lUlWDiSWSMCAtSMVfr fil^'JiS f??sr3l?:ai Sl'RVf ^ wmsmMoi mm. 917.7343 B9U r/ff' 5roi? y of THE MANSION HOUSE By ELDER S. A. B.RGESS Joseph Smith settled in 2sauvoo in the spiir.g of 18S9. H< and his family, consisting ' his wife Emma, his sons Jose; ii, Frederick, and Alexander, and -his adoptad daughter Julia Moved into a log cabin on the p .sent Water Street near the riv( . . This cabin was built by a aptain Hugh W.ite abbut sixtf a years before Jo-^ph Smith and the Latter Day Saints became interested in Nauvoo. This house now visited by thousands each year became known after Joseph Smith's passing as the Joseph Smith Homestead. He lived there about four years, building the frame addition on the north in 1840 to make more room. The Homestead had only two rooms when he bought it, one upstairs and one downstairs. There were several other buildings on this block used by the family in the 1840's. The addition to this build- ing to the west it appears was added by the late Joseph Smith, the son of Joseph Smith, Jr., about 1858. His parents lived with him for a while in Nauvoo and as president of the Latter Day Saints Church he had to entertain a con- stant stream of guests. In 1841 he presented a revelation and a plan for building a Nauvoo House. It was to ' have been a large hotel, with a 120 feet front on two sides, L-shaped, but was never completed- in that form above the windows of the second stor;-. Vardis Fisher's statement in "Cli'klren of God" that a hun- dred tho -and dollars brick Nau- voo House as completed and lused by the Latter '^ay Saints in Joseph Smith's time in Nauvoo is a mis- take. The unfinished ■lauvoo House with the brick walls built up eight or ten feet high oil the foundation stood that way after Joseph's death j.n Carthage till his children were grown. The original of the Nauvoo House painting- by Joseph's son David showing it that way was in Nauvoo last summer and many people saw it at the Lynn Smith home on the Temple Lot. Lynn is a descendant of Joseph through David. The present Nauvoo House much smaller than the original plan was built in 1869 long after Joseph was in the grave and most of the Latter Day Saints were gore (from Nauvoo. This is the brick building at the foot of old Main Street at the river's edge in Nau- voo. The Mansion House at the corn- er of Main and Water Streets in Nauvoo associated with the name of Joseph Smth, as one of the his- toric homes of America, was built by him about Il842 and was occupi- ed as a residence by him in 184S. Though all agree it was built in 18-^2 it seems not to haive been en- tirely finished as a hotel till the summer of 1843. A plan to build a Joseph Smith residence may have been made before that. Historical research has not established yet as far as I can discover who the con- tractors or carpenters were. Jos. Smith's oldest son known as youni? Joseph in pioneer times simp'. says in his Memoirs and in oth writings: "My father built the Mansion House in 1842." Some be- lieve that Joseph directed the building work himself, but this does rot seem likely in view of his Church duties and other interests. V/hcre the lumber was secured s not definitely stated. Much 1 'mber for Nauvoo homes of the 1; 40s vas local and supplied by a local Tiill, as an examination of historic Nauvoo houses still stand- ing will show. Later, with plans for the Nauvoo House with 8000 feet floor space and three or four -torie.- .-o"!;, and the Xauvoo Tempk v. ith an even laiiger floor and considerable greater ■ snd of at least four stories, he basement, a mill was . on the Black River in A\ - -iri and some lumber ship- ]v: ' down from there. ;: as this purchase was not ., till late in 1843, and the Man- 0.1 House was completed prior l) that, it appears probable that it also was built with native or local lumber. It may be that the Xauvoo Neighbor or other news- i tapers of the time would give nore exact data, but we do not at , ^--resent have access to ithat file. "^ There is nothing to substantiate »*> contention that Dr. Robert Foster, ►rj an M. D. mention^ed in Section ^ 107:34 of the Book of Dootrine and Covenants (a ' revelation through ■Joseph Smith) was the contractor nd builder who built the Mansion House. His interesting account of his associations with Joseph Smith published in an 1875 number of The True L. D. S. Herald makes no mention of this, as he othenvise doubtless would have done. The Mansion House does not seem to have been entirely com- pleted in the 'form it finally took at the time Joseph and his family moved in. In fact as it was being built suggestions were made that it be enlarged and made into a hotel or boai'ding house. This was done, an addition being built on the east which consisted of a good sized dining room and kitchen on the first floor. Below this was a basement with a cooking range and cellar for provisions. On the sec- nd sto;-y of this addition there v,as a series of bedrooms, six sin- gle ones along the north, side and four double rooms with connecting halls on the south side. These rooms with the part air iviy built made the hous. fcr that period. the light of later y. it doc appear to have bee? ■ ->■> 1 The ceilings were n< low "han otherwise, _ this addition. On October 3, 1843, ;. was lie! i . u' two hundred gU' mark the .