Nauvoo - 1839-1846

Nauvoo (The City Beautiful) became the gathering place of members of The Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints beginning in 1839.  They came here after being driven from their homes in Ohio and Missouri.  The prophet Joseph Smith and other leaders selected a town named Commerce in Hancock County, Illinois, to be their new city.  It was a beautiful, though swampy location overlooking a large bend in the Mississippi river.  They bought the land and began settling there.  The people drained the swamp and cleared the land so that a city could be established.

People began to arrive. Homes were built and crops were planted.  Nauvoo prospered, and soon more immigrants began arriving from England and Canada.  In 1840, the Church was ten years old and had grown from a mere 6 members in April 1830, to over 16,000 by the end of 1840.

The period of 1840 to early 1842 was relatively peaceful.  During this time members of the church continued to gather in Nauvoo.  Construction of the Nauvoo Temple began in the fall of 1840.  Well over 1,000 homes were built.  Nauvoo became a stopping place for river boats.  The boats came with the goods needed by the people, with members of the church and others who were interested in the activity that went with the building of a new city.  

During the later months of 1842 and on into 1844 some of the neighbors of Nauvoo became hostile to the saints.  Homes and businesses in the outlying areas were burned and otherwise destroyed.   Joseph Smith and other church leaders were often in hiding due to the persecution.  In spite of these difficulties the city continued to do well.  Work on the temple progressed, the women's Relief Society was organized and many other things were accomplished during this period.  It is estimated that the number of residents in Nauvoo reached 12-15,000 people.

Joseph and Hyrum Smith were martyred in Carthage, Illinois on June 27, 1844.  In February 1846,the first company of Mormon pioneers left Nauvoo, walking across the frozen Mississippi into Iowa.  On February 8, the temple was officially dedicated, though the public dediction was not until May 1.

The Mormons left in waves and founded temporary settlements  in Iowa: Garden Grove, Mount Pisgah, Kanesville (now Council Bluffs) and finally Winter Quarters, Nebraska.  The road was slow and soggy.  On September 10, the last Mormons were attacked by mobs in the Battle of Nauvoo.  By September 1846, the last Mormons were driven from the city.  The temple was burned by an arsonist.  Nauvoo, a city that in 1844 had rivaled Chicago for size and beauty, was all but destroyed.  In 1850 a tornado hit Nauvoo and finished what the arsonists had begun.

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Please enjoy the following video Remembering Nauvoo (here in three segments)