Footnotes
“Emigration Movements,” Millennial Star, Mar. 1842, 2:155; “Emigration,” Millennial Star, Oct. 1842, 3:112; Andrew Jenson, “Church Emigration,” Contributor, Oct. 1891, 441, 444–448.
Latter-day Saints’ Millennial Star. Manchester, England, 1840–1842; Liverpool, 1842–1932; London, 1932–1970.
Jenson, Andrew. “Church Emigration.” Contributor 12, no. 12 (Oct. 1891): 441–450.
No reliable count of Nauvoo’s population during the 1840s exists. Different estimates of the city’s population range from 12,000 to 15,000. In January 1843, for instance, JS estimated the population was about 12,000. Nearly three years later, however, an actual count of city residents reported a population of only 11,057. (Black, “How Large Was the Population of Nauvoo?,” 91–94; JS, Journal, 5 Jan. 1843; “Mobocracy,” Times and Seasons, 15 Nov. 1845, 6:1031; “Nauvoo,” Times and Seasons, 1 Oct. 1842, 3:936.)
Black, Susan Easton. “How Large Was the Population of Nauvoo?” BYU Studies 35, no. 2 (1995): 91–94.
Times and Seasons. Commerce/Nauvoo, IL. Nov. 1839–Feb. 1846.
Godfrey, “Crime and Punishment in Mormon Nauvoo,” 198–212. Available evidence does not suggest higher crime rates in Nauvoo than in surrounding areas with comparable populations, but critics of JS and the church denounced Nauvoo as crime ridden, causing city authorities to try to reassure observers that order reigned there.
Godfrey, Kenneth W. “Crime and Punishment in Mormon Nauvoo, 1839–1846.” BYU Studies 32 (Winter and Spring 1992): 195–228.
“Laws and Ordinances of the City of Nauvoo,” Wasp, 8 Feb. 1843, [1]–[2]. In the Wasp version of the laws and ordinances, section 1 in the second division omits the word “Alley,” which appears in the fair copy of the ordinance. The draft version of the ordinances indicates that that word was later added as an insertion and therefore did not appear in the original version of the ordinance. (“Laws and Ordinances of the City of Nauvoo,” 30 Jan. 1843, Nauvoo, IL, Records, CHL.)
A November 1842 ordinance declared slaughterhouses a public nuisance if located within a half mile of a residential dwelling. (Nauvoo City Council Minute Book, 26 Nov. 1842, 129–130.)
In 1839, when the Saints first arrived in the region that became Nauvoo, the area was a swampland “filled with ponds and stagnant waters.” Church member Benjamin Brown recalled that the stagnant waters made the region “so unhea[l]thy very few could live there.” In order to reduce the standing water in the region and to make the land more useful, the Saints began draining the swamplands in 1840. The effort included creating drainage channels for both the northern and southern portions of the city. (Historian’s Office, JS History, Draft Notes, 11 June 1839, 59; Brown, Testimonies for the Truth, 19; Rollins et al., “Transforming Swampland into Nauvoo,” 125–157.)
Brown, Benjamin. Testimonies for the Truth: A Record of Manifestations of the Power of God, Miraculous and Providential, Witnessed in the Travels and Experience of Benjamin Brown. . . . Liverpool: S. W. Richards, 1853.
Rollins, Kyle M., Richard D. Smith, M. Brett Borup, and E. James Nelson. “Transforming Swampland into Nauvoo, the City Beautiful: A Civil Engineering Perspective.” BYU Studies 45, no. 3 (2006): 125–157.
During the 1840s, road labor was a public responsibility in Illinois and was part of the state’s labor tax. Those who refused to give their labor were subject to a fine of “one dollar and twenty-five cents for each day so neglected to be performed.” (An Act to Amend an Act Entitled “An Act to Amend an Act concerning Public Roads,” Approved January 18th, 1836 [3 Mar. 1837], Public and General Statute Laws of the State of Illinois, pp. 604–605, sec. 2.)
The Public and General Statute Laws of the State of Illinois: Containing All the Laws . . . Passed by the Ninth General Assembly, at Their First Session, Commencing December 1, 1834, and Ending February 13, 1835; and at Their Second Session, Commencing December 7, 1835, and Ending January 18, 1836; and Those Passed by the Tenth General Assembly, at Their Session Commencing December 5, 1836, and Ending March 6, 1837; and at Their Special Session, Commencing July 10, and Ending July 22, 1837. . . . Compiled by Jonathan Young Scammon. Chicago: Stephen F. Gale, 1839.
In the hide and leather industry, tanners and skinners soaked hides in vats of lime and water for months. The soaking process loosened the hair, which they would then scrape off. Because of the smell associated with the tanning process, some American cities deemed unlicensed tanning endeavors to be public nuisances. (“Leather,” in Ure, Dictionary of Arts, Manufactures, and Mines, 762–770; A By-Law to Prevent Nuisances Which Are Injurious to Health [30 Mar. 1795], By-Laws of the City of New Haven, 22–24.)
Ure, Andrew. A Dictionary of Arts, Manufactures, and Mines: Containing a Clear Exposition of Their Principles and Practice. 2nd ed. London: Longman, Orme, Brown, Green, and Longmans, 1840.
By-Laws of the City of New Haven, May 1840. New Haven, CT: Hitchcock and Stafford, 1840.