■'.imal opening an.: ication of tip Mansion House. Thi^ was a house-.varming as well a.s a setting aside as a hoteL A sign was then pat over ithe door, "The Nauvoo Mansion." and the place became quite famous for its day. Those were the palmy days of rural hotels in American history, Emma Smith was installed as the landlady and made a trip to .St. Louis to procure furniture, bed linen, table napery, dishes, and utensils, in order to equip it as a hotel. During Mrs. Smith's absence Porter Rockwell who had been re- leased from prison in Jackson county, Missouri, returned to Nau- voo on December 25, 1843. Mr. Rockwell had been held in prison a year, but was acquitted. He was tried during this period before an unfriendly jury for an alleged at- tack upon the life of ex-Governor Lilburn Boggs of Missouri, but no evidence was brought forward suf- ficient to convince the jury or the court of hi- guilt, and Alexander Doniphan stated no such evidence could be found, Mr. iiockwell at once attempted to cper. a saloon in the Mansion House. He also made arrange- mer,:s to erect a building across the street, where l.e planned (to run . 'inrber shop ir connection with a . aloon. W'he:; Mr?. Smith arrived ack in Nauvoo f- om St. Louis she entered very strong objections, :nat it was h ghly improper for ha use of any room in a hotel rip by thf and ttiat ur/ at r ■.-. rp'- d Sh« won]'! ^el it I. J remove -i the .,^icv .ick to the ■' nestead, wit^ .er childrer. :he mat- te .vas called t' > t^i's atten- f 1 he at once t steps to have ie bar remov This is qui ^ i accordance -with the articles incorporation for the Nauvc^ Jouse. The Nauvoo Rustler fo uly 18, 1911, refer? to this char ., granted February 23, 1841 to .e Nauvoo House Associ- ation, be "k-ept for (the accom- moda' n of strangers, ti*avelers and .1 other persons who may res' ^ for rest and refreshment." ' -t is declared as a perpetual rr e of said house, to be observed b/ all persons who may keep or occupy the same that spirituous liquors of every description are prohibited, and that such liquors shall never be vended as a bever- age or introduced into common use in said house." Though Mr. Rockwell started to build, the building was never com- pleted and no saloon was erected in the vicinity. The Mansion Souse thus had the distinction of being almost the only hotel in America at that period where intoxicating liquors were ■not sold to guests. We find a note that Ebenezer Robinson ran the Mansion House as a hotel for a time with Joseph Smirt^h retain in? for himself and family only three rooms. In any event the rooms for the family were quite separate and distinct from those used for transient visi- tors and the hotel employees. In fact the building "was so erected that the second .-tory of the family part of the Haildiri.' with its sleep- ing rooms w s not quite on the .same level with the addition built up on the east. Open house was k pt for visitors at one period, many being church members who considered the head men of the church should entertain them during their stay in Nauvoo. but it was s0'>n seen that this was not feasible. Then a fee was charged for the use of rooms and the hotel idea continued. Joseph Smith resided in the Man- sion House only about a year. He was murdered by an armed mob in Carthage, Illinois, in June of 1844. After this occurrence his widow and children continued to reside in the Mansion House until things became quite uncomfortable late in 1846. Mrs. Smith then rented it, furnishings and all to a man named Van Tuyl. She took her family to Fulton City for the winter, renting a house on the edge of town. The families of Loren Walker, Leslie Knight, and Sevilla Durkin went north with the Smiths. But shortly after New Years word reached her that Mr. Van Tuyl was planning to leave Nau- voo as soon as the ice was out of the river and that he intended to take most of the Mansion House furnishings with him. She there- fore returned over land to Nauvoo and reached the Mansion House the 19th of February, 1847. She was again installed as landlady there. Mr. .Van Tuyl got away with several bedsteads, some fur- niture, some chamber linen^, and managed to get out of Nauvoo without payin? his rent, but the srreater part of the Mansion House furniture was saved. Mrs. Smith continued to reside ii the Mansion House