor the House be finished and the threats of the mob that we should not dedicate it yet we have done both and we had an interesting time. At the close of the dedication we raised our voices in the united Shout of Hosanna to God and the Lamb which entered the Heavens to the joy and consolation of our hearts. We prayed for the Camp of Israel, for good weather, that we might be disturbed by any mob until the dedication was over. I returned home thankful for the privilege of assisting in the dedication of the Temple of the Lord.

17^th  [May 1846]

Sunday. This was one of the worst days of my life or most perplexing. … As soon as we started the calves and cows all run various ways and while I was trying to get them together the oxen broke the tong out of my carriage. … Father drove into a mud hole and the oxen mired down. At last we finally got camped at black jack grove. And I was very weary at night. 4 miles.

21^st   I spent the day in camp. We had a rainy night and many things wet.

22^nd  I left Nauvoo for the last time perhaps in this life. I looked upon the Temple and City of Nauvoo as I retired from it and felt to ask the Lord to preserve it as a monument of the sacrifice of his Saints. I returned to the camp and spent the night. 10 miles.

LORIN FARR HOME SITE pg. 80

Nauvoo was not only a city of adult men and women, but also a city of children and young adults. The city charter provided a comprehensive common school system. There is evidence of many teachers in Nauvoo during the period, often in each ward. Nauvoo also included a seminary (high school) and a university. Adults had other opportunities for learning as well – for example, through the Nauvoo Library and Literary Institute. A unique feature of these schools was that anyone wishing an education could attend; the system was financed through public taxation.

JOSEPH COOLIDGE HOME AND WORKSHOP pg. 90

On the west gable is an inscription placed on the home by Mr. Kaufman after the Mormon exodus. He placed the date of the building of the home, his name and an inscription in German which means: “This house is mine and yet not mine. Who comes after me shall find the same. I have been here and who reads this shall also have been here.” This German adage seems to imply a sense of hospitality.

JOHN D. LEE HOME SITE pg. 114

My large house, costing me $8000 … I was offered $800 for. My fanaticism would not allow me to take that for it. I locked it up, selling only one stove out of it, for which I received eighty yards of cloth. The building with its twenty-seven rooms, I turned over to the committee, to be sold to help the poor away. The committee informed afterwards that they sold the house for $12.50.

JOHN TAYLOR PRINTING COMPLEX pg. 117

A man of the name of James Ivins has considerable property, and wished to part with it, for the purpose (as he said) of placing his sons at some business, not having an opportunity in this place; the conclusion I came to, from his actions, was, that he was disaffected. He leaned towards Law when he was cut off; when Rigdon went the same way he had such another leaning. In consequence of these the people lost all confidence in him, and he knowing it, was desirous of leaving. He had a first rate large brick house, brick store, and large pine board barn, on a half acre of land on Main street, corner of Kimball, which he had offered to me for three thousand two hundred dollars although the buildings had cost twice that sum. I asked the brethren what their counsel was upon the subject; they said go ahead and get it. I took measure forthwith to procure it, not that I wanted to build myself up; but the idea in getting it was to keep it out of the hands of our enemies, as it was offered so cheap; and I thought the store would suit us for a Printing office. My feelings after I had traded for this were the same as ever, I felt like sacrificing all things when called upon, my heart is not set upon property, but the things of God: I care not so much about the good things of this life, as I do about the fellowship of my brethren, and to fulfilling the word of the Lord has called me to do; and the favor of the Lord, and securing to myself, my family, and friends an inheritance in the Kingdom of God. Moved into the house May 10 1845.

THE EXODUS TO GREATNESS MONUMENT AND FERRY CROSSING pg. 133

Charles Shumway arrived at the Nauvoo ferry crossing very early on 4 February 1846. As he waited in nearly zero degree weather at the foot of Parley Street with his ox-drawn wagon, Shumway must have considered the beautiful city he was leaving behind and the uncertain destination of his journey ahead. Soon he began his famous trip across the Mississippi River, the first of many who would follow in the next days, weeks, and months. The crossing occurred with the help of flat-bottomed ferry boats, designed to carry one wagon and propelled by paddle wheel. Later, during the brief period, the river froze which allowed the wagons to cross the river on the ice.

