Our final day in Nauvoo was spent touring all of the historic houses. We learned so much history today. I think the history and names and things were going over the kids heads but Russell and I were soaking them in.
We started the day at the Joseph Smith Historic Sites. These homes and sites are owned by the Community of Christ so we needed to pay a little bit to take their walking tour. I feel like it was worth it though because the tour guide was really good and knew a lot about the history of the homes.
The first house we went to was what was supposed to be the Nauvoo House. It was revealed to Joseph Smith that, along with the Temple, the Saints should build a boarding house or hotel for the travelers coming along the Mississippi River and to Nauvoo (D&C 124). Only the foundations up to the ground floor were finished by the time Joseph and Hyrum were martyred. You can see the original part that was finish in the picture. It is the white bricks at the bottom. After the prophet was killed, Brigham Young had the Saints turn their focus to finishing the Temple and work on the Nauvoo House was dropped. Later, Emma Smith and her new husband, Lewis Bidamon, finished the Nauvoo House and it was then known as the Riverside Mansion and they lived in it. We were not able to go inside the Nauvoo House but we just walked around it.
Next was Joseph Smith's Homestead:
This is where Joseph Smith lived while in Nauvoo and was the headquarters of the church for a while. This is also where he received many revelations for the church. He lived here up until the last 10 months of his life. When he lived there though, the house was only the log portion of the house. The white sided parts were added later by his son, Joseph Smith III, and their family. We were able to walk in this house and see where the prophet lived. The crazy thing about this house was that there were a lot of hiding places. When the mobs or militia came for Joseph he would need to hide so there were places in the house to hide like closets with false backs or attic crawl spaces.
The next place we were able to walk through was the Mansion House:
During the last 10 months of his life, Joseph Smith lived in the Mansion House. This house was very beautiful inside. In this house, Joseph and Emma hosted many gatherings and parties for the Saints. This is also where the Saints came view the bodies of Hyrum and Joseph. George Cannon made the death masks here. Joseph also used this house as kind of a boarding house for visitors. Emma continued to live in the Mansion House after Joseph's death until moving over to the Nauvoo House when it was completed. There were also hiding spaces in this house too.
Finally we toured the Red Brick Store:
The Red Brick Store was a very important place. This became the church headquarters when it was built. Downstairs was a dry goods store and upstairs was Joseph Smith's office and a meeting hall. Russell and the kids are sitting in the meeting hall in the picture above. It was in this room that Joseph Smith first organized the Relief Society, performed the first temple endowments, translated the book of Abraham, wrote the Articles of Faith in the Wentworth letter, and received the revelation of eternal marriages. He also conferred all of the priesthood keys of running the church onto the Twelve Apostles and taught them everything they would need to know if something happened to him. The original building was demolished but the Community of Christ rebuilt this on in its place.
We were told that the best thing to buy at the Red Brick Store was their root beer so decided to try it out. Yes it was pretty good root beer especially since it was cold and we were hot!
The next awesome place we went was the Smith Family Cemetery. This is where Joseph Smith Sr. and Lucy Mack Smith are buried. It is also where the prophet Joseph Smith, his brother Hyrum Smith, and Emma Smith are buried.
It was pretty amazing being able to see the grave site of the prophet. There was a special feeling there. So this story was something I didn't know. The bodies of Joseph and Hyrum have been moved a few times. When the Saints originally had their funeral. The bodies were taken out of the caskets, and the caskets were filled with sandbags and buried in the Nauvoo Cemetery. The bodies were then secretly buried under the Nauvoo House. They did this because they feared that the mobbers would dig up the bodies in the cemetery and desecrate them. Then when Emma died, the family dug up Joseph and Hyrum and moved the bodies and buried them with Emma's body under a shed on the Homestead property. Then later, when a dam was built in Keokuk causing the river to rise, the family feared the rising river would wash the bodies away, they dug up the three bodies and moved them again to the Smith Family Cemetery where they are now. Isn't that crazy? Even in death he was never left in peace.
