May 13- Nauvoo

After Carthage we spent the whole day in Nauvoo. This was the favorite part of our trip. I felt like I was at an amusement park because the town is set up like it would have been for the Saints and you choose which places you want to visit. Each house, store, or workshop was so exciting and educational. There are missionaries in every site you chose to see. Nauvoo was a great place to see in the off-season because it's such a small place that it wouldn't have been so fun packed with people. There wouldn't be very much parking, and the stores would be more crowded. However, parking really wouldn't be too bad because the town is really small and the hotels are in walking distance of the sites. The weather was great too, not too hot nor to cold.

We started the day seeing the sites that the Community of Christ owns. The buildings they own are still original, except for the Red Brick Store, which was rebuilt. 

We saw the Mansion house which is a hotel that Joseph and Emma ran for a little while. 

This is the Nauvoo House. We didn't go inside because a group had the place rented out for the week.

We also saw the Homestead, which you can tell they added on after the original house.

And the Red Brick Store. 

The Community of Christ doesn't allow pictures so I only have inside pictures of the Red Brick Store. The Store was really neat to see because that is where the endowment was given and where the first celestial marriage took place, along with other things. This is the room where everything took place.

Joseph had an office in the building.

This is the store that is on the first floor. They had things for sell in the store that were being given away for free by our church. We were glad we didn't sucked into buying anything. 

We were a little disappointed that our church doesn't own the Red Brick Store because none of the sacred things that were given there were talked about on our tour. It could have been a much more spiritual experience. It was on this tour that I realized that Emma got remarried after Joseph died. My knowledge of her ends with Joseph's death and I would like to learn more eventually. 

This is the grave stone for Joseph, Emma and, Hyrum. The bodies are actually under this stone. Joseph and Hyrum were secretly buried by Emma so no one could dig the bodies up. But the story goes that Joseph's family knew where they were buried, which was very close to the current spot and also close to the river.  The river was rising quickly so the family wanted to move the bodies so the river wouldn't wash them up out of the secret burying place. That new location is where the stone is now.

The Rendezvouz! Show

Almost everywhere we went in Nauvoo the missionaries asked us if we were going to the show that night. We had no idea what they were talking about, but figured we should go. The Rendezvous! show is actually a musical put on by the couple missionaries. I thought it was hilarious, probably more than most people did. 

The show is about the Saints in Nauvoo and having to leave west. There was a couple who play non-members and the wife is very outspoken and yells "George!" a lot. Here is a picture of her arguing with the doctor. The doctor thinks she is going crazy and wants to take her away for a break. It's really her husband that is trying to make her leave because she talks to much. A minute after this shot she started climbing the column in the building trying to get away. They were good actors.

There was another couple who sang a duet and the man forgot a lot of his words. In another scene a couple was in, the sister was a good actor but the man was not. You could tell he was merely reading the lines off of his paper. I thought it was so funny because I thought about my in-laws the whole show. Dorothy would be heaven singing and dancing up on stage, while Greg would be hating it and be the man who is reading his lines straight from the paper. All of the men do a number and you can tell that some of them don't know the words, or they are pretending to sing, once again Greg. Her are the men singing about following Brigham Young west.

The Relief Society also has a number and all the sisters are singing their hearts out with huge smiles on their faces, totally Dorothy. Here they are singing about what else, their children and husbands. 

It was in the Nauvoo Cultural Center which was pretty neat. Here are all the actors after the show. What made it more fun was that the actors are some of the same missionaries you talked to during the day. You feel like you know them better and therefore it's more fun to watch.

I thought it was a great show. If you don't want to go, just think of an older couple from your ward doing all the singing numbers. I promise it will be more entertaining. 

Guess what? This is finally the last post about Nauvoo!

Pendleton School

Calvin Pendleton was left farm work to become a doctor. When he came to Nauvoo in 1839, he treated the church members for free. He married Sally Ann Seavey and had one daughter. To support his family he worked with Jonathan Browning as a gunsmith and taught school in his home. 

The school/log cabin was rebuilt in 1990-91 using tools that were used in the 1840's. As you can see here, Ja is thinking really hard while he is at school.

In the tiny class room we got to write on old-fashioned slates. They were real slate rock and pretty heavy. 

The Brigham Young Home

Brigham Young's home was one that was built out of bricks. In his home you can read a letter written from his wife, Mary Ann, to Brigham telling him of Joseph Smith's death. Brigham was on a mission to the eastern states at the time. There is also restored china from the home when archeologists excavated the above ground root cellar. 

