History of Nauvoo, Illinois
The First Inhabitants
For thousands of years Native Americans have passed through the area of the Lower Des Moines Rapids of the Mississippi River. The area that now makes up Hancock County, Illinois, was once hunted by Paleo-Indians more than 12,000 years ago.
Approximately 700 BC began the Early Woodland Period in the upper Mississippi Valley. This period is identified by an advancement in the community lifestyle among the Native tribes and the primitive construction of burial mounds. From 200 BC – 400 AD the Hopewell civilization became the dominant culture, and many of the mounds present in the Nauvoo area date to this period. With the collapse of the Hopewell civilization, a new society arose with Cahokia, Illinois being the capital city. Cahokia reached its height in the 1300's , with its power and influence felt from the East Coast to the Rocky Mountains.
In the late 18th Century, the Sauk and Fox Tribes were forced from their homelands in what is today Western New York, and came to the Mississippi Valley. Dispossessing the Illinois Tribe which had for some time occupied the area, the Sauk began making many permanent settlements on the southern portion of the claim, one of which was located on the west bank of the Mississippi River, opposite present day Nauvoo, under the leadership of Chief Quashquema or “Jumping Fish”.
In the fall of 1804 a delegation of Sauk and Fox chiefs including Quashquema was sent to St. Louis to negotiate the peaceful release of one of their tribesmen from prison and attempt to gain the same kind of favoritism shown by the United States to their bitter enemies, the Osages. The group successfully negotiated the pardoning of the prisoner, but the hapless youth attempted escape before the official pardon arrived from President Jefferson, and was shot dead in the attempt. Taking advantage of the delegation’s lack of experience in negotiations, their desire to be on friendly terms with the US, their tribal custom of paying for the release of their kindred, and the delegation’s taste for liquor, the governor of the newly established Louisiana Territory, William Henry Harrison, told the delegation that he would like to begin negotiations for their territorial claims.
The Treaty of 1804 gave the United States claim to all of the land between the Illinois, Wisconsin, and Mississippi Rivers. The tribes would receive in return for this land $2,234.50 worth of goods, an annual stipend of $1,000 worth of goods (to be picked up in St. Louis), the right to hunt the area, and the protection of the United States Government. The Federal Government would also establish trading posts for the Sauk and Fox to purchase any further needed goods “at a more reasonable rate than they have been accustomed to procure them.”
In the summer of 1805, the US Government established an agricultural school and trading post at what is today Nauvoo. At this place, many Sauk came to trade for goods that would be needed through the winter. However, charges of mismanagement against the Indian Agent, William Ewing, soon forced the closure of the post.
Sporadic use of the post at Nauvoo caught the attention of a retired US Army captain named James White , and in 1824 he purchased the property from the government and began a permanent settlement. Knowing that the Sauk still held claim to the land for hunting purposes as well as through memory , Captain White, as he was called, struck up another deal with them, giving 200 sacks of corn flour for their claim. Through his generosity and honest dealings with the tribe, White was quickly viewed as a friend to the Sauk, and his stone house built near where present-day Parley Street meets the Mississippi River, was the scene for many happy occasions for all parties.
In 1832 the tensions caused in part by the Treaty of 1804 led to an outbreak of violence lead by the Fox war chief Black Hawk . The entire area that had once been claimed by the Sauk and Fox was under arms. Not all of the Native Americans were hostile during this war. Chief Keokuk of the Sauk Tribe stood against Black Hawk’s warriors and remained peaceful.
Soon after hostilities commenced, Captain White called for a meeting with Keokuk and other local tribes at his stone house. White had always treated the tribes fairly, and was trusted by them. While the meeting was in progress on the second floor of White’s home, a troop of mounted Dragoons was seen approaching the building, and it was feared by some that White had tricked the leading men of the Sauk tribe into coming to his house to be arrested. Several jumped off the balcony and ran into the swamp. Those who remained knew that White’s house was known as a stopping point for anyone coming through the area, and peace was soon restored at the meeting. During the entirety of the Black Hawk War, no battles or skirmishes took place in the area of Hancock County, due in no small part to the friendliness and trust between Chief Keokuk and Captain White.
The same year that the Cherokee peoples were forced from their lands and began their great Trail of Tears through Western Illinois, another group of unfortunates made their way to the area who had been forcibly removed from the State of Missouri. Members of the Church of Jesus Christ of Latter Day Saints (commonly called Mormons) began huddling in the remains of the abandoned Fort Des Moines in the winter of 1838-39.
Members of the Mormon faith viewed the Native Americans as both fellow-sufferers and descendants of the Lost Tribes of Israel, and should therefore be treated as a blessed people of God, doing what they could to assist them. On several occasions, the Mormon Prophet Joseph Smith held meetings with Chief Keokuk who remained in the area with his tribe until 1845. No great Nauvoo meeting during the Mormon sojourn was complete without the presence of either Chief Keokuk or some of his emissaries.