The Community of Christ has done a great job preserving these sites and we really enjoyed their tour of these great places. It was also great to hear their stories and learn more about things that happened after the Saints left Nauvoo.
After seeing the homes at the Joseph Smith Historic Sites, we headed back up to the Historic Nauvoo district owned by the LDS Church. Our first stop was the Seventies Hall.
The seventies hall was used by the members of the seventy as a place for learning how to be missionaries and spread the gospel so in a way, this was the first MTC. The bottom floor (shown in the picture) was used as a chapel for religious instruction by Brigham Young and other seventies, and the upstairs was offices for the seventies and the first library in Nauvoo. Now the upstairs is a museum of various artifacts found throughout the Historic Nauvoo District. Also upstairs is a seventy's office where there are books of all of the members of the Seventy that lived in Nauvoo. It was so fun to look through these books and find the names of our ancestors that lived in Nauvoo and were members of the Seventy.
We found quite a few names we recognized. On Russell's side we found some Farnsworth's, Seymour's, and Maxwell's. On my side we found Gate's, Burgess's, and Cannon's. It really made us feel important or proud of our ancestry!
On the wall in that room was a picture of one of my Great Grandpas, John D. Lee. His name was also in the Seventy book. I thought that was pretty cool that I recognized my ancestor and it was displayed at Nauvoo!
After spending quite a bit of time at the Seventies Hall finding our names, we headed next door to the Blacksmith Shop
While at the Blacksmith Shop, we learned all about what it took to be a blacksmith in the 1840s. The blacksmiths and wagonwrights were very important back then because they were the ones that built and repaired all of the wagons the pioneers needed to make the journey west. The blacksmiths also were the ones to make the horseshoes and oxen shoes and other things out of metal like plows and things that the pioneers needed. They were very busy. The missionary taught us how they made the wheels for the wagons and everything had to be just perfect for the wheel to work correctly on the wagon box. He also showed us how they made horseshoes and even made us a little tiny horseshoe which Charlotte was lucky enough to get to keep. Each of us also got a prairie diamond (or horseshoe nail) ring to take home with us.
Outside the blacksmith shop was a stock for cows. These stocks were used when shoeing oxen. The reason they were needed is because cows cannot stand on three legs so they have to be tied into these stocks so that when they are shod, they won't fall down. I had no idea!
Next we went to the Brigham Young House.
This was also a beautiful house. This is where President Young's wife Mary Ann lived and they lived here until leaving Nauvoo. One interesting thing about this house was that the Quorum of the Twelve would have prayer meetings here, ordinances were performed here, and important decisions regarding the Church were made here as well.
Next we saw the John Taylor home.
John Taylor's family lived here for less than a year before leaving Nauvoo. One cool story we heard in this house was about the little rocking horse in the picture above. The story goes that when they were forced out of Nauvoo, the Taylor family could only take a few things that could fit in the wagon, just like all of the other families. John Taylor's son loved this rocking horse and cried and cried when they had to leave it behind. This broke John Taylor's heart so in the middle of the night, he crossed back over the Mississippi River and snuck back into his house and got the rocking horse. He then crossed back over the River in a canoe to his family with the rocking horse. His son was so happy to see his favorite toy. The story is not part of official church history but it has been passed down through the family for some time. It is still a sweet story of a father's love.
This house was connected to two other buildings, the post office and the printing office. We were able to go to each of them as well. In the printing office we learned all about how they printed newspapers and other publications in Nauvoo. We learned how to set type, put the ink on and then press down the printing press. This had to be a long tedious job but an important one. A couple of editions of the Book of Mormon were printed here as well as other scriptures such as Doctrine & Covenants, the hymnal, and three newspapers. John Taylor was the editor and ran the printing office.
In the post office we learned how the mail was distributed during the 1840's in Nauvoo. It seemed like it would take forever to get letters and things sent out to people in those days but they managed to make it work.
The next place we stopped at was across the street at the Jonathan Browning Home and Gun shop.