from this ti le until 1S71, using it as her h(i'>ie with the exception 'of the fev months in Fulton City men- tioned, from the time of its build- ins until the 1870s. In 1871 she moved into the brick Nauvoo Hcuse by the river which had been completed a few months before. This building stiL standing in Nauvoo, as we have said, was call- ed the Riverside Mar.sion in the lS70s. It was built an. the south- west corner of the old stone toun- ' dation of the Nauvoo House laid in the 1840s. Mrs. Smith had married a man named Major Bidamon in the late 1840s. He was instrumen- tal in building the Riversiie Man- sion in its reduced form and in their moving into it. The Homestead had been deeded to young Joseph some years be- fore by his father. He married ? Nauvoo girl named Emmeline Griswold, who had at that time no i connection with the Latter Day Saints, and engaged ' in farming near Nauvoo for some time. He studied law about a year in the office of the Hon. William Kellogg in Canton, Illinois, acted as Clerk of the City Council there and worked part time in the postoffice. I He was residing on the farm at Nauvoo when E. C. Briggs and Samuel H. Gurley came to urge him to take up church work in the Latter Day Saints' cause, but the final interview took place in the Mansion House. Mr. Smith at that time took a very drm stand that he would not move forward or accept any church responsibility, unless and until he received evi- dence for himself that convinced him that it was the will of God. That was his decision as delivered in the Mansion House in Decem- ber, 1856. But later receiving what he be- lieved to be evidence of his duty, he took his father's place as the head of the Church of Jesus Christ of Latter Day Sain*, later known, since 1870, as the Reorganized Church. He carried this work on for several years i;. \auvoo, ^siding in the Homestea into wr. h he movai in 1858. L served :. rly eight years on the ^ ool boar^ "n Nauvoo, 'd. Nauvoo with their sen on a vis whei'e she was baptized by Davi H. Smith in March of that year (1866.) After Mr. and Mrs. Bidamon moved out of the iNIansion House, Alexander Hale Smith, the third son of Joseph and Emma, used it as a home. It was deeded to him and to David Hyrum Smith. The second son Froderick married a Miss Alice Jones. His health was not good and he died in the Man- sion House in 1862. The Mansion House is so clos-ely connected with the history of the Joseph Smith family, so many of them have been born or died in it, that the name of Joseph Smith Mansion by which it is sometimes called is quite correct. David Smith, Joseph's painter-poet son. was born there in October of 1844. David's son Elbert A. (the present Presidirig Patriarch of the Reorg- anized L. D. S. Church and author of "Timbers For the Temple" (novel) was born in Room No. 10 in the hotel part of the iMansion House. Alexander Smith's oldest daughter, Vida E., who wrote our ' Yoing People's History" a-d the •'Old, Old Path" song was oom in the same room. Alexander Smith died in the northeast .oom of the present Mansion while on a visit in Nauvoo in Au:;-ust of 1909. F expressed himself as homesick for Nauvoo and the river all his life and often expressed *t' *hat when he came to die ^nt be in old Nauvoo. Alexander Smith led in Nau- voo from the t his parents moved there ir 39 till March, 1868. He retu . to Nauvoo from Piano in ISTi" ud remained there makimg the .lansion House his home unti' -"6, when he moved to Missouri. While Aiama and Mr. Bidamon were .= ' .i in the Mansion House two o the Smith boys, Alexander and David, set up housekeeping ■with their brides in the hotel part on the east. This part as will be explained is no longer standing. The deed transferring the property to Alexander Smith and David H. Smith bears the date 1864 and was a new deed, previous papers hav- ing been lost in the pioneer up- heavals. Alexander who was in charge of the Mansion House lived in Mis- soui'i and lown and was much oc- cupied with Church work. He rent- ed the Mansion House to different tenants and to relatives of the Smiths. Several times it stood vacant. It was not easy for Alex- ander to look after it and the rent was insufficient. As a result the hotel part on the east became so dilipidated that it was necessary to tear it down in 1890. This is the part of the house that was deeded to David H. Smith but in its decayed condition it was pull- ing down the vest portion as well, so permission vas secured from the family of Da id H. Smith for its removal. The Nauvoo Independent is quot- ed in The Saints' Herald for August 2, 18&0 as folloA's: "Workmen are tearing down the east winig of the Mansion House, the home of Joseph Smitli. It was erected in 18 '3. Its condition had become so dilipidated that its r moval was coinsiticied expedient. We