With the coming of statehood for Iowa in 1846, the most of the remnants of the Sauk and Fox were forced from the area, being relocated to reservations in present-day Oklahoma. A few of the tribes remained in small groups in Iowa, and were given another reservation in the Maskwaki area.
Exploration and Settlement
Among the first European explorers to see the Nauvoo Peninsula of which we have record were Father Jacques Marquette and Louis Joliet late in June 1673. On the 25th of that month, Marquette and Joliet encountered a tribe of Illinois Indians near present-day Keokuk, Iowa. For the next 125 years, the historical record is nearly silent, French and Spanish explorers and traders often made their way through the area. One Nauvoo resident found a Spanish coin dated 1622, and another found a handful in his asparagus garden dated 1803.
In November of 1804, Pierre Chouteau , a newly appointed US Agent of Indian Affairs, was given the official title to the land acquired through the Treaty of 1804 , and directed to establish a post to supply the Sauk and Fox “goods at a more reasonable rate than they have been accustomed to procure them.” Wasting no time, Choteau chose a young man named William Ewing erect the post and teach the Natives the science of agriculture.
Accompanied by an interpreter, William Ewing set out early in the spring of 1805, and stopped at a spot opposite to the Sauk village of Chief Quashquema. The two men immediately cut down many of the large oak trees that covered the southern end of the Nauvoo Peninsula and completed a two-story blockhouse by May.
In August of that year, Ewing had his first official guests. Lt. Zebulon Pike had been ordered to explore the Mississippi River, find its source, and locate positions for new military forts. Pike had none of the training or scientific instruments, nor the presidential seal of approval that the Lewis and Clark Expedition of a year earlier had, but that did not stop the young intrepid from doing his duty. On the 20th of that month, Pike’s Expedition reached the Des Moines Rapids, and promptly got stuck. To the rescue came Ewing, his interpreter, and 19 Sauk men to help the expedition unload their keelboat and navigate the rapids. After staying the night with Ewing, Pike spent the next day meeting with the local tribes and discussing his intentions, and left before nightfall. On his return trip the next April, Pike picked up two passengers at “the establishment,” and took them down river a short distance. It appears that the area was already beginning to boom, for not only did Pike find passengers, but passed several groups of trappers, which the year before he had seen nearly none.
William Ewing proved to be an expensive and unpopular agent, and Lt. Pike reported that he was “utterly unfit” for the position. It is not known how long Ewing remained, but his duration was definitely short. After his recall, Ewing’s cabin was opened as need dictated, with a procession of agents making their way through the post. By 1810, however, the cabin sat vacant, abandoned by all except the fur trappers on their way up and down the Mississippi.
In 1808, two new posts were established in the area that also served as military forts, one at Warsaw (Fort Johnson), and one at Fort Madison (Fort Madison). Neither post lasted very long, both of them being abandoned and burned by the Army during the War of 1812.
After the War of 1812, the site of Fort Johnson was reclaimed, and a new post, Fort Edward, constructed. In 1817, the explorer Stephen H. Long stopped at this location and visited with the fort’s commander Jefferson Davis . Again the American Frontier pushed westward, and the need for Fort Edward dwindled. Abandoned by the Army, the property was purchased by John Jacob Astor and the American Fur Company.
In the 1820's the demand for beaver pelts for men’s top hats was great, and the property that was at the head of the Des Moines Rapids was again viewed as a prime location for trade. In 1824, retired US Army Captain James White purchased the former Ewing cabin and land, and established his own post for trading with both the Native tribes and the fur trappers. Unable to compete with the American Fur Company, White and his family established another business of “lightering”, or removing goods from boats as they would come to the Des Moines Rapids and transporting them overland while the now lighter boat was able to navigate the shallow rapids without extreme difficulty.
By 1829 the area of Hancock County had grown sufficiently that a post office was needed. In March of the next year the area was given one, with Yale graduate George Y. Cutler as the postmaster of the three home settlement of Venus. In 1832 Venus had a population of 62, and was one of the top three contenders for the new county seat. However, Venus’ hopes of becoming the seat were dashed when it was decided that a new town to be called Carthage should be platted in the center of the Hancock County to become the seat. Situated on the prairie, travel to and from Carthage proved dangerous. After one session of court was held, many of the attendees set out for their homes at night and became lost in the tall prairie grasses for days. When Cutler heard of this, he hired Venus resident Thomas Brewer to plow a furrow from the settlement to the county seat. Though it wandered a bit in places, Brewer’s plowed road served as the main route between Carthage and Nauvoo until Hancock County was replatted with roads according to the points of the compass. Today a small portion of this road can still be traveled by going to the east end of Parley Street in Nauvoo and following it to the Old Mormon Cemetery.
