The City Beautiful
Brief History
The Saints had been pushed out of Missouri and taken in by the people of Quincy, Illinois. Leaders of the Church, searching for a new place for the Saints to gather, found a small town up the river called Commerce, Illinois, that was for sale. It was purchased and the Saints began to gather and expand the small town, which became a city: Nauvoo.
While it was a refuge for displaced members of the Church at first, it soon became the destination for converts from around the globe. Many of our own ancestors arrived at the port of New Orleans and then traveled up the Mississippi by steam ship and pulled into the dock at Nauvoo.
By December of 1840, the Illinois legislature had granted the city an extremely favorable city charter. By 1844-1845, the population is estimated to have been 12,000-15,000 inhabitants, which meant it rivaled or even surpassed Chicago at the time. But it would not last. The Prophet Joseph and his brother Hyrum were martyred in nearby Carthage, Illinois on June 27th, 1844. Under enormous pressure and threats from anti-Mormon mobs, the Saints began their exodus out of Nauvoo and out of the United States on February 4th, 1846.
The City at a Glance
- Land Purchased
- April 1839
- Name Officially Changed
- April 21, 1840
- Charter Issued
- December 16, 1840
Home for a Time
Our Family in Nauvoo
The early converts in our family and many of their families lived in Nauvoo. In some cases we know where, but some never owned property there, or lived outside of the city itself in the surrounding farmland.
Caroline Holland
Elizabeth Hancock
Frederick James Rushton
John Hardison Redd
Jonathan Ellis Layne
Joseph Smith Sr
Lee Allen Bybee
Lemuel Hardison Redd
Lucinda Bybee
Lucinda Mathena Stout
Prudence Carter
Sarah Gibbs
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Sources
Footnotes
Bibliography
- Sarah Jane Weaver, Read a timeline of the history The Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints in Nauvoo. https://www.thechurchnews.com/history-archive/2024/03/05/timeline-church-history-nauvoo-illinois-red-brick-store-nauvoo-house-purchase/
- Wikipedia, Nauvoo, Illinois. https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Nauvoo%2C_Illinois
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