In early 1839,
Latter Day Saints were forced to flee
Missouri as a result of the
1838 Mormon War and a non-legal proclamation known as
Missouri Executive Order 44 issued by Governor
Lilburn W. Boggs. They regrouped in Quincy, whose non-Mormon citizens were shocked by the harsh treatment given them in Missouri and opened their homes to the refugees.
Joseph Smith, Jr., prophet and president of the
Church of Jesus Christ of Latter Day Saints, remained
imprisoned in Missouri, but his chief counselor in the
First Presidency,
Sidney Rigdon, had been released and rejoined the main body of the church in Quincy. Church member
Israel Barlow fled Missouri and entered Illinois further north than the main group of Latter-day Saints. Learning from
Isaac Galland, a
land agent, that a large amount of land was for sale in the Commerce area, he contacted church leaders. Galland approached Rigdon in Quincy and offered church leaders title to land in Hancock County and additional land across the river in the
Iowa Territory's
Lee County. Church leaders purchased this land as well as the mostly vacant Commerce plat in 1839, and Latter Day Saints began to settle the area immediately. Physically weak from months of imprisonment, Smith and other leaders were permitted to escape from prison in Missouri. They rejoined the Latter Day Saints in Commerce by May 1839. He renamed the town "Nauvoo", meaning "to be beautiful". Latter Day Saints often referred to Nauvoo as "the city beautiful", or "the city of Joseph". Despite the name, the site was, at first, an undeveloped swamp. Epidemics of
cholera,
malaria and
typhoid took their toll on the struggling Mormons until the swamp was drained. The smaller community of Commerce had few buildings, so construction began promptly to meet the immediate demand for housing. Elements of Joseph Smith's generalized city plan, known as the "
plat of Zion" (first introduced in 1833) were used in the street layout and lot allotments in Nauvoo. 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.
Building up the city In the spring of 1840,
John C. Bennett, the
Quarter Master General of the Illinois State Militia, converted to Mormonism and became Joseph Smith's friend and confidant. Bennett's experience with Illinois government allowed him to help Smith craft a city charter for Nauvoo. After passing both houses of the Illinois Legislature, Governor Thomas Carlin signed the Nauvoo City Charter on December 16, 1840. Based closely on the
Springfield, Illinois, charter, the document gave the city a number of important powers, including the establishment of the
Municipal Court of Nauvoo, the
University of Nauvoo, and an independent militia unit. At the time, the Illinois state government was closely balanced between members of the
Democratic party and members of the
Whig party. Both hoped to attract Mormon votes, and both were quick to place the charter into effect. After the charter was passed, Bennett was elected Nauvoo's first mayor, and Smith made Bennett a member of the church's
First Presidency. A militia unit named the "
Nauvoo Legion" was established, and Smith and Bennett were made its commanding generals. The city grew quickly as Mormons gathered. At its height Nauvoo's population was as large as Quincy's or Springfield's, although it remained smaller than contemporary
Chicago, still in its infancy. Many new residents came from the
British Isles, as a result of a successful LDS mission established there. The Latter Day Saints published two newspapers in the city, the religious and church-owned
Times and Seasons and the secular and independently owned
Wasp (later replaced by the
Nauvoo Neighbor). Although it mostly existed on paper, the
University of Nauvoo was established, with Bennett as chancellor. The Nauvoo Legion, a militia with 2,000 men, was headed by Joseph Smith, who was given the commission of
lieutenant-general by Illinois' Governor Carlin. The Nauvoo militia consisted of a corps of riflemen. On April 6, 1841, the Nauvoo Legion drilled in a great parade to honor the laying of the cornerstone for a new
temple. and
Sidney Rigdon gave the dedicatory speech. The foundation of the
Nauvoo Temple was and, when finished, its steeple rose to a height of over . Church elder
Alpheus Cutler was put in charge of the construction of the ambitious stone structure. Another church committee began construction of a large hotel on the city's Water Street, to be called the
Nauvoo House.
John D. Lee was put in charge of constructing a meeting hall for the quorums of the
Seventies. In October 1841, a
Masonic lodge was established in Nauvoo in the building currently referred to as the Cultural Hall.