In 1834 George Cutler died, and one month after his death the name of the village was changed to something the now nearly 100 settlers felt better suited their plans for the future: Commerce. The United States was looking at a fantastic future, with great hopes for westward expansion, and the citizens of Commerce figured to play prominently in it. The old scattering of houses was to be done away with, and a new town platted. Streets were laid out; lots were surveyed; stores were established; the future was upward. With many of the lots in Commerce being purchased, a bigger and stronger addition called Commerce City was planned.
To help maintain the peace after the Black Hawk War, the United States Army established an additional fort on the site of Chief Quashquema’s old village across the river in 1834, calling it Fort Des Moines. The Fort was commanded by Lieutenant Colonel Stephen Watts Kearney , who imposed martial law upon the area to help control that section of the wild American frontier. Three Dragoon companies under the command of captains E.V. Sumner , Nathaniel Boone , and Jesse B. Browne , occupied the base. The fort was abandoned and burned three years later when Kearney was ordered to relocate the force to Fort Leavenworth.
In the spring of 1837 the US Government again took an interest in the area, and a young Lieutenant in the Army Corps of Engineers named Robert E. Lee was dispatched to chart and tame the Des Moines Rapids. Accompanied by Lt. Montgomery Meigs , Lee and his crew spent the next three summers attempting to cut a channel through the rapids, but due to budget cutbacks the project was cancelled in 1840.
There were many plans for and dreams for Commerce and Commerce City, but the great Panic of 1837 put an end to them all. Land that had been purchased at great cost was now almost valueless, with no means to pay for it. People who had taken down their log homes to fit them into the new city now had no money to reconstruct them. Those who had just come and purchased property to put new homes and businesses on found themselves in the same situation. Overnight this bustling little town of 200 was nearly abandoned, leaving only a few stubborn souls who hoped that the area would somehow turn around.
The City Beautiful
Forced to leave the State of Missouri by order of the governor, members of the Church of Jesus Christ of Latter Day Saints (commonly called Mormons or Latter Day Saints) began streaming into Illinois and the then Iowa Territory in the harsh winter of 1838-39. Most of the Mormons went to the vicinity of Quincy, Illinois . As the town of Quincy began to fill to its limits, other Mormons began looking for other places to settle, many huddling in the burned out remains of Fort Des Moines in present day Montrose, Iowa.
Seeing the desperate situation of the Mormons, a land speculator named Isaac Galland approached members of the faith about several of his tracts. Receiving the offer with joy, Joseph Smith purchased the southern end of the peninsula and a large portion of Montrose, Iowa in early 1839. Ewing’s cabin was once again made use of, this time by Joseph Smith, himself. By the end of that year Smith had been able to purchase much of the area of Commerce and Commerce City, and Mormons came en mass. In 1840, the area generally known as Commerce had a population of nearly 2,900 people.
Not everything in the new community was bliss, however. Most of the southern end of the peninsula was swamp, and malarial mosquitoes infested the area. With hundreds of men out of work and scores dying from malaria, Joseph Smith organized a massive public works project to drain the swamp. Digging, blasting and picking their way from present day White Street south to the Mississippi River along Durphy Street, the Mormons drained the nearly 800 acre swamp, and made the entire Nauvoo Peninsula inhabitable. This canal was dug eight feet deep and eleven feet across for nearly three- quarters of a mile, and is still existent today, forming the western boundary of the Nauvoo State Park.
Commerce was finally achieving what it was dreamed to be, but again the name did not suit it’s settlers. In 1840 the name was again changed, this time to Nauvoo, a Hebrew word meaning “beautiful” . Fearing a repeat of what they had suffered in Missouri, the Latter Day Saints pushed for and received a charter for Nauvoo, granting the city power to raise its own militia – answerable to no one outside Nauvoo but the governor; a university; broad legal protection; and many other economic benefits. At that time Illinois was nearly equally divided between Democrats and Whigs, and the Mormons were seen as the swing vote in any statewide election, and thus nearly every politician in the state courted their vote. With Nauvoo’s increasing size came more businesses, and before long it had become the largest and best business district north of St. Louis.
By 1844, Nauvoo’s population topped 10,000, with construction being the major industry. In addition to massive housing demands, Nauvoo also had two large public projects under construction: a beautiful limestone temple on the hill, towering over the entire community, and a four-story hotel at the river’s edge. The city teamed with activity from blacksmiths, gunsmiths, lumberyards, brick and rope makers, and shopkeepers, women’s and youth organizations, Masonic Lodges, and a university.
As with all large towns, particularly those on the edge of the frontier, Nauvoo attracted many less desirable people, some of whom claimed membership in the Mormon faith. This was the age of the river pirate, and horse thieves and banditti roamed the prairies of Illinois. Fearing that they would be subject to the same kinds of spurious prosecutions the Saints had received over the short 10 years since the faith was founded, nearly anyone claiming membership in the Mormon Church was given a safe haven at Nauvoo, without regard to evidence or testimony from outside the city limits.
