1984
Sharing Time: Peaceful Nauvoo
September 1984


“Sharing Time: Peaceful Nauvoo,” Friend, Aug.–Sept. 1984, 34

Sharing Time:

Peaceful Nauvoo

Peace, peace be unto you, because of your faith in my Well Beloved (Hel. 5:47).

The most lasting feeling of peace comes when we truly understand the gospel. This peace helps us to not worry or be afraid, even in times of trouble. It is called “the peace of God, which passeth all understanding” (Philip. 4:7), and it comes through faith in Jesus Christ.

Nauvoo is now a very peaceful city. Visitors can walk along the quiet riverbanks of the Mississippi River and go inside many homes and stores that have been carefully rebuilt. Much of this beautiful city has been restored to look like the Nauvoo that Joseph Smith and other early members of the Church built. When people who visit Nauvoo, which means “beautiful place,” ask about the quiet feeling of peace there, the missionaries tell them about the gospel plan and that it is the only way to find true peace.

Restored Buildings and Sites

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Map of Nauvoo

Illustrated by Dick Brown

1. Visitors’ Center

12. Print Shop

23. Joseph Smith Store (RLDS)

2. Monument to Women

13. Ivins-Smith Home

24. Joseph Smith Homestead (RLDS)

3. William Weeks Home

14. Times and Seasons Building

25. Nauvoo House (RLDS)

4. Sarah Granger Kimball Home

15. Jonathan Browning Home

26. Mansion House (RLDS)

5. Clark Store

16. Brick Kiln

27. RLDS Visitors’ Center

6. Temple Site

17. Coolidge Home

28. Temple Sunstone

7. Masonic Hall

18. Noble-Lucy Mack Smith home

29. Lorin Farr Home

8. Lucius Scovil Bakery

19. Brigham Young Home

30. David Yearsly Home

9. Windsor P. Lyon Home and Store

20. Blacksmith Shop

31. Orson Hyde Home

10. Wilford Woodruff Home

21. Seventies Hall

32. Nathaniel Ashby-Erastus Snow Duplex

11. Heber C. Kimball Home

22. Montrose Crossing

33. Bishop Knight Home

Nauvoo Cutouts

Instructions: Color and cut out each building. Read the information on the back of each picture, then locate the building on the map found on pages 34 and 35. Remember to watch for other buildings to be printed in the October 1984 issue of the Friend.

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Nauvoo Cutouts
Image
Nauvoo Cutouts

Drawings by Steven Baird

21 Seventies Hall

While this building was being built a tornado blew down one of its walls. Finally the building was dedicated on December 27, 1844, and served as an office and a missionary training center for the Seventies. A community library and museum were located on the second floor. When the Saints left Nauvoo, the building was sold. It was a Presbyterian church, then a school, before it was destroyed.

19 Brigham Young Home

Brigham Young completed his redbrick home on May 31, 1843. After the death of the Prophet, the Young home became Church headquarters. On February 22, 1846, the Young family left their home and headed west. The home was sold at a public auction for $ 600. Later Brigham Young became the second President of the Church.

3 William Weeks Home

William Weeks, a skilled architect, designed the Nauvoo Temple. Besides it and his home, he also helped plan the Masonic Hall, Nauvoo House, and the Nauvoo Arsenal.

11 Heber C. Kimball Home

The Kimball family moved into their unfinished redbrick house in late fall of 1845. Unable to sell the home before they journeyed west, they had to abandon it. Heber C. Kimball, a blacksmith and a potter, was one of the first Apostles of the Church. Later he became Brigham Young’s first counselor. In 1954 a great-grandson purchased and restored the Kimball home, which marked the beginning of the Nauvoo restoration.

7 Masonic Hall

Many civic and cultural events were held in this white stucco three-story building after it was completed in April 1844. Wheat was stored in its basement. After the Saints left Nauvoo, the building was used to turn as a grocery store, a hotel, and after the top floor was torn down, a home.

10 Wilford Woodruff Home

Wilford Woodruff wrote in his diary on May 3, 1844, “I hung 4 doors primed them & laid my lower floors.” The next day he wrote, “I moved into my new brick house.” A week later he left his wife and three children to serve a mission in the New England states. At the age of eighty-two he became the fourth President of the Church.

15 Jonathan Browning Home

Jonathan Browning was a talented gunsmith who invented several repeating rifles. About three years after Jonathan and his wife Elizabeth were converted to the Church, they moved from Quincy, Illinois, to Nauvoo. They purchased a half-lot and lived in a two-room log cabin until their brick home and shop could be built.

Sharing Time Ideas

  1. Assign children to tell about information on back of buildings, then locate them on map. Buildings might be drawn larger. More information about Nauvoo and the people who lived in the homes can be researched.

  2. Sing songs like “Keep the Commandments” (More Songs for Children, page 14) and “Teach Me to Walk in the Light” (Sing with Me, B-45).