is a video describing how to learn more about the Mormon Church.
After being expelled from Missouri by the Extermination Order, members of the Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints (the Mormon Church) found refuge in the city of Quincy, Illinois, in January of 1839. The kind people there helped the Mormons until they could find another location in which to establish themselves. Brigham Young and the Quorum of the Twelve Apostles led the Church while Joseph remained in prison on false charges of treason. Finally, on April 16, a friendly guard, realizing that Joseph and the others were being confined illegally, allowed them to escape.
On April 25, Joseph and the other leaders selected a town named Commerce in Hancock County, Illinois, to be their new city. It was a beautiful, though swampy location overlooking a large bend in the Mississippi river. They bought the land and began settling there. The Twelve Apostles soon left again to preach the Gospel. Joseph Smith remained behind to help build up the new city. Joseph changed the name to Nauvoo, which comes from the Hebrew word meaning beautiful .
Joseph and the other leaders determined that they would not let themselves be driven and harassed by illegal mobs again. They petitioned for and obtained a charter for their own city, which gave them the legal right to defend themselves against attacks both from the law and from mobs. It also stated that no resident of Nauvoo could be arrested without a writ of habeas corpus before a city judge. This meant that no person living in Nauvoo could be dragged off by mobs or sheriffs without getting a fair chance to hear the charges against them.
Nauvoo prospered, and soon immigrants began arriving from England and Canada. In 1840, the Church was ten years old and had grown from a mere 6 members in April, 1830, to over 16,000 by the end of 1840. There were now enough Mormons in England that the Church began publishing its own newspaper in that country, The Millennial Star.
In the fall of that year, the Mormons began building the Nauvoo Temple.
Also in 1841, the Twelve Apostles continued their missions in Europe. Elder Orson Hyde, one of the Apostles, traveled throughout Europe and even visited Palestine, which was then part of the Ottoman Empire. In November of 1841, Joseph Smith dedicated part of the new Nauvoo Temple so it could be used for baptisms for the dead.
The early part of 1842 was relatively peaceful. In the spring, a newspaper man in Chicago named John Wentworth requested from Joseph Smith a brief summary of the history of the Church and what it believed. Joseph complied. The letter, known as the Wentworth letter, is an important document from Mormon history; it also contains the Articles of Faith. On March 17, 1842, Joseph Smith organized the Women's Relief Society. Emma Smith, Joseph's wife, became the first president. The Relief Society organized the women. They thereafter appointed teachers, taught one another the gospel, and organized relief and service programs. One of their early missions was to provide relief for the poor in Nauvoo and assist in building the Nauvoo Temple; hence the organization was called the Relief Society. Today the Relief Society is among the largest and oldest women's organizations in the world.
The remainder of 1842 and most of 1843 were not so peaceful. While construction of the new town and especially the temple continued, Joseph and other leaders were often forced into hiding. From his hiding places, Joseph continued writing letters to the Church. In 1843, Joseph continued to alternate periods of hiding from his persecutors and publicly teaching the Gospel, often in groves of trees for groups too large to be accommodated in any local building.
After the martyrdom of Joseph Smith in 1844 was a trying time. In February 1846, the first company of Mormon pioneers left Nauvoo, walking across the frozen Mississippi into Iowa. On February 8, the temple was officially dedicated, though the public dedication was not until May 1. The Mormons left in waves and founded temporary settlements along the Platte River in Iowa: Garden Gove, Mount Pisgah, Kanesville (now Council Bluffs), and finally Winter Quarters, Nebraska. The road was slow and soggy. On September 10, the last Mormons were attacked by mobs in the Battle of Nauvoo. By September 16, 1846, the last Mormons were driven from the city. Their beautiful temple was burned by an arsonist. Nauvoo, a city that in 1844 had rivaled even Chicago for size and beauty, was all but destroyed. In 1850, a tornado hit Nauvoo and finished what the arsonists had begun.
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