Some area residents soon became troubled over Nauvoo becoming a safe haven for thieves and robbers, its booming size and great economic and political power. The Whig and Democratic political parties were joined in Hancock County by a third party, the Anti-Mormon Party. This group was determined to repeal the Nauvoo Charter and drive the Mormons from Illinois. Hearing the same feelings expressed in Illinois that had caused terrible persecutions in Missouri, the Mormons only became firmer in their convictions, and soon a tit for tat war had begun.
In the spring of 1844 some of Joseph Smith’s most trusted followers broke from him, and determined to expose his secret practice of polygamy and break up the political influence of Nauvoo on state politics. These dissenters purchased a printing press and published their first issue, with all of its content being an expose of Joseph Smith . Three days later on Monday, June 10th, the Nauvoo City Council called an emergency meeting and declared that the newspaper was a public nuisance, ordered all copies gathered up and burned, and the press destroyed.
Within days the county was on the verge of civil war, with armed bands everywhere. Joseph Smith, as mayor of Nauvoo, declared martial law within the city, preventing armed men from going out or coming in to town. When news of the situation reached Governor Thomas Ford , he immediately ordered out the state militia and went to Carthage to see the situation for himself. After reaching Carthage, Ford called for Smith and the Nauvoo City Council to surrender themselves to stand trial for the destruction of the press. Under a promise of protection, Joseph Smith and a few of the council members surrendered themselves on 24 June. Three days later, with the governor gone to Nauvoo, a group of Warsaw militia stormed the county jail and there killed Joseph Smith, his brother Hyrum, and wounded a third man, with a fourth man in the room escaping injury .
At the death of Joseph Smith the county was gripped in terror in fear of Mormon retaliation. Instead of retaliating, the City of Nauvoo was silent. With the Mormons not returning action, and the governor having gone back to Springfield, the Anti-Mormon Party organized a series of raids against outlying Mormon settlements. By the summer of 1845 the hostilities had progressed to shooting on both sides, and armed groups were again roaming Hancock County. With his immediate attention focused on another outbreak of violence in the southern part of the state , Governor Ford called out the State Militia to again quell the hostilities. This time the Mormons, now under the leadership of Brigham Young , agreed to leave the state and abandon Nauvoo the coming spring.
With their temple nearly completed, the Mormons began to put it to use in the winter of 1845-46. In February of 1846 word came to Brigham Young from Governor Ford that the United States Army might try to prevent the Mormon exodus from Nauvoo into Indian, British or Mexican territory. Fearing his people would be trapped, Young ordered many of the community’s leaders to immediately evacuate the city, with the majority of the Saints to follow when the weather was better.
Throughout the spring and summer of 1846, there was a continual procession of wagons crossing the Mississippi River on anything that could get them across. By September the town that had once been home to more than 20,000 people had been reduced to less than 2,000. Impatient to get the remainder of the Mormons from Nauvoo, the Anti-Mormon Party again marshaled their forces and attacked the city that now had only the poorest and weakest Mormons and approximately 200 new citizens. A full-scale battle ensued, with cannon, rifle, and musket called into use. After two days of battle, a peace delegation from Quincy arranged the terms of surrender for the City of Nauvoo. Given an hour to pack what belongings they could, the remaining Mormons were forced from Nauvoo at the point of bayonet.
Two years after the Mormon expulsion from Nauvoo, their beloved temple was set ablaze by an arsonist. Two years after that a tornado toppled the north wall of the structure that had been weakened from the intense heat of the blaze. The Nauvoo City Council, fearing someone could be killed if the remainder collapsed, ordered the final demolition of the building in 1867.
The memory of Nauvoo remained dear to the hearts of the Latter Day Saints, and in 1853 the first group of Mormon “tourists” came to Nauvoo before making their great trek to Salt Lake City. For more than a century Mormon missionaries on their way east and immigrants on their way west stopped in Nauvoo.
The Most German Speaking Town in Illinois
Nauvoo's history is filled with German-speaking immigrants. From the beginning of the pioneering of the area until the present, there is hardly a piece of Nauvoo’s history that has not been touched. Not all of the German-speaking peoples who came here were from within the boarders of modern Germany, however. Many Swiss, Belgian, and French immigrants were among their numbers, and their religions played no small part in their reasons for settling and their social life once they had established themselves.
The first wave of German immigrants to Nauvoo began during the Mormon Period. Orson Hyde and Orson Pratt , two Mormon apostles, had been among the first to labor as missionaries to German-speaking peoples, and had a good deal of success. Many of these early converts to the faith came to Nauvoo in the early 1840's, establishing the first German-speaking congregations of any faith in Nauvoo. This group had such an influence in town that Joseph Smith began study of the language, even using the Luther Translation of the Holy Bible in several of his sermons. While it is not know for sure, it is believed that the first appearance of a Christmas Tree in Nauvoo occurred during the Mormon sojourn, in the home of one of these natives of the Rhineland.