George Miller, one of the church's
bishops, was made its "
Worshipful Master" or leader. The lodge admitted far more members than was normal in Masonic practice and quickly elevated church leaders to high roles. This was the most significant time in which the
Latter Day Saints were involved in Freemasonry.
Developments in the church At the time of Nauvoo's foundation, the church was led by a
First Presidency, consisting of a prophet and two counselors. The
presiding high council, known as the Nauvoo High Council, led by Nauvoo
Stake President
William Marks, was next in administrative authority, overseeing the church's legislative and judicial affairs. The church's "Traveling High Council" (or
Quorum of the Twelve) led by President
Brigham Young oversaw its missionary activities. '' (clipping) Joseph Smith, Jr., introduced and expanded a number of distinct practices while the Latter Day Saint church was headquartered in Nauvoo. These included
baptism for the dead,
rebaptism, the Nauvoo-era
endowment, and the ordinance of the
second anointing. In addition, he created a new inner council of the church — containing both men and women — called the
Anointed Quorum. Although not publicly acknowledged, Smith had been practicing
plural marriage for some time, and in Nauvoo he began to teach other leaders the doctrine. Controversy arose because Smith's counselor in the First Presidency and Mayor,
John C. Bennett, was caught in
adultery (which Bennett considered and referred to as "
spiritual wifery" or having multiple "spiritual" wives), claiming that Joseph Smith endorsed it and practiced it himself. Bennett was subsequently expelled from Nauvoo in the summer of 1842, and Smith himself became the city's second mayor. Bennett's fall led to Brigham Young's becoming more prominent among Smith's confidants. Young proved more loyal than Bennett, helping Smith promote the teachings of the Church and the practice of plural marriage with greater discretion. Another key development was Smith's 1844 establishment of the
Council of Fifty based upon his political theory of
theodemocracy. An extension of the Mormon belief of an imminent
millennium, this council was meant to be a political organization which could immediately fill the roles of purely secular governments which would be destroyed at Christ's
Second Coming. The organization was meant to be fully functional only in the absence of secular government, and its governing principles were to be based on the
United States Constitution. Reports of the organization, which met in secret, helped fuel rumors of an aggressive
theocracy with Joseph Smith as its king. The council remained in existence long after the Nauvoo period. Nevertheless, Joseph Smith ran for
president of the United States in 1844 advocating for a "
theodemocracy". He wrote, "I go emphatically, virtuously, and humanely, for a Theodemocracy, where God and the people hold the power to conduct the affairs of men in righteousness."
Growing hostility towards Mormons 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 the growing Mormon
voting bloc. In Nauvoo, Joseph Smith was not only president of the church, he was mayor, head of the municipal court, and general of the militia. This power base, plus the fact that Mormons benefited from collective group efforts as opposed to the more isolated and independent non-Mormon farmer, caused many non-LDS in the nearby areas to become suspicious and jealous. Throughout much of the Nauvoo period, officials from Missouri attempted to arrest Smith and
extradite him on charges relating to the
Mormon War. When he was apprehended, Smith would appeal to the Nauvoo Municipal Court, which would issue writs of
habeas corpus and force his release. The court occasionally did the same when non-Mormons tried to arrest Latter Day Saints on other charges. Although the local court exceeded their authority in some of these cases, in at least one instance Governor Ford honored the Nauvoo court's decision to deny extradition. Illinoisans, generally unaware of the Church's and Smith's legal history in Missouri, began to consider this a serious subversion of the judiciary which weakened the legal position of Nauvoo and the Latter Day Saint leadership. Dissatisfaction with the perceived theocracy also arose from within. In 1844, First Presidency member
William Law — an important merchant and counselor to Smith — broke with the church president over both the issue of
plural marriage and the 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 threatened to expose the practice of plural marriage; after the first issue was published, the press was destroyed at Smith' request and no further issues were published. On June 10, 1844, Smith held a meeting of the city council which, after two full days of meeting, condemned the
Expositor as "a public nuisance" and empowered him to order the press destroyed. A portion of the
Nauvoo Legion, Smith's militia, marched into the office, wrecked the press and burned every copy of the
Nauvoo Expositor that could be found. The destruction of the press was seen as an opportunity by 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 began to call for Smith's arrest. Smith, his brother
Hyrum, and several other church leaders submitted to arrest. While awaiting trial in Carthage, the county seat, under assurance of safety from Illinois governor Ford, Joseph and Hyrum Smith were assassinated when a vigilante mob attacked the jail. (
See Death of Joseph Smith.)
