--- 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 Zimmerman collections: - periodicals tags: - magazine - improvement-era periodical: Improvement Era volume: 12 number: 8 published: 1909-06 publisher: Young Men’s Mutual Improvement Associations publisher_place: Salt Lake City language: en type: magazine reference: 'John Zimmerman Brown, "Nauvoo Today," *Improvement Era* 12, no. 8 (June 1909): 600–607.' source: url: https://archive.org/details/improvementera1208unse 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: improvementera1208unse start_page: 600 end_page: 607 rights: status: public-domain basis: US publication 1930 or earlier (published 1909-06) source: https://archive.org/details/improvementera1208unse 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 PROFESSOR JOHN ZIMMERMAN BROWN, OF THE UNIVERSITY OF UTAH. II. Among the Utah friends who had come up the river from Keokuk were B. W. Driggs of Pleasant Grove, and F. W. Cox of Manti. These men were once boys in Nauvoo being about ten Mulholland Street, Looking East. Nauvoo, 111. years of age at the time of the expulsion. Although sixty years had elapsed since that time, they exhibited a remarkable familiar- ity with the scenes and events of their boyhood days. The Cox family once lived in the Morley settlement near Lima, twenty-five miles south of Nauvoo, in Adams county. In the NAUVOO TODAY. 601 fall of 1845, the inhabitants were burned out by a mob a\id com- pelled to move into Nauvoo for safety. Our Illinois friends at the hotel listened with the keenest in- terest to Brother Cox as he related the circumstances connected with those events. One night just after his father's crops had all been gathered and great stacks of grain were ready for threshing, the house was surrounded by a mob and the family ordered out. At that time Brother Cox was a boy of nine; he was ill with ague, and could not walk far. He therefore took a little mat to lie on, placed it on the opposite side of the road, and from this position he saw the invaders set fire to everything his father owned, At this same hotel we found an elaborate collec- tion of '"Mormon" relics, in- cluding books, papers, maps, public documents, fragments of temple stone, and cannon balls. Most interesting among the papers was one of the original copies of the Nauvoo Expositor, a small eight-page anti-" Mormon" journal published June 7, 1844. The proprietors were Mulholland St., Looking West, William Law, Wilson Law, Nauvoo, 111. Charles Ivins, Francis M. Higbee, Chauncy M. Higbee, Robert D. Foster and Charles A. Foster. Sylvester Emmons was editor. The paper was to be issued on Friday of each week. The complications resulting from the destruction of this press by the Nauvoo city council culminated in the martyrdom at Carthage just twenty days after the first and only issue of this paper. The copy we examined is kept in a large picture frame with double glass so arranged that it can be read on both sides. The first point of interest we visited next morning was the building on Mulholland Street in which this paper was printed. It is a brick structure fifteen by thirty feet with a lumber addition along one side. It has been used for a store but at the present time is unoccupied. Brother Driggs related here the circumstances surrounding the destruction of this press, and told how he and other little boys filled their pockets with pieces of type that were thrown into the street by the city officers. A little farther east, he located the site of Lathorp's store and then related the following thrilling incident: As a little boy he had come to this store on an er- rand; and, on his way out he saw two men on horses rid- ing into Nauvoo at break- neck speed. They dashed up to the store, purchased some alcohol and quickly forced it down the throats of their lather-covered ani- mals, hoping, no doubt, to Where David Candland Taught School, revive them. Nauvoo, 111. These men were Porter Rockwell and Sheriff Jacob B. Backenstos of Hancock county, who had just made their escape from an excited mob. According to the story, Porter Rockwell and John Redden were engaged that morning in moving families from the outlying burnt districts into Nauvoo. Suddenly the sheriff rushed toward them at frightful speed demanding, in the name of the state, pro- tection from an infuriated mob that was pursuing him. As the mob approached he ordered the men to fire; Rockwell did so and the leader fell dead from his horse. The man who was killed was Franklin A. Worrell, a constable, who was officer of the guard at Carthage jail the year before when Joseph and Hyrum Smith were killed. Brother Driggs also located the Hatch property and the former homes of Nymphus Murdock and Zebedee Coltrin, as well NAUVOO TODAY. 