While German-speaking Mormons were gathering to Nauvoo, many Catholics began to settle there, as well. To see that their religious needs were met, the – at – sent a young Jesuit priest named Johann Alleman.
In 1846, a Methodist congregation was organized in the Seventies Hall. Under the guidance of Reverend Jacob Haas , this congregation was filled with German-speaking natives, and they soon outgrew the space, building a new church of their own near the present day Icarian Museum on Winchester Street. Emma Smith, widow of the Mormon Prophet, was married to her second husband in this building in 1847 by Rev. Haas, and attended this congregation for many years. Although an English-speaking congregation was established in 1853, Nauvoo’s German Methodists maintained their independence until 1904, when the two merged with a compromise of services being held in the English language but in the German church.
German-speaking Lutherans organized their own congregation in another Mormon building, The New York Store, in 1851, under the direction of the Reverend Christian Veitz , a native of Switzerland. Services continued in the German language until 1915 when the congregation merged with the English-speaking one. Services continued to alternate in English and German until 1918 when the German was very reluctantly given up.
The First Presbyterian Church was organized as a joint English and German-speaking congregation. The Reverend Matthew Waldenmeyer oversaw the foundations in 1855, but in 1869 the German speakers felt that their needs were being neglected, and formed their own congregation. The next year a settlement was reached, and services were observed alternately in English and German. This practice continued for more than 30 years, until 1903 when the members agreed that all services should be held in English.
1850's thru 1915, German was more commonly spoken in Nauvoo than English, and at the end of the 19th Century, was known as “the most German speaking town in Illinois.” By the end of World War I most of Nauvoo’s native-German speaking residents stopped using German in public, and by the beginning of the Second World War, German stopped being spoken altogether.
While no astonishing events took place during this period, if it had not been for these ’silent heroes’, the Nauvoo that we know today would not exist. These hearty German-speaking pioneers and settlers brought stability and progress to the area. They preserved many of the Mormon homes, and brought and preserved much of Nauvoo’s culture. They built most of the business district Nauvoo knows today. This period of Germanic immigration brought a solid economic base to Nauvoo that has preserved it for generations. One of the greatest lessons from Nauvoo comes from a German inscription on what is now known as the Joseph Coolidge Home. Placed there by Johann Georg Kaufmann , who purchased the home in the 1850's, the inscription reads:
“Dies Haus ist Mein, und doch nicht Mein. Wer nach Mir Commt, wirds auch so sein. Ich bin hier gewesen. Wer das wird lessen der ist auch hier gewesen."
Icaria
On 15 March 1849 another group of persecuted idealists landed in Nauvoo, hoping to make it their home. Their sight unseen purchase of land in Texas proved to be unhealthy and uninhabitable, so, following the recommendation of President-Elect Zachary Taylor , this small band moved up the Mississippi River seeking a place to establish a utopian community. These were followers of the twice-banished Frenchman, Etienne Cabet.
The Icarian movement was not a religious organization, but rather a social and political commune, following the ideals set forth in the 1840 book by Etienne Cabet, Voyage en Icarie. Capturing many of the principals of Thomas Moore’s Utopia, as well as those of the French Revolution of equality, liberty and brotherhood, Cabet’s novel is said to have at one point have had more than 400,000 copies in print.
Once established in Nauvoo, the Icarians, as they came to be called, had a following of 300, with a high in 1855 of 500. In spite of their uniqueness, their lack of interest in local politics and their small size allowed the initially uneasy local residents to welcome the commune to town. When Cabet made the purchase for the remains of the temple, half of the purchase funds for the property were put forward by their Hancock County neighbors.
When Cabet, himself, had seen the nearly abandoned city, he became fascinated by the ruins of the Mormon temple, and determined to purchase the property even though many of his followers felt it too extravagant and expensive. Cabet had dreams of restoring the structure as a dining and lecture hall. Just as it had once been the marvel of the Upper Mississippi as a monument to the Mormon’s industry, Cabet wanted it to be a grand memorial to the success of Icaria. On 27 June 1850, a group of carpenters was at work in the remains of the Mormon temple when a tornado struck the structure, causing the north wall to collapse inward on the party. In spite of the large number of workers on the job and virtually no advanced warning, not a single person was harmed.
Prospects for the reconstruction of the temple now being crushed, Cabet called his people together and inspired them to build another building on the block that they could use for the same purposes. Although not nearly as large or grand as the Mormon temple, the Icarian School stood for more than 100 years, being used variously as a schoolhouse, apartments, dance hall, theatre, and visitor’s center. Emblazoned on the walls of the new school was the Icarian motto: From each according to his talent; to each according to his needs.
Hoping to create a community that would be completely self-reliant, the Icarians established farms and factories, manufacturing shoes, boots, harnesses, and wagons. Woodworkers and carpenters filled their numbers, as did tailors, coopers, vintners and printers. The women of the community took in washing, sewing, and were engaged in linen making, and ironing. The commune was never able to meet all of their needs, however, and Cabet was often absent on fund raising tours.
