Visitors Guide to Nauvoo
Hancock County, Illinois
"Where the History Comes Alive"

The Nauvoo experience is inexorably intertwined with the Mormons whose history began with the discovery of the Golden Plates by Joseph Smith in Manchester, New York, in 1823. In 1830 Smith organized the religion's first legal church entity, the Church of Christ, which ultimately became the various Mormon churches including The Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints and The Reorganized Church of Jesus Christ of Latter Day Saints. By 1838 the Latter Day Saints had migrated to northwest Missouri. In early 1839 the Latter Day Saints were forced to flee Missouri because of the 1838 Mormon War and the Extermination Order issued by Governor Lilburn W. Boggs. While they were regrouping in Quincy church leaders learned that a large amount of land was for sale in the Commerce area. The church purchased this land as well as the mostly vacant Commerce plat and the Latter Day Saints began to settle the area immediately. Smith and other leaders arrived in the community by May of 1839 and Smith renamed the town "Nauvoo", meaning "to be beautiful." Despite the name, the site was, at first, an undeveloped swamp. Epidemics of cholera, malaria and typhoid took their toll until the swamp was drained. Construction began promptly to meet the immediate demand for housing and Smith’s city plan, known as the "plat of Zion," was used in the street layout and lot allotments. The community was characterized by wood frame homes with outbuildings, gardens, orchards and grazing plots on large lots laid out on an orderly grid system. In general, the buildings were detached single-family dwellings reminiscent of New England construction styles with commercial and industrial buildings in the same pattern. The city grew quickly as Mormons gathered. At its height Nauvoo's population was as large as Quincy's or Springfield's. As the Mormon population grew, non-Mormons in Hancock County, especially in the towns of Warsaw and Carthage, felt threatened by the political power of Smith and the growing Mormon bloc-voting. In Nauvoo, Smith was not only President of the Church; he was Mayor, head of the municipal court, and general of the militia.

Throughout much of the Nauvoo period, officials from Missouri attempted to arrest Smith and extradite him on charges relating to the 1838 Mormon War. Whenever he was apprehended, Smith would appeal to the Nauvoo Municipal Court, which would force his release. This also happened when non-Mormons tried to arrest Latter Day Saints on other charges. Non-Mormons began to consider this a serious subversion of the judiciary. There was dissatisfaction within the church as well. In 1844, First Presidency member, William Law, an important merchant and counselor to Smith, broke with the church over the issues of polygamy plural marriage and other legal issues in Nauvoo. Law was excommunicated and founded a reformed church called the True Church of Jesus Christ of Latter Day Saints. He also established a newspaper named the Nauvoo Expositor which he intended to use to expose the practice of polygamy. In June of 1844 the only issue of the Nauvoo Expositor was published. After a two day meeting of the city council the Expositor was condemned as "a public nuisance" and Smith was empowered him with an order to destroy the press.

The destruction of the press was seen as an opportunity by local critics such as Thomas Sharp, whose paper in nearby Warsaw had been openly calling for destruction of the Church. Fanned by Sharp and others, public sentiment held that the action was illegal and unconstitutional. Some non-Mormons and disaffected church members in and around Hancock County, Illinois, began to call for Smith's arrest. Smith, his brother Hyrum, and two other church leaders submitted to arrest. While awaiting trial in the Carthage jail Joseph and Hyrum Smith were killed by a vigilante mob. After Smith's death came the period often referred to as the "Mormon War in Illinois.” In October of 1844, a "wolf hunt" was promoted in Warsaw. It was well known that the "wolves" to be hunted were the Mormons and when Governor Thomas Ford became aware of it, he sent militia troops to disperse the gathering. In January, 1845 the Illinois state legislature overwhelmingly passed a bill repealing the city charter of Nauvoo. Nauvoo’s government and civil institutions were legally dissolved and the church began operating as the default government. After a succession crisis, Brigham Young gained support from the majority of church members. By the end of 1845 it became clear that no peace was possible between the Mormons and their opponents. Mormon leaders negotiated a truce so that the Latter Day Saints could prepare to abandon the city. The winter of 1845-46 saw the enormous preparations for the Mormon Exodus via the Mormon Trail. In early 1846, the majority of the Latter Day Saints left the city.