The ferrymen worked throughout the first days tirelessly moving their cargo to Montrose. An accident endangered several individuals as they attempted to ford the river a few days later. Brigham Young related the following in his journal:

A number of brethren were crossing the river in a flatboat, when in their rear a man and two boys were in a skiff in a sinking condition, on account of being overloaded and the unskillfulness of the helmsman. They hailed to the flatboat, which was soon turned, and rendered them assistance. As soon as they had got the three on board the flatboat, a filthy wicked man squirted some tobacco juice into the eyes of one of the oxen …which immediately plunged into the river, dragging another with him, and as he was going overboard he tore off one of the sideboards which cause the water to flow into the flatboat, and as they approached the shore the boat sank to the bottom, before all the men could leap off. Several of the brethren were picked up in an exhausted condition. Two oxen were drowned and a few things floated away and were lost.

THE NAUVOO HOUSE pg. 151

On 2 October 1841, Joseph Smith placed the manuscript of the Book of Mormon in the southeast cornerstone. Ebenezer Robinson, a prominent citizen of Nauvoo recalled the event.

After the brethren had assembled at the southeast corner of the foundation, where the cornerstone was to be laid, president Joseph Smith said: “Wait, brethren, I have a document I wish to put in that stone,” and started for his house, which was only a few rods away, across Main Street. I went with him to the house, and also one or two other brethren. He got a manuscript coy of the Book of Mormon, and brought it into the room where we were standing, and said, “I will examine to see if it is all here,” and as he did so I stood near him, at his left side, and saw distinctly the writing, as he turned up the pages until he hastily went through the book and satisfied himself that it was all there.  … It was written on foolscap paper, and formed a package, as the sheets lay flat, of about two or two and half inches thick, I should judge. It was written mostly in Oliver Cowdery’s handwriting, with which I was intimately acquainted, having set many pages of type from his handwriting, in the church printing office at Kirtland, Ohio. Some parts of it were written in other handwriting. He took the manuscript and deposited it in the corner stone of the Nauvoo House.

After the Prophet Joseph’s death the title of the Nauvoo House went to Emma Smith. Later, when Emma married Lewis Bidamon, he used the portions of the uncompleted structure to build a two-story house on the southwest corner of the original building. The completed structure was known as the Riverside mansion.

In 1882, Mr. Bidamon uncovered the cornerstone. The following repot was carried in the Carthage, Illinois Republican newspaper:

Last Tuesday, while Major Bidamon was tearing down the walls of the eastern wing of the old “Nauvoo House,”  … he came across the corner stone, which was laid by the Prophet the year 1841. The stone was in the foundation, in the southeast corner, and in the center of it was a square cut chest, about 10 x 14 inches, and eight inches deep, covered with a stone lid, which fitted closely in a groove or shoulder at the top, and cemented around the edge with lead that had been melted and poured in the seam. On removing the lid, which was done with some difficulty, the chest was found to be filled with a number of written and printed documents, the most of them mouldy and more or less decayed.

NAUVOO HOUSE DOCK AND STEAMBOAT LANDING pg. 154

In the coldness of the winter of 1842 – 1843 when the Mississippi was frozen over for several months. One freezing day Joseph Smith did not go to his office. Instead he remained at home to play with his children on the ice. They were sliding down the sloping lower end of Main Street near the Homestead where enough momentum could be gained to send the loaded sleigh out onto the smooth ice of the river. Joseph Smith III, Alexander, and Frederick G. were engaged in this activity. Soon other children gathered and the Prophet taught some of the older children how to slide on the soles of their shoes, balancing their bodies erectly. Others he taught how to steer the crude wooden sleighs of the day with their feet.