In May of 1851, Cabet learned that he had been indicted in France for swindling money from French investors in the commune, and on the 21st of that month he left Nauvoo, determined to clear his name. After two days in French court, Cabet had proven his innocence. While in France, he began to involve himself in politics again, and in the December coup he was arrested as a political agitator and imprisoned. After a few months Cabet was banished again, and he returned to Nauvoo just over a year after he left it.
Cabet’s absence and the financial difficulties oft caused rifts into how the commune should be governed. The difficult financial circumstances meant that food became scarce, and at one point an Icarian wrote that pork and beans were the staple of the group. The attrition caused by these circumstances brought a rapid turnover in membership. Each boat that brought new members to Nauvoo also departed with an equal number of former members.
In December of 1855 Cabet saw that he was loosing power and influence in the movement, and sought an amendment to the Icarian Charter, allowing the president to be elected to a four-year term instead of an annual one. This proposal was in opposition to many of the Icarian ideals and in the February 1856 election of officers, Cabet was voted out. Immediately Cabet offered to drop his proposed amendment, and the community welcomed his humility and the next day cast another vote, this time electing Cabet back into the president’s chair.
The peace did not last in the society, and additional disagreements and charges of mismanagement brought the dissident party into control of the governing board in August of 1856. Etienne Cabet refused to allow the new board members to take their seat, so the dissidents called on Nauvoo Mayor E. Kimball for assistance. Only by the assistance of the town marshal were the new board members able to obtain their office.
The next two months were a time of great struggle in Icaria. As the society began to break up, scuffles ensued over work details, arguments occurred in the meal lines, and children fought at school. Finally, Cabet told his minority that they should refuse to work, but continue to go to the community meals. After three days, the new leadership of Icaria told the minority to begin working or not attend meals. Challenging the majority, Cabet led his followers to the dining hall which they found locked. Returning with axes, the group broke open the doors and a bloody fight ensued. At last the majority prevailed, and Cabet and his followers were forced to take up residence elsewhere in Nauvoo. In being ousted from the Icarian apartments, Cabet took with him all of the society’s account and record books.
In the middle of October, the Icarian General Assembly expelled Etienne Cabet, the founder of Icaria, from the society. His hopes now dashed for the Nauvoo society, Cabet retreated with a few of his most loyal followers to St. Louis, where the heart-broken leader died on 8 November 1856.
Back in Nauvoo, Jean Baptiste Gerard was elected to replace Cabet as president, and he immediately set about to solve the commune’s financial woes. The fighting of the previous year had caused a complete work stoppage in Icaria, and fields that had been neglected that summer now yielded very little. Orders for Icarian products went unfilled, and merchants were forced to take their business elsewhere. Then in 1857 another great financial depression occurred, and creditors demanded payment of the society’s debts. The dream of utopia in Nauvoo was gone, and in August of 1858, all Icarian property there was sold at auction.
Many members of the movement in Nauvoo relocated to other settlements in Iowa or California, but some remained in the once proud community. Arriving in the Icarian commune in 1855, Emile Baxter and his family remained in Nauvoo while the society dissipated, began a family winery , today the oldest in Illinois, and eventually producing his own variety of grape, called the Noah or Nauvoo . Others who remained were the architect for the Illinois and Iowa State Capitol buildings . The Dadant family was also among the Icarian commune. Specializing in honeybees, the Dadants saved many of the US varieties of honeybee during a great blight in the 1930's, and founded what is now the largest beekeepers supply business in the world.
Today the memory of the Icarian movement is kept alive through the National Icarian Society, and tours of the Icarian Living History Museum in Nauvoo. The Western Illinois University in Macomb has taken up the task of gathering all Icarian documents and has established the Center for Icarian Studies , making all of the society’s information available to researchers in one location.
Industry & Prohibition
The rich soils of west-central Illinois have long been revered as some of the best in the world. This special soil brought about Nauvoo’s first industry, agriculture, and chief among the agricultural products in the early days was grapes. Often when the word Nauvoo is mentioned, one of the first things thought of is wine.
Nauvoo today has the oldest winery in Illinois, dating back to 1857 with Emil Baxter. But before Baxter planted his first vineyards, there had been private production of wine in Nauvoo for at least a decade, to the Mormon period of Nauvoo’s history. According to the then established beliefs of The Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints, they were to make their own wine for Sacramental purposes, not trusting that production to others, so we know that wine was being produced among them.
However, tradition states that even previous to the Mormon presence in Nauvoo, the Catholic Father, Johannes Alleman, brought grape roots to plant with him in the late 1830's. Even previous to Alleman, Native Americans gathered wild grapes that still grow throughout the area.
The first documented vineyard for commercial production was in 1851, when John Sillar and Alois Rheinberger both planted vineyards. Rheinberger’s vineyard continues to grow today, and is one of the oldest continuously used vineyards in the United States.