603 as the house where, with the Hatch and Murdock boys, he and others had attended school, their teacher being David Candland. For the purpose of visiting the old farms of Lewis Robison Lewis Robison's Farm Daniel H. Wells' Farm Opposite, Nauvoo, 111. and Daniel H. Wells we next drove down into Parley Street, and followed it out into the well known Carthage road across Casper Hollow. A few miles farther out on a hill in a grove of pines to the 'Mormon" Cemetery, Nauvoo, 111. coi IMPROVEMENT ERA. west, we saw the old "Mormon" cemetry; but many of the graves are obliterated now, and the ground is overgrown with hickory, wild cherry, oak and under-brush. Many of the grave stones have fallen, and a few have been carried away. But some are well pre. served and their inscriptions are as distinct as they were when they were first chiselled. I copied a few of them: John Standing Abraham, Son of W. and S. Mendenhall. Died Aug. 27, 1844. Nancy, Consort of Joseph Holbrook, Died July 16, 1842. Ann, Wife of Joseph Picketts, Died March 25, 1844, Age 60 YEARS. This cemetery covers about three acres of ground and is en- closed by a wire fence that was built a few years ago by the "Re- Home of Uriel Drigg3, now owned by William Clark, Nauvoo, 111. People from left to right, Mrs. W. Clark, her Daughter and Wm. Clark of Nauvoo; B. W. Driggs, Howard R. Driggs and F. W. Cox, from Utah. - NAUVOO TODAY. 605 organized Church." It was abandoned after the Saints left Illinois, and is not used by the present inhabitants ©f Nauvoo. On our return, as we drove from Parley into Warsaw Street, we visited the old home of Brother Driggs's grandfather. The ti J^SS^M, "¥iM*f Sp?U WitKfBn r^mmzr*-*' 'T 1 ~. , —-—- rzi- "f^"* I!- ^<2£i ifc- **;?'*•?£* fj *f]fc Hfe^^M^f* '""^ HO 5 * ^^mm •rv-fe^ Jm |^ri|^^tt|^^^^^flttM^^^^^— M^^^M In Nauvoo — where Shadrach F. Driggs built Wagons for Crossing the Plains. Nauvoo — Home of Wilson Law, Young Street. GO*! IMPROVEMENT ERA. house as the accompanying cut shows, is a small frame structure and has undergone hut few changes. The hand-hewn timbers and cross beams are features of the two small up stairs rooms. The property is now owned by a Mr.Wm. Clark who received us kindly and manifested deep interest in the affairs of the "Mor- mon" people. He said his father, Francis Clark, was converted to "Mormonism" in Lancashire, England, and came to Nauvoo in 1841. He was an expert stone cutter, and was a foreman on the Nauvoo Temple. Among those in his father's employment he named Miles Romney [father of Bishop Geo. Romney of the Twentieth ward]. Francis Clark did not come west with the Saints but remained in Illinois. William Clark has lived in Nauvoo since 1841, and for many years his home was on Parley Street. The latter Clark property consists of a house and three acres of land, and lies in the Hibbard addition. It has been transferred as follows: Hibbard to Uriel Driggs; Uriel Driggs to McCofferty; McCofferty to William Clark. The last transfer took place in 1867, the price being $150. The property fronts on Kimball Street, which, by the way, was never opened all the way through to the east. Just opposite on the east side of Warsaw Street, Mr. Clark drew our attention to a small brick house, telling us that it was at one time the home of John D. Lee. Farther north, at the corner of Warsaw and Ripley Streets, Brother Driggs also located the site of his former Nauvoo home- But the lot is now vacant, being used as a garden. On this spot his father, Shadrack F. Driggs, kept a wagon shop. Just across Warsaw Street to the west and a little farther south, Martin H. Peck kept a blacksmith shop. Many of the wagons used by the Saints in crossing the plains were built by Shadrack F. Driggs and During the winter of 1846 there was ,- roned by Martin H. Peck. .-uch a demand for wagons that Father Driggs took in help. They used up all the seasoned timber he had on hand; and, when it came to making his own wagon, there was nothing but green timber left. He was not handicapped, however, for Reynolds Cahoon, one of the Temple building committee, told him he could have the wheels of the big cart that had been used in moving the large building stone around the Temple grounds. From the spokes of these two big wheels, he made enough NAUVOO TODAY. 607 spokes for two wagons, one for himself and one for his brother Lorenzo. We continued northward across Mulholland Street, passing the site of the old Public Green, where Governor Thomas Ford paraded his troops at the time of the martyrdom. A little farther to the south-east is the site of the "Mormon" intrenchments, thrown up during the Nauvoo battle in 1846. Proceeding west on Young Street, we passed the homes of Parley P. Pratt's Home, Corner Young and Wells Streets, Nauvoo. Wilson Law and Howard Coray. At the corner of Young and Wells Streets, we stopped a few minutes before the Parley P. Pratt property. The Pratt home was torn down about a year ago and a modern structure has been built on the foundation. The place is owned by the Catholic church. The "Mormon" arsenal on Wells Street, where the Nauvoo Legion kept their arms, is now part of the dormitory of the St. Mary's academy. It is a small structure built of temple stone. Salt Lake City, Utah, [to be continued .]