NAUVOO, ILLINOIS

The next day, we drove across the Mississippi.  The Main Street of Keokuk turns into the highway that goes across the bridge to Illinois.  We turned north and after a short drive, were in Nauvoo.  The road going north is part of the Great River Road that runs the entire length of the Mississippi River.  By the way, the Mississippi River is in flood stage right now so the water was very close to the road in some places. 

Anyway, we found the Joseph Smith Visitor’s Center and when we walked in were told that they would be closing in a few minutes so everyone could go to a Memorial Service for Joseph and Hyrum Smith.  As it turned out, we chose June 27 to roll into town.  If you don’t know or remember, as we didn’t, that was the anniversary of the martyrdom of Joseph and Hyrum in Carthage.  So we started out our visit to Nauvoo by driving to the Smith Family Cemetery for a very interesting memorial service.  They had the Nauvoo Brass Band play the same songs that were played when the bodies were brought back to Nauvoo from Carthage.  They also sang some of the same songs and followed bits of the program done at the funeral in 1844.   We enjoyed it very much and afterwards were able to take pictures of the roses that were placed on the grave markers.

People gathering before the service

The Smith home and family cemetery are owned by the Community of Christ Church which originally was the RLDS.

Marble grave marker with roses

As you remember from Church History, Joseph and Hyrum were buried in unmarked, well hidden graves for fear of the graves being desecrated by the mob.  Many years later, their graves were found and their remains were reinterred here in the Smith Family Cemetery.

Grave marker with the Homestead in the background

Markers for Joseph’s mother and father

Homestead with view of the summer kitchen (log cabin)

Homestead well and Mississippi River in background

Front door of Homestead

Mansion House.  This is where the bodies of Joseph and Hyrum lay in state in a large room on the back of this building.  That room was destroyed years ago and no longer exists.  This building is also owned by the Community of Christ Church.

We enjoyed being at this Memorial Service and we later walked around and took a few pictures of the Smith properties.  We also walked over to the Red Brick Store which is on the opposite side of the cemetery from the Homestead.  The original Red Brick Store, run by Joseph and Emma, was destroyed many years ago and has been reconstructed.  It was interesting to browse through the goods on display and we made a couple of purchases.

We then got a better map of Nauvoo and found the Historic Nauvoo Visitors Center which is owned by the LDS Church and is at the other end of town.   We went there and got the information we needed to tour the other homes that have been restored in Nauvoo.