The Icarian immigrant, Emile Baxter joined the growing league of commercial vintners in Nauvoo in 1857. By the time the Illinois Horticultural Society met in Nauvoo in 1863, there were more than half a dozen wineries in Nauvoo. At that time there were 63 different varieties of grapes exhibited from Nauvoo, and 180 acres of vineyards. In 1870 there were 65 people whose main occupation was “vine dressers”.
The numbers began to decrease as technology began to make its way into the vineyards, and by 1886 there were only 35 people in Nauvoo who were full-time vintners. As the production was streamlined, the wine-makers were able to produce as never before, turning out 60,000 gallons of wine each year. In 1887 it was predicted that Nauvoo would become the grape growing center of America as every available piece of land was snatched up for grape production. By the end of the century there were more than 40 different wine cellars in Nauvoo to age the wine for local and national consumption.
The early years of the 20th Century brought more good times for the grape growers of Nauvoo. In 1906, 97 rail road cars were loaded with Nauvoo-grown grapes, and sent to wine makers and merchants across the country.
In 1913, the Nauvoo Fruit Growers and Shipping association was formed to help the number of vintners and other fruit producers get their merchandise distributed. From their office that first year they sent out more than 200 rail road carloads of grapes.
Then catastrophe began to come to the vintners. An epidemic of grape blight swept through Nauvoo, destroying hundreds of acres of product, pushing many of the vineyards to the breaking point. Just when the situation seemed as if it could be salvaged, the blight returned, and winery after winery closed their doors. To add to the troubles, in 1918, the 18th Amendment to the United States Constitution outlawed the production of alcoholic beverages. With this, it did not seem as though things could get any worse for the vintners of Nauvoo. Although it was repealed in 1933 by the 21st Amendment, the damage had been done.
Then in the mid-1930's, 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, and Nauvoo’s history with wine production quickly came to mind. He came to Nauvoo and made some initial attempts which were so successful that he purchased an abandoned brewery and converted it into the Nauvoo Blue Cheese Factory, opening for business in 1937.
To help Nauvoo’s two industries, Mayor Lowell Horton organized a Grape Festival in 1938 to celebrate their impact on the town. Rohde and many others in Nauvoo became familiar with the history of bleu cheese in Roquefort, France, and it was decided that a pageant similar to one put on there, Nauvoo would have its own “Wedding of the Wine and Cheese.” In 1941, the Wedding first took place with the Grape Festival. It developed into a pageant and beauty contest, with both a king and queen, as well as attendants.
Nauvoo’s particular brand of cheese was known for its smooth, creamy texture and clean, fresh and slightly piquant flavor. The delicate blue-green veining provided a perfect, “one-of-a-kind” touch to many meals and snacks around the world. Nauvoo Blue was even awarded the Best Blue in several national and international competitions.
As years passed, the Nauvoo Blue Cheese Factory continued to be run by the Rohde family until it was purchased by other larger companies. It became the second largest producer of bleu cheese in the nation, and it was said that every third purchase of blue cheese in the US was of cheese made right here in Nauvoo.
In 2003 sad news came to Nauvoo. A new purchaser was interested in the factory, but wanted only the brand name that the cheese was sold under. On May 20, 2003 the factory was closed.
Restoration
In 1903, Mrs. James Browning wrote a letter to Joseph F. Smith, the then President of The Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints in Salt Lake City, offering to sell her home. This was no ordinary home, for it was the old county jail in Carthage where Joseph and Hyrum Smith, Joseph F.’s father, had been killed in 1844. President Smith readily agreed to the purchase, and the eyes of the Restorationists began to turn again to their heritage at Nauvoo.
At the World Conference of the Reorganized Church of Jesus Christ of Latter Day Saints in April of 1917, a call came over the pulpit to protect and preserve the Nauvoo home of Joseph Smith, “the Martyr.” Answering the call were three families: John and Ida Layton, the Clyde Fusselman family, and the August Lee family. They came with the mission to help stop the ravages of time on the former Smith family properties. This project came just in time for the Mansion House of Joseph Smith, for it was nearing the point at which it would need to be demolished if something was not done.
The construction of a dam at Keokuk, Iowa was also of immediate concern. The rising water had covered approximately 50 linear feet of the south side of the Nauvoo peninsula, dangerously encroaching on the properties. In December of 1927 it was decided that the then unknown whereabouts of the remains of Joseph, Emma and Hyrum Smith should be located and reinterred in a safe location from the rising river waters. The project was immediately undertaken, and within a month the remains had been found and reinterred in their present location near the Homestead.
The Smith family properties turned out to be quite an attraction for visitors. In 1923 the first of the annual Nauvoo Reunions of the RLDS Church were held, where members of the faith could gather together and renew their old acquaintances and make new ones.