This is the dining room where some leaders of the church would meet.

I thought this was neat. It's the baby's cradle that is attached to the rocking chair for the mother.

Seventies Hall

This is the Seventies Hall which is were the Seventies learned gospel principles and missionary skills. The sister missionary called it the first MTC. The Hall was also used for worship, lectures, offices, a school, library, and a museum. After the Saints left Nauvoo the Hall was eventually leveled so the existing building has been reconstructed to be as close to the original as possible.   

Blacksmith and Wainwright Shop in Nauvoo

We heard that the blacksmith shop was a fun place to visit so we made sure to go. We were very glad we did, because I won a little horseshoe the blacksmith made in front of us and we all got "prairie diamond rings" which are nails bent into rings. The wainwrights were wagon builders and the blacksmiths made the wheels. 

Here is a picture of the blacksmith missionary making the horseshoe.

We learned about the different between shoeing horses and oxen. The horses are able to bend their leg back and be shoed. Oxen don't enjoy that, so they used this contraption to actually lift the oxen off the ground and shoe the oxen. After seeing how large the oxen are it's a funny sight to imagine them being lifted off the ground. 

Printing Press in Nauvoo

I've decided to blog each place we visited individually, I think it will help with keeping things in order.  The first stop is the Printing Press. Ja is holding a paper that is hot off the press.

We learned so much in the printing office. There were 2 newspapers that were printed here. The Nauvoo Neighbor and The Times and Seasons. The Nauvoo Neighbor was published once a week which took about 150 hours to make 600 copies. It was took so much tedious work to make one page of a newspaper! 

If you look on the right side in this picture, you will see upper and lower cases that hold the individual letters that are used to make words. The upper case holds the UPPER CASE letters and the lower case holds the lower case letters. Now you know where that wording comes from. The letters are at the end of a 2 inch wooden stick and they are very, very small. The missionary told us that the printer would memorize where each letter was in the case so he didn't have to search for the letter each time he needed it. The printer fits the letters into a wooden slot called a magazine. He would put the words in upside-down and backwards so they are the right way when things get printed. 

This is a picture of Ja pressing the stamped ink onto the newspaper. In the bottom-right corner you can see the layout of the newspaper. It looks like a really big rubber stamp with a lot of words. The printer would have inked the stamp them moved it over to the press, which Ja is doing. The press ensures the paper gets an even stamp of all the words. 

Browning Gun Shop

Jonathan Browning trained as a blacksmith and apprenticed as a gunsmith at the age of 19. His family was baptized in 1840 in Quincy, Illinois. They moved to Nauvoo in 1842.  Jonathan invented one of the first repeating rifles and his descendents invented automatic shotguns, rifles, and machine guns. 

Ja is talking to the missionary about making guns.

Here are some Browning guns on display.

Post Office

In this post office there is also a dry goods store. Mail arrived in Nauvoo at least three times a week. Because mail was sometimes lost or stolen, people would often sent two or three copies of important letters. Instead of stamping the letter before mailing it, the recipient would pay the postage. Someone told us that Joseph Smith would get so many letters in the mail he told people that they would have to pay the postage because it was getting to expensive for him to get all the letters. 

This picture has the mail-sorting box that was found in the Nauvoo area.

This is the dry goods part of the store. They sold all sorts of water pails, tools, and things of that nature. Ja is practicing retrieving water; he said it was comfortable on the shoulders, but that was without the water.

Riser Boot

We visit this boot shop that was owned by George Riser. He was born in Germany and owned a shoemaking business in Ohio. When he heard about the Church he sold his business and moved with his wife and son to Nauvoo to learn more about the religion. They were eventually baptized in the Mississippi in December where a hole was cut in the ice. 

In this shop we learned how shoes and boots are made. It's a long process so it's no wonder why they cost a lot and not everyone could afford them. A pair of shoes was $1.75 and boots cost $5.50. There wasn't a left or right shoe because they would change the shoe to different feet so the shoes wouldn't wear out as fast. 

Ox Wagon Ride

We were just in time to get the last ox wagon ride of the day. I really wanted to see the oxen in real life because I hadn't before. They are bigger than I even imagined. Their eyeballs are the size of oranges. We learned that they are trained to walk in a yoke when they are only 2 years old. No weight is pulled behind them, but they are able to learn to walk along side another ox. 

The wagon men allowed us to hold on to the horns for a picture.

Here is us in the wagon. 

I had to take another picture of the oxen and their hugeness.  

