OTHER RESTORED BUSINESSES IN NAUVOO

There are a bunch of businesses that have either survived over the years or have been rebuilt.  We toured most of them and found it very interesting to learn how things were made back in the 1840’s.  We are so lucky.

THE GUNSMITH

This is the Browning company that is still in business.  Jonathan Browning invented the repeating rifle and handgun and sold his patents to Remington, Winchester and Colt, to name a few.  He never wanted to manufacture firearms, just make them better and let someone else produce them.  This home and shop is one of the buildings that survived the years. 

The little sewing basket in the chair belonged to Mrs. Browning

Children’s room

Back yard with Temple in the background

The Browning back yard.  That little white picket square is the grave of one of their children who died at age three.  When the home was being restored, they excavated the property and found this little grave.  They decided to leave it undisturbed, where it had been for so many years, and put the white picket marker around it.

The log cabin where the Browning family first lived and later used as guest quarters

Sign on the front of the Gunsmith Shop.  We learned how much work went into making a firearm in the 1840’s and how they made the barrel of a riffle.

TINSMITH

The tinsmith shop did not survive and is a rebuild.  It was very interesting to look at all the hand tools and learn a little bit about how simple kitchen gadgets were made in the 1840’s.  The solder used to seal the seams of the cooking and eating containers was mostly lead.  It’s amazing anyone survived to tell about the good old days.

STONE QUARY IN NAUVOO

 

Small duplicate of the Sunstone on the Nauvoo Temple

Quarry is pretty much filled with water and the flooded Mississippi didn’t help

When they started construction on the new temple, their plan was to take the limestone from this quarry.  They soon discovered that the stone had become too fractured over the years and could not be used.  They had to do an extensive search but found that a quarry in Alabama had stone that was almost an exact match, even down to the same black veins running through it.