--- title: Improvement Era description: Monthly periodical of the Mormon church, 1897 onward. This library holds the issues of November 1897 to December 1930. authors: - Brown, John Z. collections: - periodicals tags: - magazine - improvement-era periodical: Improvement Era volume: 12 number: 6 published: 1909-04 publisher: Young Men’s Mutual Improvement Associations publisher_place: Salt Lake City language: en type: magazine reference: 'Brown, John Z., "Nauvoo Today," *Improvement Era* 12, no. 6 (April 1909): 468–475.' source: url: https://archive.org/details/improvementera1206unse transcription: Transcribed from the Internet Archive scan of each issue (the item for each issue is named in the issue's own source); unnumbered advertising leaves are omitted, printed page numbers are kept as page markers. identifier: improvementera1206unse start_page: 468 end_page: 475 rights: status: public-domain basis: US publication 1930 or earlier (published 1909-04) source: https://archive.org/details/improvementera1206unse publication_year: 1909 note: The Internet Archive item metadata carries a blanket "© Copyright by Intellectual Reserve, Inc." notice. The library owner judged it inapplicable because this issue was published in 1909, before 1931; a scan-level notice does not restore copyright. --- # Nauvoo Today NAUVOO TODAY. BY JOHN ZIMMERMAN BROWN, A. B.,OF DEPARTMENT OF PHYSIOLOGY, UNIVERSITY OF UTAH. Sixty-three years ago Nauvoo had a population of more than fifteen thousand inhabitants, and was the largest city in the state of Illinois. As it lay half encircled by a bend of the Mississippi, covering an area of several square miles, it promised to become a commercial, industrial and educational center of no small importance. Jt was a beautiful city that had sprung into existence in the short space of seven years . It not only promised to outrival St. Louis, but it was even larger than Chicago. With such a future at that time, it is strange, but nevertheless a fact, that today it is an unimportant village of thirteen hundred people. True, it occupies the same beautiful site, but it has no railway connections, nor any of the modern improvements. However, the present inhabitants are a thrifty, kind-hearted people, who bid the traveler welcome and willingly relate to him the story of their city. 'Twas early on Sunday morning in August that I landed at the little town of Montrose on the Iowa side of the river just opposite John Pitt, and a portion of his residence, near Parley Street, Nauvoo. NAUVOO TODAY. 469 Nauvoo. The mail carrier proffered to row me across in his launch, and, as we moved out into the stream, our boat headed for the opening between two islands which hide Nauvoo from the Iowa side. "This island on the left," the boatman said, "is called Kimball Island; it was named after Heber C. Kimball, a "Mormon," who once lived in Nauvoo. We call the other one Galland Island. " From the opening between these two timber-covered islands, I had my first glimpse of Nauvoo, the city from which our people were driven sixty-three years ago. A few rods above the boat landing stands the oldest house in mMm 1EL. ""'•ifcv i Nauvoo Mansion, Home of the Prophet Joseph Smith. Main and Center Streets. the town. It was built in 1827 by Captain James White, and is a two-story, white stone building still used as a dwelling. The present town of Nauvoo occupies the hill a mile back from the river; the low lands between, though laid out in what were once city lots, are now fields and vineyards with a building only here and there. One of these, a substantial brick house, is the Nauvoo residence of Brigham Young. Farther on towards the hill is a large two-and-a-half story house, which was the home of Heber C. Kimball. On a big white stone set in the brick wall above the porch is inscribed the letters: H. C. K. , 1845. This house is well preserved and looks as if it had been but recently built. The 470 IMPR 0 VEMENT ERA . property includes good out-buildings and a well kept garden; to all appearances it is occupied by a thrifty family. As my Utah friends who were to join me at Nauvoo had not arrived, I spent that quiet, peaceful Sabbath wandering about the streets and lanes, over hills and along river banks, silently gazing Main S^et, Nauvoo, Looking North. The Mansion, now Occupied. upon the Nauvoo of tsday, while picturing in my mind what it at one time had been. On what was once one of the principal side-walks, I found a few flat stones — the remnants of a pavement that was laid a generation ago. But on the more important streets, such as Mulhol. land, these stones have been replaced by modern cement walks. I was surprised to observe the great number of substantial, old brick houses, both large and small, which, I was told, had been built by the "Mormons." These former dwellings of our people are scattered about everywhere. Many of them are now unoccupied. Knocking at the door of one of these, I was kindly received by an old gentleman who introduced himself as John Pitt. When I told him I was looking for some one who could tell me about Nauvoo, he answered: "Well, I guess I know as much as any body, for I've been around these parts since forty-one." He then related the following story: "My father, Thomas Pitt, and his brother William were con- NAUVOO TODAY. 