After our ghetto hotel experience, Anne and I hopped into the car again and started our drive through the rest of Ohio, Indiana, and Illinois. Besides the torrential rain storm [worst rain I've ever driven through] the drive was pretty easy and very pretty. Our goal was to make it to Carthage Jail that evening and then head into Nauvoo, Illinois to sleep. And fortunately everything turned out as we had hoped. We drove into Carthage around 5 pm and were able to participate in a tour of the building.
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| Joseph Smith and his brother, Hyrum, as well as John Taylor and Willard Richards were held prisoner in Carthage Jail in June 1844. |
During the day of June 27th, 1844, Joseph write a letter to his wife Emma explaining what he knew in the situation and sending love to his family. By the afternoon, it was hot and humid and the room became very uncomfortable. Joseph, knowing John Taylor had a beautiful voice, asked him to sing "A Poor Wayfaring Man of Grief" to which he did more than once. Around 5 pm, a mob of over 100 armed men with blackened faces converged on the jail. The mob encircled the building, and some of them rushed by the guard up the flight of stairs, tried to burst open the door, and began shooting. All four men tried to hold the door against the force. A bullet fired through the door and struck Hyrum and he fell to the floor. Joseph saw his brother fall and exclaimed, "Oh dear, brother Hyrum!" John Taylor tried to jump out of the window and was hit by a bullet in his left thigh. He fell onto the windowsill when another bullet hit his pocket watch, stopping the time at 5:16. He was hit several more times and crawled under the bed for protection.
Joseph, seeing that there was no safety in the room jumped into the windowsill when two bullets hit him from the door and one hit him from outside the building. Joseph fell out of the window exclaiming, "O Lord, my God!" to which the mob left the jail. As Willard Richards [who was only scathed by a bullet] was about to leave the room, he heard John Taylor call out, "Take me." He took John into the cell next door and hid him under bedding in case the mob came back to finish there work [fortunately, they didn't]. Both John Taylor and Willard Richards survived the ordeal and John Taylor later became the third President of the Church.
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| Stairway up to the room where Joseph, Hyrum, John Taylor, and Williard Richards were staying. Originally they were placed in a holding cell in the building [which was also the house to the jailer's family] |
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| The original door and bullet hole into the bedroom. |
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| The top window is where Joseph fell from the room. |
This was quite the experience! And Anne and I realized that we were at the jail around the same time that the events had taken place [5:15ish]. It was very humbling to hear of the sacrifice many people gave for their testimony and faith, especially when it came down to their own lives.
Nauvoo is about a 45 minute drive from Carthage and the road is right along the edge of the Mississippi River. It was beautiful and we caught it at almost sunset. When we arrived in Nauvoo, we naturally took pictures of the temple with the sunset right away!!
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| The Kirtland temple was the 1st to be built. The Nauvoo was the 2nd. |
We then found a quaint B&B [Hotel Nauvoo] to stay in for the night, grabbed some dinner at their enormous buffet and then took a walk around the temple at dusk. The B&B was just kiddy-korner to the temple.
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| This monument depicts the departure of Joseph and Hyrum as they headed towards Carthage Jail. Joseph knew that he would not be coming back to Nauvoo so on their way out they rode their horses by the temple and Joseph told Hyrum, "I am going like a lamb to the slaughter; but I am calm as a summer's morning." After the martyrdom of Hyrum and Joseph, the Saints began to be more severely persecuted and eventually forced out of town. The temple was destroyed by the mob soon after. It was rebuilt and dedicated in 2002. |
The next morning, Anne and I woke up bright and early to participate in a temple session. The temple was gorgeous!! The temple workers told us that the design and structure of the temple was almost identical to the original temple except for modifications for modern technology (i.e., elevators). I'm so glad we started our day there.
From there, we began our quick tour of Nauvoo city. A lot of the original structures are still there and have been renovated to depict the lifestyle of the mid 1800s. In each of the buildings, there were 1 or 2 missionaries who would show you around and talk about the original owners. One of my college roommates had served her mission here so I texted her as we were driving into Nauvoo the day before and asked what places we NEEDED to visit [because we only had about 3 hours before we had to head out]. She gave us a list of houses/shops that were musts and fortunately we were able to see all of them plus a few extra but we easily could have stayed there for at least 2 more days to see everything.
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| At Grandpa Brigham's home [through his 1st wife!]. I thought it was hilarious; Anne loves pioneer history and loves that my side of the family has some [but the Dalton's have great Mayflower ancestry!]. She made sure to tell everyone that I am the grand-daughter of Brigham Young, I thought it was hilarious. |
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| The Blacksmith |
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| The Smith Manor; this is owned by the Community of Christ Church which wasn't doing tours at the time we were walking by. |
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| This rocking horse belonged to John Taylor. As his family was forced to leave Nauvoo, his son was sad that they hadn't brought the rocking horse. John Taylor came back in the middle of the night [to avoid confrontation] to get it for his son. |
We also were able to see the Sarah Granger Kimball home, Wilford Woodruff's home, the Jonathan Browning Home and Gunshop [very interesting], and the Smith cemetery where both parents, Joseph and Emma Smith, and Hyrum Smith are buried. But again...there was still soooo much to see!!
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| And before we left, we grabbed the best pulled pork sandwiches from Duck's Grocery store and delicious custard from Annie's Frozen Custard. |
After our amazing lunch, we made our way to Omaha, Nebraska [about 5 hours away]...still pretty, but the endless corn got a little boring. Brad's Dad, Greg, has some family that live in Omaha and we were able to visit and stay with them for the night. And they were hilarious!! I loved getting to know them.
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| This was the only time we took pictures with them...Anne, I'm gonna need your help. I can't remember their names :( |
And that completes days 3 and 4...two more days to go before we made it back to Utah!
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