Summary

In 1830 Joseph Smith organized the Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints (more commonly now know as the Mormons) in a small log cabin in upstate New York. He and the church soon was forced to move to Kirtland, Ohio, because of religious persecution in New York. Shortly they also established church headquarters in Missouri. The natives of Jackson County, Missouri soon formed mobs and drove them north. The governor of Missouri later issued an "extermination" order to his militia to either drive the Mormons out of Missouri or exterminate them. In the middle of winter they, without compensation for their property in Missouri, went back to the Mississippi River, to a swamp in southwestern Illinois.
There they drained the swamp and built Nauvoo, largest city in Illinois, rivaling in comforts, finery, education, and skilled workmen cities of the eastern United States. For a time they were well accepted in the state and lived in relative peace. But in 1844 mobs and anti-Mormons from Illinois and their old enemies from Missouri once again raised their bigotry to the hatred level culminating in the murder of Joseph Smith and his brother Hyrum on June 27, 1844.
The leaders of the mob supposed that this would cause the Mormon church to be dissolved and dwindle away. That did not happen because an inspired Joseph Smith put in a succeeding organization in place before his death. Brigham Young stepped up to be the new leader. When Nauvoo continued to prosper and grow and work continued on the Nauvoo temple, the mobs began their acts of terrorism again. Finally, following implied threats from the Governor, and at the insistence of neighboring communities, the Mormons agreed to start a migration west in the spring of 1846. The mobs became impatient and, violating their own agreement to wait until spring, decided to kill Brigham Young and other leaders. As a result, the the first group left on the February 4, 1846 and soon many wagons were backed up waiting to cross the Mississippi River. The Mississippi froze over a short time later allowing many wagons to cross over on a natural ice bridge. That exodus from Nauvoo continued in large masses until April. The few remaining behind were finally forced out at bayonet point in September. From February to October 1846 the Mormons were scattered all across southern Iowa.

The Nauvoo Experience 1844-1846

When members of The Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints began gathering in Nauvoo in 1839 (then called Commerce), fewer than a hundred people lived in that community. For six and a half years, the sound of the axe, the hammer, and the saw, greeted visitors and immigrants. Homes, gardens, schools, hotels, cultural halls, stores, shops, mills, kilns, and gardens filled empty spaces. Farmers, merchants, printers, blacksmiths, doctors, nurses, millers, artists, teachers, hatters, and other craftsmen gathered to create a new environment in western America. At the time of the exodus of 1846 the number of Mormons in Nauvoo had increased to more than 12,000.

Nauvoo was not only one of the fastest growing cities in Illinois in the early 1840s, but it was unusual in other respects. Over 90 percent of its inhabitants were converts to a recently organized religious movement and this religion had a strong impact on the life of the community. Jails were nearly empty and many of the poor were granted opportunities to work and were nurtured by the men and women of the community. Although Nauvoo was primarily a city of Latter-day Saints, people of other faiths were welcomed. Here they built their homes, established their businesses and were granted the right to worship in peace.

Following the death of Joseph Smith on June 27, 1844, Latter-day Saints considered who should serve as the proper successor to the Prophet who had organized The Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints in April 1830. During a meeting held in the east grove in Nauvoo on August 8, 1844, a large majority of the members acknowledged Brigham Young, President of the Quorum of Twelve Apostles, as their divinely called leader. Under the leadership of President Young, converts from the United States, Canada and the British Isles continued to crowd into the rapidly growing city. In addition to directing the continued growth of the city, Brigham Young supervised two other major programs initiated by Joseph Smith, building the Nauvoo Temple and preparing for a migration to the Rocky Mountain country.

A principal activity of the Latter-day Saints in Nauvoo from 1841 to 1846 was that of building a sacred temple. The Nauvoo Temple was one of the largest and most unusual structures erected in what was then the American frontier. While converts to this faith were establishing new homes along the Mississippi River, they joined other settlers in the construction of this "House of the Lord." All members were encouraged to devote one out of every ten days towards working on this community project. This building, as described by one visitor, was located on a bluff immediately "opposite the center of the semi-circle [peninsula], and a mile from the river." "The site is beautifully chosen," he added, "as it is in a central and elevated position and can be seen from the river, all around the bend, and from every part of the town." (David White, 1843 letter in Pittsburgh Gazette, 14 Sep 1843, p. 3.)