dislike to have this famous bujlding destroyed. It is one of the first objects visitors seek on their arrival in thi^ historic city. An effort should have been made to presei"ve it," Better care was taken of the buildinig from that time on, though we note the Nauvoo Independent later states that the Homestead and Mansion House were in such a condition that sa\'ing them wou ■ be difficult. Emma Smith Bidamon died in the Nauvoo House in April of 1879. Five nephews of Joseph Smith and D. D. Babcock of Montrose, Iowa carried her , to a grave near Joseph's in the dooryard of the Homestead. Though there were now almost no Latter Day Saints in Nauvoo she was deeply mourned by the community. Young Joseph's Memoirs relate how a stream of Nauvoo people passed by the 'bier weepin'g. The Nauvoo Independent of May 9, 1879 gives a long account of her death and funeral, of how she was placed in death in the par- lor of the Mansion House and Nauvoo citizens unable to crowd in to hear the funeral sermon stood outdoors and the doors were kept open, so all could hear. Joseph Smith's body also' laid in state in the Mansion House, the dining room of the hotel part being used in his case and ten thousand people according to pioneer estimates fil- ing through the room in one day in June of 1844 to see him before his burial. Alexander Smith had been at- tending a Church reunion in Bluff Park, near Mgntrose, Iowa when he died in Nauvoo. He preached four sermons at reunion services with great energy in spite of the August heat and his advancing age. He the:, hui J to Xauvoo to visit at the Man- an House. His brother-in-law, Joh . Kendall, was livir.ig in the Man-. jther historic buildings on the Ch - -rounds was definitely constr They were aided by wives \ were deeply interested. Elder Layton after quitting as Caretak. ; by reason of age finally bought piop- erty in Nauvoo and lived there till his death in 1936. Elder James C. Page took up duties as Caretaker at the Mansion in 1929. He is a grandson of Apostle John E. Page of the Quorum of the Twelve in the Church in lS40s. Apostle J<.^'n E. Page was one of the pro Early Church leaders who !■ to have anything to do with Br:-- ham Young and the Utah mov.^- ment. He remained in Illinois till his death in the early 1860s. His face was turned toward the Re- organized Church, which has re- peatedly been found to be the legitimate successor of the Church founded by Joseph Smith in 1830. Elder James C. Page, present Caretaker at the Mansion, also up- holds this position. He is ably as- sisted in his work as Caretaker by a compa^iion who has spent a life- time in the missionaiy service pf her faith. For several ye^rs past the northwest room in the front of the Mansion House has been given over to relics of pioneer Xauvoo. The Ilomesteadi is entirely given ove: to this purpose. Visitors are W' 'Come and Elder Paige is happy to show them the ouildings and to •i:iswer question- about their his- tory. Twenty-five t! ousand visit- ors registered there 'ast year which was the Centenr.al year of the fooanding of Xauvoo. So many came thnt it was n«cessar;. to have several assistants asso^^ ated with Elder Page. Elev. luntJred reg- istered one Si^r y duving the September Gra-,' /estival. Elder J. E. Vanderw of Independence. Missouri a-ct as Guide helping- Elder Page st of last year, hav- ing- .'I ro .. the Nauvoo House. \V. v^an Dine O'f Burnside V, 1:0 ^. n duty there consider- ably a) lived in the Nauvoo House lost of December. Lynn E. S-.riirl a great grandson of Joseph ■^^ ■ (a son of Elbert A. Smith), ■led during the punimer ru-sh, jn the Temple block. i'h? future of the Mansion House ,"s one of the historic homes of America seems assured. People of a:l faiths and ail Americans wish it to be preserved so generations to come can walk the floors the Nau- voo pioneers walked. A gracious touch was added when the charm- ing first Uily '6f the land' stopped at the Mansion H use a few mom- ents one October i^. .." in the fall of 1938 ani .-signed i:. the Register v,here ycu and I sign. Not to have visited the Mansion House is to have missed something ■ ducational and inspirational. Its record is preserved pictorially in aany his- torical journals. Editor's Note: Elder S. A. Bur- gess is Historian of the Reorganiz- ed L. D. S. Church. Scholars from all parts consult the records in his office in the Auditorium in Inde- pendence, Missouri for authentic material for books on Mormonism. Elder Burgess is the author of the tract "The Early History of Nau- voo" which proved the best selling tract of 1939 at the Mansion House. THE NAl'A'OO MANSION — From an old photograph, showing the east wing which was torn down in 1890. UNIVERSITY OF ILLINOIS-URBANA 9177343B91S C001 THE STORY OF THE MANSION HOUSE. 3 0112 025340941 a>II.iS V.iSiaRICAl SlIRVi^