May 13- Carthage Jail

On the morning of May 13th we took the short drive from Nauvoo to Carthage to see the jail Joseph Smith was killed in. 

This is me with the jail and statues of Joseph and Hyrum.

A sister missionary gave us a short tour of the jail. I learned a lot about the time Joseph spent there. The jail owners lived in the house with the prisoners and were kind to Joseph. There were four prisoners ( Joseph, Hyrum, John Taylor, Willard Richards) but the first night at the jail there were 12 men in total. The other 8 were there to support Joseph. 

The prisoners were in the dungeon cell that in on the top floor of the house. Being at the top of the house, and with 12 men inside, the room got very hot so the jail owner let the men stay in a different room downstairs. 

As you can see it's just bare floors with nothing else so the men slept on the floor.

The next day the other 8 men left. The jail owner then let the 4 prisoners stay in his and his wife's bedroom. This is the room Joseph and Hyrum were killed in. A mob busted in the door downstairs and ran up the stairs shooting their guns as they went. Hyrum was tyring to hold the bedroom door shut and was shot in the face. The jail still has the original door with the bullet hole in it.  John Taylor was shot in the hip and in the chest. His pocket watch blocked that bullet so he didn't die. The shot did push him back so he rolled under the bed and was protected from further bullets. Willard Richards was never shot. Joseph was looking out the bedroom window when he was shot, he fell out the window and died. Willard Richards was able to carry John Taylor out of the bedroom and into the dungeon cell. The cell had a straw bed on the floor with a mattress. Willard put John Taylor on top of the straw and put the mattress on top of him. The straw was able to stop the bleeding in John's hip so he couldn't bleed to death. 

This is Ja outside the window Joseph fell from. 

May 12th- Nauvoo Temple at night

We drove into Nauvoo on May 12th just as the sun was setting. It was such a beautiful sight to see the Mississippi river and the Nauvoo temple during sunset. We took some great pictures.

This is a pictures of the statues of Joseph and Hyrum stopping in front of the temple as they continue their walk to Carthage Jail. The sunset behind them was amazing. 

This picture has the same statues but with the temple in the background.

I took this picture of the tulips on the temple grounds. I was so proud of this picture because it looks like it could be a desktop or screen saver picture.Here is the Nauvoo temple in all it's glory. It sits on the top of a hill and over looks the part of Nauvoo where the Saints lived. We were able to go to the temple and it's so beautiful inside. Even though it was recently rebuilt it looks like it was built a long time ago. The builders did a great job making it look authentic. Some of the windows inside are made with glass that is from France and made in the time period of the Saints. 

May 12- Visiting Winter Quarters & the Kanesville Tabernacle

We were planning on getting up early today so we could get to Nauvoo before dark. I guess we were really tired because we didn't wake up until 9 am. Oh well, it did feel good to sleep in.

We visited Winter Quarters first. The sister m

issionary there gave us our own little tour around the visitor's center. We were the only people there, another perk of going during off-season. It took the Saints about 130 days just to cross Iowa. It took them around 100 days to make the rest of the trip! The Saints left in the winter and weren't prepared for the weather and terrain they faced. They did forge the trail for the rest of the people moving west and made it easier for all to follow.   

Then we went around and took pictures outside. 

 Ja is standing next to a statue of the Saints pushing the handcart. This is a picture of me with the statue of a mother and father who just buried their child. The statue is in the cemetery next to the visitor's center and temple.

     

This is the Winter Quarters Temple. I wanted a better picture of it, but it was Monday so the temple was closed. 

Our next stop was at the Kanesville Tabernacle which is in Council Bluffs. Ja is discussing the tabernacle with Brigham Young.

The original building was made with cottonwood trees because they are very tall trees. Cottonwood trees shrink width wise over time, so in a few years the roof was connected to the walls anymore. When the church rebuilt the building they also used cottonwood  trees. With modern technology they build the roof on jacks so when the walls start to shrink the whole roof will lower too. Clever huh?

This is the inside of the building. The columns are on the jacks. The huge fire place in the back is made with dirt and sod. 

  

This is the stage where Brigham Young was sustained as the second president of the Church on December 27 1847. During the years 1847 and 1848 Kanesville was the headquarters of the church. 

Next Stop: Omaha, Nebraska

Today we saw Mount Rushmore then drove the Omaha, NE. The drive wasn't as exciting as yesterday's so luckily it was 2 hours shorter. Tomorrow we are visiting Winter Quarters then drive on to Nauvoo. I'll post more detailed info and pictures later on so you can look forward to that!