A marker was placed by the LDS Church at the site of Joseph Smith’s Brick Store commemorating the organization of the Female Relief Society in 1933. This Society, with some interruptions, has continued to grow since their founding in 1842 to become the largest women’s organization in the world.
Nine years and a month after the reinternment of the remains of Joseph, Emma and Hyrum Smith, a Salt Lake City man named Wilford C. Wood purchased a large portion of the original Temple Block on February 20, 1937. They had purchased
Over the next two decades, more and more people came to Nauvoo desiring to see the properties of “Joseph the Prophet.” In 1944 a memorial service was held on the centennial anniversary of the Martyrdom of Joseph and Hyrum Smith. This event where both the LDS and RLDS Churches were in cooperation, proved to be a successful bridge between the two, and continues to this day. By 1956 there were so many visitors coming to the sites that major improvements were done to many of the RLDS sites over the next few years.
Nauvoo Mayor Lowell Horton was also one instrumental person in creating the Nauvoo of today. Horton owned a service station on the corner of Robinson and Mulholland Streets, where it was often said, “At Horton’s you get a tank full of gas and an ear full of Nauvoo.” As a tireless promoter of Nauvoo and the town’s potential, Horton worked to organize event after event, bringing in all interested parties to make things successful.
Chicago artist Lane K. Newberry was one of those enchanted by Horton’s vision for Nauvoo. With Newberry’s high profile, he made contact with Bryant S. Hinckley, the then President of the Northern States Mission of the LDS Church. Together these visionaries created successful events for the centennial anniversaries for Nauvoo’s Mormon past. In 1939 for the Mormon arrival in Nauvoo there was a special meeting of members of The Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints on the Temple Block, at which Newberry declared his hope that the edifice would one day be reconstructed. Then in 1944 for the Martyrdom anniversary a memorial service was held at the Graves of Joseph and Hyrum Smith. And in 1947 for the arrival of the Mormon Pioneers in the Salt Lake Valley, a Centennial Caravan was put together with the Sons of the Utah Pioneers, who drove Chryslers dressed as wagons instead of oxen.
With interest growing, Salt Lake City Dr. J. LeRoy Kimball purchased his great-grandfather’s home in 1954 as a summer vacation home. While he was restoring the property he was overwhelmed with visitors who wanted to see the home of the famed Mormon Apostle Heber C. Kimball. Seeing that he would never be able to sleep a night in the home, Kimball donated the property to the LDS Church and began a quest to have many of the old Mormon sites restored. Using his many contacts in Salt Lake and Williamsburg, Virginia, Kimball organized Nauvoo Restoration, Incorporated on 27 July 1962.
Nauvoo Restoration, Incorporated, or NRI as it has come to be called, immediately set out to acquire as much of the Nauvoo Flat as possible that they did not already own. However, they not only purchased properties, but they began extensive archaeological excavations, restorations of still existent buildings, and reconstructions of some of the more significant structures in LDS history. For a time it was even proposed that the south west corner of the Nauvoo Temple be rebuilt up to where the stone portion had reached to be a viewing platform for visiting tourists.
That idea was soon dropped and plans for a new visitor center were developed in its stead. This new center, called the Historic Nauvoo Visitors Center, was dedicated on 4 September 1971, and for the occasion Maughan McMurdie and R. Don Oscarson wrote a pageant of the Mormon sojourn in Nauvoo entitled “City of Joseph.” Although it was performed previous to the completion, the pageant was performed by a 35 member cast inside one of the new center’s theaters. Over the next few years the pageant was performed on special occasions, until in 1976 an outdoor amphitheater was constructed just to the north of the center, which became the City of Joseph Pageant’s official home.
In preparing for the sesquicentennial anniversary of the founding of the original Mormon faith by Joseph Smith, a new statue garden was constructed at the Historic Nauvoo Visitors Center in 1978. Then on the anniversary date, 6 April 1980, the Reorganized Church of Jesus Christ of Latter Day Saints dedicated a reconstruction of Joseph Smith’s Red Brick Store on Water Street. Less than a month later they were also able to dedicate a new visitors center, the Joseph Smith Historic Site Visitors Center, further east on Water Street.
In 1989, for the sesquicentennial of the Mormons coming to Nauvoo, the LDS Church restored and dedicated several more historic sites, including a complete renovation of the Carthage Jail and the block on which the historic structure sits. In 1994 for the sesquicentennial of the deaths of Joseph and Hyrum Smith, the presidents of both The Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints and the Reorganized Church of Jesus Christ of Latter Day Saints came to Nauvoo for several memorial services. Then in 1996, two wagon trains—this time with actual wagons—left Nauvoo to commemorate the great Mormon Exodus.
At the final service of the April General Conference, President Gordon B. Hinckley of The Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints announced that the Nauvoo Temple would be rebuilt on the original Temple Block. Ground was broken shortly thereafter, and in June of 2002, the reconstructed Temple was dedicated.