This was the home of the inventor of the Browning rifles. Jonathan Browning invented the repeating rifle and the six-shot repeater. He lived here in Nauvoo and had a gun repair shop as well as a gun making business. The Browning rifles all had a distinct logo and marking on them that said "Holiness to the Lord - Our Preservation." It was cool to see all of the rifles used then compared to the ones Browning makes now. The missionary demonstrated how the stock and barrel of a gun is made and it was pretty amazing. Everything had to be just right for the gun to operate correctly. Browning really was a master at his trade. We also toured his back yard and there was a great view of the Nauvoo Temple.
By this time, it was time for another play to start. We got tickets to the play in the Visitor Center called, "The Promise."
"The Promise" was really good. Everything was performed by those amazing Young Performing Missionaries. The show was the love story of a couple of Nauvoo residents. It also showed how life was in Nauvoo at the time. The kids really liked it and so did we.
We still had a few hours before all of the homes closed for the day so we continued touring.
First we stopped at the Cultural Hall.
This was a fun building in its time. It was where all of the dances and activities took place. The cultural hall had many purposes including theatrical productions, church meetings, funerals, and even the police station and headquarters for the Nauvoo Legion. It was also the Masonic Hall where lodge meetings and ceremonies took place. The third floor is where Russell and Emily are dancing. This was a big open room used for dances and banquets and Masonic meetings. The second floor was full of quilts on display. The first floor was where productions were performed. This is were we watched "Just Plain Anna Amanda."
We also visited the Heber C. Kimball home. This home was actually bought and restored by Heber C. Kimball's great-grandson, Leroy Kimball before being acquired by the Church.
Then we toured the Wilford Woodruff House.
This was a pretty cool house. Wilford Woodruff wanted his family to be comfortable so he built a fireplace in every room of the house. Another cool thing is that this house was furnished with most of the actual belongings of Wilford Woodruff. One interesting piece was a really tall hat box. Wilford Woodruff used this hat box for hats, for a seat, and for standing on to preach.
This is the boot shop. In this building we learned how to make shoes. The interesting thing about making shoes back then was that they just made one generic shoe. There was no right or left shoe, they were both the same. Eventually, because the shoes were made out of leather, the leather formed to your feet and them became right or left. The reason they did this was because it was easier for the shoemaker to make two identical shoes rather than two different ones. All they did was measure your feet, pick one of the molds that would fit that measurement and make your shoes. It was very interesting.
After seeing how shoes were made, we didn't have much time before the houses closed so we ran over to the Land and Records Office. In the Land and Records office, we were able to do a little bit of genealogy. We were able to look up the names of our ancestors and get a bunch of information about them and their lives while living in Nauvoo. We were even able to pull up maps and find out where they lived while they were in Nauvoo. We also got a lot of other information about them that is only available in the Nauvoo archives. We saved everything to a CD and got to take it home. It was so exciting to find information about our ancestors again. I really need to go back through and read everything I got.
After leaving the Land and Records Office, we drove around Nauvoo and located the plots and areas of our ancestors' and where they lived. It was pretty fun. Obviously the houses were no longer there, but it was still cool to see were they had been.
Then we drove up to the Nauvoo Temple Quarry.
This is where all of the stone was cut for the Temple. Some of my ancestors worked in the quarry as well as the sawmill just up from it. They, like the other Saints, did all they could to help build the Temple.
After a long day of touring houses, and learning so much more about the early Saints, we decided to spend the rest of the evening at the trailer relaxing. First though, we had to get some souvenirs.
Charlotte looked so cute in her bonnet that I had to get it. The other kids also picked one thing to get to remember the trip. At the candy shop, we all got a piece of candy. The kids loved their chocolate covered marshmallows and had fun making funny faces as they ate them. Another yummy place we ate at was Annie's Frozen Custard. We loved their ice cream and the owners were super friendly.
As our last night in Nauvoo, we bid farewell to this amazing place. We learned so much and had so much fun. We definitely want to come back another time. The Spirit was so strong here and we just felt good like we had come home.
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