In 1849, the Icarians moved to the Nauvoo area to implement a utopian socialist commune based on the ideals of the French philosopher, Étienne Cabet. Cabet’s philosophy depicted a utopia in which an elected government controlled all economic activity and supervised social affairs with the family the only other unit with authority. Icaria was the name of the fictional country and ideal society he described. The Icarians bought the Temple Square and began their short-lived experiment in communal living. For the first few years the commune prospered and at its peak, the colony numbered over 500 members. Then minor disagreements grew into open rebellion over legal matters. Cabet moved to St. Louis in 1855 and when he died a year later many members left Nauvoo and moved on to other locations. The Icarians who remained realized the soil and climate of Nauvoo was much like that of their native France and like their German and Swiss neighbors, they began the cultivation of grapes. Soon there over 600 acres of grapes and the hills of Nauvoo were honey-combed with stone-arched wine cellars and Nauvoo was noted for its fine wines. Like most wineries in Illinois, Nauvoo’s wine industry did not survive Prohibition. Visitors can learn about this time period by visiting the underground arched wine cellar and pressroom at the Rheinberger Museum where the first winery in Nauvoo has been restored.

In the mid-1930s, a professor at Iowa State University named Oscar Rohde was experimenting with a new recipe for bleu cheese. Rohde needed a place to properly age his cheese the wine cellars of Nauvoo's history came to mind. Rohde’s initial attempts were so successful that he purchased an abandoned brewery and converted it into the Nauvoo Blue Cheese Factory. To help this new industry and the reemerging winery industry, Mayor Lowell Horton organized a Grape Festival in 1938. In 1941 the first "Wedding of the Wine and Cheese" took place at the festival and in 1952 the historical pageant which portrays the history of Nauvoo was added. The Grape Festival has become a Labor Day tradition at Nauvoo State Park and is one of the oldest festivals in west central Illinois brining thousands of sight-seers and tourists to Nauvoo each September.

While most Mormons left during the exodus in 1846 a small number remained including Emma Hale Smith, Joseph's widow. In 1860, their son, Joseph Smith III, claimed to receive a revelation to become the Prophet and President of a group known as the Reorganized Church of Jesus Christ of Latter Day Saints.  He continued to live in Nauvoo, which functioned as headquarters of this church until 1865 when the church moved on to Plano, Illinois and ultimately to Independence, Missouri. The Reorganized Church of Jesus Christ of Latter Day Saints (now known as the Community of Christ) has been operating several of the historical sites in Nauvoo since the early 1900s. These sites include two homes that Joseph Smith lived in, the Red Brick Store, the Nauvoo House, and the Smith Family Cemetery. Various buildings served as visitor centers until the current building on Water Street was opened in 1980.

In the 1950s Dr. James LeRoy Kimball purchased the home that his great-grandfather, Heber C. Kimball, had built. Dr. Kimball intended on using it as a summer retreat, but as the work of restoration progressed, the home became an immediate tourist attraction and Dr. Kimball decided to make it available to the public. in doing so, the idea for the restoration by The Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints of the city of Nauvoo was born. Dr. Kimball became the first president of Nauvoo Restoration, Inc., and served in this capacity for twenty-five years. The visitors center operated by the Church is a great place to start a tour of historic Nauvoo. The center offers an informative film presentation, displays, artifacts, documents, and a relief map of Nauvoo in 1846. The Monument to Women memorial garden at the visitors center displays 13 life-size statues of women, each depicting a different role women play in the home and in society. Nearby the Church operates the Family Living Center which allows visitors to explore the sights and sounds of pioneer life in historic Nauvoo. Hands-on-experiences include woodworking, weaving, rope making, pottery, and candle making just to name a few. The Family Living Center is free and a must see place for children. The Church also operates seven historic homes that are free and open to the public.

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