What Was The "lesson" Of Nauvoo?

[mfbukowski]

Nauvoo was a beautiful, industrious city rescued from the swamps next to the Mississippi.  There was a small creek than ran through the town until the damns were put in that control the river.  The streets were straight and the Saints flocked there and built the beautiful temple.  The restoration and shops that have been rebuilt are magnificent.  A few miles outside of town is a cemetery which looks like it has three or four hundred graves-the old LDS graveyard.  A number of names familiar to Mormons are there.  There is a phenomenal spirit that accompanies going there for me.  I have been there six times and would go again.  It was a special place where the Lord revealed the fulness of the doctrines of the gospel  

Many of my wife's ancestors are buried there.

[mfbukowski]

Probably for Saints who migrated to Utah, the building's completion

(to the point of allowing for endowments, at least), was the intention

for the Nauvoo Temple in the first place -- and that it was never

planned to be a permanent 19th century residence of The Almighty.

 

But, of course there were Mormons who never went West and

who never left the vicinity of Hancock County. Mother Lucy Smith,

for example. She might have been assisted in a removal to Utah;

safe and secure -- no horrors of pulling a handcart, barefoot,

through the snows of winter. But she disobeyed Brigham's plans.

 

For her, and for those Saints who never believed God had

commanded a migration westward, Nauvoo meant something

else -- a watershed decade in the history of a movement in

the process of fragmentation. The Whitmerites, Hedrickites

and many of the first Josephites never made it to Hancock

County, in the first place, and could have not sustained all

that went on there.

 

Those converts who moved to the "City of Joseph," making

permanent homes and planning on a rich lifetime of family

associations there, must have been bewildered at the demise

of that "stake of Zion." Was it due to their own unworthiness?

Was God cursing them? Should they have gathered in greater

numbers and occupied the region, like Joshua did Canaan?

Or, was the entire experiment a mistake and a tragedy?

 

I have no final opinion. But I know some folks value the spot

as one of the great holy sites of all seven dispensations --

so, I'll try to listen to their experiences more carefully than usual.

 

UD

Just looking at the family history objectively, those who moved to Utah had large families, probably due to polygamy, and in general, as families, they seem to have prospered, while those who stayed, in general did not.

 

I don't know if it was demographics or something cosmic, but it seems pretty clear

[Uncle Dale]

There's a reasonable chance that you are related to my wife.

 

Many of her relatives stayed in Hancock County and are now members of the C of C, and are still in the Nauvoo area.  We went and saw the old homestead and all that is left is one stone wall which has been incorporated into a garage in an outbuilding of a farmhouse, about 8 miles outside of town.

 

She is doing a lot of family history for these folks.  It will be interesting to see how this shakes out on the other side. 

 

 

My ancestors there would have been McIntyres and Winegars.

The former were related to Mother Smith's ancestors on the

Gates side. The Winegars split into Brighamites and Josephites

and I have relatives in both churches -- not to mention a few

Cutlerites, Thompsonites and Strangites.

 

The Winegar-Broadhurst connection goes back to Daviess Co.,

Missouri where the two families, one Mormon and the other

non-Mormon, battled near Gallatin in 1838. Later on a Winegar

married a Broadhurst, and so on.

 

So -- yes -- any of us whose ancestors go back to Far West and

Kirtland are likely related (or our relatives are related to one another).

 

"Brother" UD

[mfbukowski]

My ancestors there would have been McIntyres and Winegars.

The former were related to Mother Smith's ancestors on the

Gates side. The Winegars split into Brighamites and Josephites

and I have relatives in both churches -- not to mention a few

Cutlerites, Thompsonites and Strangites.

 

The Winegar-Broadhurst connection goes back to Daviess Co.,

Missouri where the two families, one Mormon and the other

non-Mormon, battled near Gallatin in 1838. Later on a Winegar

married a Broadhurst, and so on.

 

So -- yes -- any of us whose ancestors go back to Far West and

Kirtland are likely related (or our relatives are related to one another).

 

"Brother" UD

She says none of the above.

 

Oh well.

[Kaleb Webb]

 

My ancestors there would have been McIntyres and Winegars.

 

Wait, you're related to the Winegars too?

[Uncle Dale]

Wait, you're related to the Winegars too?

 

Yeah -- the Samuel who went down to Missouri

in Zion's Camp in 1834 -- his youngest son was my

ancestor -- another son was RLDS, etc. etc.

 

UD

[Kaleb Webb]

 

 

 

Yeah -- the Samuel who went down to Missouri

in Zion's Camp in 1834 -- his youngest son was my

ancestor -- another son was RLDS, etc. etc.

 

UD

 

I forget who Samuel's youngest son is, but I'm related to his son Stephen who married Lois Smith