471 verted to 'Mormonism' in England by Wilford Woodruff, in 1840, and came to Nauvoo the next year. But father did not go west when the 'Mormons' were driven out. So we have lived in and about here ever since. "I remember the Prophet Joseph Smith and his brother Hyrum, and heard them preach many times. Although I was but a boy, I distinctly recall the time when those men were killed; the picture of the funeral procession coming into Nauvoo with their bodies is as clear to me as if it had happened but yesterday. The intense sadness and gloom of that occasion can never be forgotten. But we knew Heber C. Kimball much better. We lived in the third ward, and he preached there a great deal. You know Brother Kimball was a potter, and he used to preach about being like clay in the hands of the potter. I remember John Lott and a Brother Murdock, who took care of the Prophet Joseph's farm; also Reuben Hedlock, George Edmonds, and Almon W. Babbitt. Edmonds lives in Carthage now. A 'Mormon' by the name of Home kept a store on Mulholland Street, and one day my father sent me up there to sell a hide. Father left the horns on the hide as that was the way Foot of Main Street, Nauvoo, Looking South. Mississippi River Below. Showing site of the old Knight Mill. we used to do in England. When Home, the store keeper, unrolled the hide, he said, 'why didn't you cut these horns off? I don't buy them; I'm Home enough now!' So he sawed them off before he weighed the hide." 472 IMPROVEMENT ERA. Although this old gentleman is eighty two, he says he has "no aches nor pains." In response to my question, "where did the Prophet and bis brother live?" he led me out through the corn field into the woods towards the river. On the way, he directed my attention to an old sand bank. "Here," he said, "a cave-in once occurred while the men were hauling sand, burying two little boys, the sons of a Mr. Lathorp, a 'Mormon' who kept a store on Mulholland Street." We continued onward down the hill into Parley Street, and then turned west into Main Street, which extends north and south and is the widest thoroughfare in the city. From this point we proceeded southward to the river. On our left we passed a small frame house, which, I was told, was Sidney Rigdon's. Just below this, on the corner of Main and Water Streets, is the Nauvoo Mansion, where the Prophet Joseph lived. The portion of the Mansion fronting southward on Water Street had been taken down. But the part facing Main Street stands just as it did when it was occupied by the Prophet. At the foot of Main street near the river, just one block from the Mansion House, is the Nauvoo Housemen- Parley Street, Nauvoo, 111. LookiDgEast from Main St.— Lyman Wight's House. NAUVOO TODAY. 473 tioned in the 124th section of the Doctrine and Covenants. The walls of this structure were built only to the top of the basement. However, on the south-west corner of the foundation, there is a two-story brick house erected by the late Mr. Bidamon. The Smith cottage stands opposite on Main Street; and a few ^^#ff^ ■ KpP^ Emma Smith's Grave, Nauvoo, 111. rods below, toward the river, is the family cemetery in which are the graves of Emma Smith and her second husband Mr. Bidamon. The marble slab on Emma Smith's grave bears the inscription : Emma Smith Bidamon, born, JULY 10, 1803; DIED, APRIL 30, 1879. All that is left of Joseph Smith's store and office, which faced north on Water Street, just one block west of the Mansion, is the old cellar, half filled with earth and debris, and overgrown with vines and shrubbery. Hyrum Smith's house was torn down many years ago, but the brick building where William Marks lived, is still standing. All these homes are now occupied. The parade ground nearby where the Nauvoo Legion used to drill, was also pointed out. After we had gone a few blocks north on Main Street, indicating a group of buildings on the west side, he said, "this one 474 IMPROVEMENT ERA. nearest the corner was John Taylor's printing office, where the Nauvoo Neighbor and the Times and Seasons were published. The second house to the north was John Taylor's home; and that big house up there — I mean where the shingles and cornice are loose and falling — is the place were Joseph Young resided." As we sat down to rest on the door step of the printing office, Brother Pitt continued his story: "No," he said, "my father didn't go west with the rest of Casper's Hollow, on the Old Carthage Road, South-East of Farley Street, Nauvoo. the 'Mormons.' He died here in Illinois. After the 'Mormons' left, it was a great many years before we heard much about them. Two years ago they held a conference in our grove, when my son's family and I were baptized. "My uncle William Pitt, however, went to Utah with the 'Mormons.' He was a musician and led the band in the Nauvoo Legion. He was also a fine singer. The last time I saw him was in February, 1846. Brigham Young and the other Church leaders had told the people to parch all the corn they could get. They said this parched corn could be ground and eaten with milk while they were traveling to the west. (Veil, uncle William put his supply of parched corn, a few other provisions, and a little stove, together with his wife and children into a one-horse wagon, told us good-bye, drove across the river on the ice, and I have never seen him since." House of Zebedee Coltrin, Warsaw Street, Nauvoo, 111. The older Utahns will no doubt remember this man William Pitt. As his nephew remarked, he was leader of the Nauvoo Band, and it will be remembered that on Saturday, May 24, 1845, he led the band when they played the Cap-Stone March, his own composition, at the laying of the capstone of the Nauvoo Temple. Brother Pitt came to Utah, where he was for many years a leading musician in Salt Lake City. From this old printing house on Main Street we went east to other points of interest. As we ascended the hill, my guide pointed in the direction of the low lands between us and the river and remarked, "you see all that country is laid out in city blocks. That space was once covered with homes. But after the 'Mormons' left, the houses were taken down the river on flat boats and sold to the people in Keokuk and other towns along the Mississippi." Returning to the house we rested on the porch and my attention was attracted by columns of heavy black smoke rising above the trees along the river. Later a steam boat, the old time packet, with its noisy water wheel in the rear, came splashing slowly round the south bend. My companion explained that because of the shallow water at certain seasons of the year, they still run these old fashioned flat bottomed steam boats on the upper Mississippi. My Utah friends were onboard this packet coming up the river from Keokuk. That night we met at the hotel. Salt Lake City, Utah. (to be continued.]