In August 1845, the New York Sun reported that, "The building of the Mormon Temple under all the troubles by which those people have been surrounded, seems to be carried on with a religious enthusiasm which reminds us of olden times, by the energy which controls all the movements towards its completion. It occupies the highest and most imposing position in Nauvoo and is built of fine limestone. Has thirty pilasters---six at each end and nine at each side--each surmounted by a capital on which is carved a human face with rays around it and two hands holding trumpets. The Temple is 88 feet by 128 feet; from floor to ceiling is 65 feet; and from the ground to the top of the spire is 165 feet. The baptismal font is in the basement, to be supported by stone oxen. Three hundred and fifty men are zealously at work upon thebuilding, which it is supposed will be finished in a year and a half, probably at a cost of half a million of dollars." (HC 7:434-35. 6 Aug 1845. Quote from New York Sun.) Members of the faith learned from their leaders in Nauvoo that the Temple was not to be a place for public meetings, but was designed to be a place where worthy members could worship, receive temple ordinances, and gain increased spiritual strength.

Before Latter-day Saints completed the Nauvoo Temple, violence erupted. Such violence sometimes occurred when old settlers believed that their traditional life style was threatened. For some, the Latter-day Saints were becoming a political, economic and social threat, and the rising temple became a symbol of the growing power of this new movement. Latter-day Saints were considered different and some were afraid and concerned. To alleviate increased persecution that erupted during the summer of 1845, Brigham Young announced in September 1845 that Latter-day Saints would leave Nauvoo and vicinity in the spring of 1846.After Latter-day Saint leaders resolved to move to western America, Nauvoo became a vast wagon shop, with settlers concentrating on securing lumber and canvass, building wagons and tents, and purchasing additional oxen and horses and supplies. Describing this scene, Bathsheba Smith wrote that in the fall of 1845 Nauvoo became "one vast mechanic shop, as nearly every family was engaged in making wagons. Our parlor was used as a paint shop in which to paint wagons. All were making preparations to leave . . . to seek a home in the wilderness." (Autobiography, typescript, BYU-A, Pg.12)

While the Mormons prepared to abandon their homes, they increased their efforts to complete their temple. They used their time, money, and materials needed to prepare for the exodus to finish a House of the Lord. Because of this urgency, President Brigham Young directed the building of rooms for temple ordinances in the attic of the Nauvoo Temple. After this attic was dedicated in early December 1845, some 5500 men and women received in the next two months the same blessings members of this faith currently receive in Latter-day Saint temples. President Young delayed his own crossing of the Mississippi River until all whodesired and were considered worthy to receive these blessings could receive that endowment. The exodus from Nauvoo began on February 4, 1846. Though the Latter-day Saints had not planned to leave until in the spring of that year, the threat of government intervention and the desire for an advance company to reach the Rocky Mountain country as early as possible that year, led to the winter departure. On the 4th, the first wagons rumbled down Parley Street to a landing near the banks of the Mississippi. There the people were ferried by flat boats across the river to Iowa. A few weeks later, after the river became frozen, a few crossed on a bed of ice. The first wagon trains of Mormon pioneers gathered near the banks of Sugar Creek, located a few miles northwest of Montrose, Iowa. After President Young crossed the river on the 15th of February, he directed a reorganization of this American "Camp of Israel." Pioneerscontinued to gather there until 1 March, and then the advance company pushed westward across Iowa. Others continued to follow until Iowa was dotted with a long line of wagon trains comprised of Mormon pioneers who were pushing westward to find a place where they could worship in peace. One of these pioneers, Eliza R. Snow, a talented poet and writer, left Nauvoo on February 13. After crossing the Mississippi on a ferryboat, she joined a camp of the Saints where she found wood and water in abundance. "I was informed," she wrote "that on the first night of the encampment of those who preceded us, nine children were ushered into the world; and from that time, as we journeyed, mothers gave birth to offspring under almost every variety of circumstances except those to which they had been accustomed in tents and wagons--in rainstorms, and in snowstorms. I heard of one birth occurring in the rude shelter of a hut--the sides formed of blankets fastened to poles stuck in the ground--a bark roof, through which therain was dripping: Kind sisters held dishes and caught the water--thus protecting the mother and her little darling from a showerbath on its entrance to the stage of human existence. "Let it be remembered," Eliza added, "that the mothers referred to . . . were not those who, in the wilds of nature, nursed their offspring amid reeds and rushes, or in the obscure recesses of rocky caverns. Most of them were born and educated in the Eastern States--had there embraced the gospel as taught by Jesus and his Apostles and for its sake had gathered with the Saints; and under trying circumstances, assisted by their faith, energies and patiencein making Nauvoo what its name indicates, The Beautiful.' . . .

"My dormitory, sitting room, writing office, and frequently dining room, was the buggy in which Mrs. Markham, her little son, David, and I rode. With the best I could do for myself, I frosted my feet which occasioned me considerable inconvenience for several weeks. . . . "From time to time, companies of men either volunteered or were detailed from the journeying camps, and by going off the route, found jobs of work, and obtained food for the people and grain for the teams. . . .Although I had neither fear nor dread of death, I felt as I expressed in the following: Let Us Go
Let us go--let us go to the wilds for a home
Where the wolf and the roe and the buffalo roam--
Where beneath our own vines, we in peace, may enjoy
The fruits of our labors, with none to annoy."
(Eliza Snow, Writings, Nicholas Morgan, comp. (1957), Pg. 15-18.)

