Nauvoo, IL - The Preface

Before I get into our time spent in Nauvoo, I'd like to explain the significance of this little place to anyone reading this blog who may be wondering what's so special about it.

Those of you who know the story, feel free to move on.  This is long, but I feel like it needs explaining.

In order to do so, I have to go back about 2,000 years.

(Please note that I have taken the following excerpts from the book, "Our Heritage", which is "A Brief History of The Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints".

"After the death of Jesus' Apostles, the power of the priesthood and many of the truths of the gospel were taken from the earth, beginning a long period of spiritual darkness called the great Apostasy.  The prophet Amos had prophetically foreseen this loss and pronounced that the time would come when there would be 'a famine in the land, not a famine of bread, nor a thirst for water, but of hearing the words of the Lord' (Amos 8:11).  During the long centuries of the Apostasy, many honest men and women sought the fulness of gospel truth but were unable to find it.  Clergymen of many faiths preached differing messages and called on men and women to join with them.  Although most were honest in their intent, none had the fulness of the truth or the authority of God.

"However, the Lord in his mercy had promised that his gospel and priesthood power would one day be restored to the earth, never to be taken away again.  As the nineteenth century dawned, his promise was about to be fulfilled and the long night of apostasy was about to end."

In the spring of 1820 in the area of Palmyra, New York, young 14-year-old Joseph Smith wondered which of all the churches was right, as he was confused and wanted to join the right one.  He went into a grove of trees close to his family's home and knelt to pray.  Upon doing so, and facing opposition while doing so, he was then visited by our Heavenly Father and Jesus Christ, whereupon he was told not to join any of them.   When others of the community and beyond heard of this, he faced much persecution.  But he would not deny what he had experienced.. "Why persecute me for telling the truth?  I have actually seen a vision; and who am I that I can withstand God, or why does the world think to make me deny what I have actually seen?  For I had seen a vision; I knew it, and I knew that God knew it, and I could not deny it, neither dared I do it; at least I knew that by so doing I would offend God, and come under condemnation."

On April 6, 1830, through the latter-day prophet Joseph Smith, Jr., the Church of Jesus Christ was established on the earth once again.  Joseph had, during the intervening years, translated the gold plates he had been directed to find, into what we now have - The Book of Mormon, which is another testament of Jesus Christ, and is a history of the people on the American continent.  This is scripture to us, along with the Bible.

After the church was established in 1830 and began to grow in membership, the members continued to experience persecution and were driven, through the years,  from New York to Kirtland, Ohio, on to Jackson County and Clay County, Missouri, back east to Nauvoo, IL, from Nauvoo to Iowa and Nebraska and finally to the Utah valley, where the first pioneer company arrived on July 21st, 1847.

(for more information about our church or for any questions, feel free to click here: www.mormon.org)

Nauvoo


When they first arrived in the place that was to become the city of Nauvoo, it was nothing but a swamp on the banks of the Mississippi River.  "...many of them became ill with the ague, an infectious disease that included fever and chills" and many died.

Nauvoo became one of the biggest cities in Illinois at that time.

Some of the buildings we went in on our trip were original, some were replicas.  I will probably be dividing up my pictures between several posts and after this long preface/explanation, will start with only one.

The Tinsmith

Having your home and business attached was quite the norm in Nauvoo, as well as alot of other places at that time, I would think.

The Tinsmith was quite popular and he made quite a comfortable living, as he could provide many, many useful items.  We watched a demonstration of how to make a bucket and it was quite interesting.  I 'spec my daddy would have been happy if we could have made our own buckets at home.  Sorry I don't have pictures of the bucket-making-demonstration, but there was a group coming in behind us, so we didn't get a chance to take pictures of that.  However, I do have these pictures of the home side of the building.

Just to the left of this piece of furniture was a little room that they called "The Mother-in-Law Room".  It was just a little cubbie, really, with a bed in it.  It was used by an older mother/mother-in law, or even a woman who may soon be giving birth, because it was downstairs and kept them from having to try to go up the stairs, because let me tell you, I've never seen such steep/little-bitty stairs as was in these houses.

Tomorrow, I will try to post about the John Taylor home.

Night John Boy.