THE CITY BEAUTIFUL
After being driven from their homes in
Ohio and Missouri, the Latter-day Saints,
settled in a small town named Commerce
in the state of Illinois, directly across from
the Iowa-Missouri border.
The whole city gently and beautifully slopes
downward to the banks of the silent silver
Mississippi.
Largely swamp and marshland in the beginning,
the saints changed the topography and the name
of the city to Nauvoo, meaning "the city beautiful."
By the time Joseph Smith and his brother Hyrum
were martyred in 1844, Nauvoo had grown to
become the largest city in Illinois, and was indeed
the "city beautiful".
We spent two days here visiting the old homes and
shops and listened to the story of a people destined
to survive and grow regardless of the perils and
persecution of their adversaries.
And our faith and admiration were strengthened.
(The above article is one of a series of articles
we wrote while taking what became known
to our family in 1977 as our Great Western
Trek, as we travelled from Maryland to Utah.)
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