"Mormon War in Illinois" and the Mormon Exodus After Smith's assassination, the agitation against Mormons continued. The conflict escalated into what has sometimes been called the "Mormon War in Illinois". Opponents of the Mormons in Warsaw and Carthage began to agitate for the expulsion from Illinois of the Latter Day Saints. In October 1844, a great gathering was announced in Warsaw. Although it was purported to be a "wolf hunt", it was known that the "wolves" to be hunted were the Mormons. When Governor
Thomas Ford became aware of it, he sent militia troops to disperse the gathering. However, as he later recalled:
Vigilante bands continued to roam the county, forcing Latter Day Saints in outlying areas to abandon their homes and gather in Nauvoo for protection. When the Illinois state legislature met in December 1844, there was great support for the repeal of the Nauvoo Charter. Governor Ford conceded that the charter's privileges had been "much abused" by the Mormons, but he urged that the legislature merely amend the document, saying, "I do not see how ten or twelve thousand people can do well in a city without some chartered privileges." However, on January 29, 1845, the repeal was overwhelmingly passed by a vote of 25–14 in the Senate and 75–31 in the House. After its legal disincorporation, Nauvoo government and civil institutions were legally dissolved and the church administrative structure operated as a default government. This more theocratic organization was known informally by its residents as the "City of Joseph" while disincorporated. After a
succession crisis, Brigham Young gained support from the majority of church members and so controlled Nauvoo. Informal security procedures were established, including what were known as "whittling and whistling brigades". These were made up of Mormon men and boys who "whistled" while "
whittling" with large knives held close to any suspicious strangers who entered Nauvoo. According to one witness: of the city as it appeared at the time of the
Mormon exodus Nauvoo's population peaked at about this time in 1845; it may have had as many as 12,000 inhabitants (and several nearly as large suburbs)—rivaling
Chicago, whose 1845 population was about 15,000. By the end of 1845 it became clear that no peace was possible between LDS church members and antagonized locals. 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. On September 10, 1846, a mob of about 1,000 anti-Mormons besieged Nauvoo. Three of the fewer than 150 Mormon defenders were killed, and skirmishing left wounded on both sides. About a week later, on September 16,
Daniel H. Wells and the Mormon leadership of Nauvoo surrendered to the mob and arranged for their people's evacuation from the town and expulsion across the Mississippi River into the Iowa Territory. After the departure of the Mormons, the temple stood until destroyed by
arsonists on November 19, 1848. On April 3, 1999, plans were announced to rebuild the temple on the historic site where it once stood. LDS church leaders broke ground for the new temple on October 24, 1999. After construction was completed, the new temple was dedicated for use by members of the LDS church on June 27, 2002. 159 years later, on April 1, 2004, the Illinois House of Representatives unanimously passed a resolution of regret for the forced expulsion of the Mormons from Nauvoo in 1846.
Smith family members in Nauvoo after 1846 Emma Hale Smith, Joseph's widow, continued to live in Nauvoo with her family after the departure of the majority of the Latter Day Saints. In 1860, their son,
Joseph Smith III, said he received a revelation to take his place as Prophet/President of a group known as the "Church of Jesus Christ of Latter Day Saints". He continued to live in Nauvoo, which functioned as headquarters of this church (now known as the
Community of Christ) until 1865. In 1866, Smith moved from Nauvoo to
Plano, Illinois, where the church's printing house had been established. He personally took over the editorship of the ''Saint's Herald'', and Plano became the headquarters of the church. In his final years, members of the church began to move to
Independence, Missouri, which Smith's father had designated as the "center place" of the "City of Zion". Latter Day Saints had wanted to return to this theologically important ground since their expulsion in 1833. == Icarian period (1849-1856) ==