With the exodus of many of the Latter-day Saints, Nauvoo was nearly deserted and portions of the city destroyed. Although both Mormons and non-Mormons who still lived there united under the protection of a local sheriff and some of the state militia, pressure from mobs increased. In September of 1846 the last major group of Latter-day Saints left Nauvoo. The "old citizens" remained, and with the influx of others the town was gradually rebuilt and peace reestablished.

The exodus of the Latter-day Saints from Nauvoo in 1846 initiated one of the largest organized movements of a religious group in world history. It was a movement of more than 10,000 people who lived in or near Nauvoo and who migrated more than 1300 miles to the Great Salt Lake Valley. It was an unusual transplanting of an American city, an American religion, and an entire society with its settlement pattern and its political and social institutions, to make a new home and city in the Rocky Mountains. This episode in American history is an example of a people who conquered the obstacles of life, of a people with a mission.

Written by Dr. Milton V. Backman, Jr., with Dr. Reed Durham and Dr. Charles Tate, Professors, Brigham Young University

Overview 1844-1846

Most of the leaders were among the Saints that crossed in early February because many of the mob were seeking to kill them. They went about 9 miles west and set up camp on Sugar Creek. There they stayed until March 1st obtaining provisions and getting organized. They had great difficulties crossing Iowa because of weather and many did not have sufficient supplies. It rained almost continuously for a month and the cold weather caused many hardships. Often stopping to work for provisions or wait out weather they reached a place they named Garden Grove on April 24th, established a large farm, and planted crops on to feed those who were to come later. But this farm would not produce enough so they also established a larger farm at a place they called Mount Pisgah on May 18th. Finally they reached the Missouri River on June 14th, two months later than they had hoped.

Significant Dates of Mormon Pioneer Trek Across Iowa in 1846


COMMENTS ON THE MEANING OF THE MORMON 1846 TREK ACROSS IOWA

---By Dr. Stanley B. Kimball, Professor of History, Southern Illinois University, Trail DevelopmentConsultant to National Park Service

February 4, 1846, was the beginning of the Mormon (members of The Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints) trek across Iowa--that Mormon Mesopotamia between the Mississippi and Missouri Rivers. They remained some three weeks at their staging ground on Sugar Creek in Lee county, Iowa, six miles west of the Mississippi River. There, on March 1, the Pioneer Company of about 2,000 people and 400 wagons moved out. At that time there were approximately 12,000 Latter-day Saints in Nauvoo proper, not all of whom went west. They had planned to leave Nauvoo "when grass grew and water ran," but rumors of local and Federal interference caused them to leave much too early. The pioneer camp was roughly divided into groups of 10s, 50s, and 100s.

Bad weather and the general unpreparedness of many made the crossing of Iowa difficult and unpleasant, but of the approximately 6,000 Latter-day Saints who died "crossing the plains" between 1846 and 1868 (completion of the transcontinental railroad), relatively few died in Iowa. Some 10,000 Mormon pioneers crossed all or part of Iowa in 1846, eventually establishing about 50 settlements in western Iowa. The main newspaper in western Iowa was the Saints' Frontier Guardian of Council Bluffs, 1849-52. Since many early converts came from Europe, and since all did not go west of the Missouri River, these European "drop outs" contributed much to the social mix and ethnic diversity of western Iowa. The famous Mormon Battalion of the Army of the West during the War with Mexico was enlisted in present-day Council Bluffs. The initial Pioneer trek of 1846 was the beginning of at least ten trails across the lower four ranges of counties in southern Iowa used by the Saints up to at least 1863. The more important of these other trails were two variants of the Pioneer route, the Handcart Trail, the Dragoon Trail, and the Mormon Battalion Trail.

The real meaning, the real importance of the 1846 trek across Iowa, was that it began the movement and the learning experience which eventually brought up to 70,000 west to present-day Utah.The trek west was a rite of passage, a "refiner's fire" welding the new converts together, creating a group solidarity; it was a formative experience. The discipline required by the Iowa trek of 1846 through 1868, and the creating of Zion in the wilderness of present-day Utah commenced the transition of the Latter-day Saints and their leaders from the rather easy going times and manners of Joseph Smith's years in Nauvoo, Illinois, to the centralized and authoritarian leadership of Brigham Young in Utah.

The Exodus was the beginning of the end of what to that time had been essentially a mid-western phenomenon. Thereafter, The Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints became a western-centered movement. Membership is now nearly 10 million in 150 different countries, with more members of the Church outside the U.S. than there are in the U.S.

The crossing of Iowa in 1846 has many "firsts," interesting and important events:



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