Joseph and Emma's Homestead was a small house originally but had been added onto later when his son lived there. They told of the history of the house and showed us which parts were original and which were added. Some of the artifacts were ones actually owned by Joseph and Emma when they lived there.
Joseph and Emma's Mansion house was built because all too often Emma found herself hostess to members of the church who needed a place to stay. It was used as a hotel with a portion of it used for the family's private residence. It was a beautiful building anyone would love to live in. The Mansion house (as well as the Homestead) had several places that were built solely to hide Joseph from those who intended harm to him.
The burial grounds have been moved from where they were placed originally. Emma had kept the burial place of her beloved and his brother a secret from everyone (aside from a very select few) in order to protect it. When she died, her family buried her close by. Years later when the shore line of the Mississippi River began to change it became necessary to move the family graveyard. A nice memorial has been built by the ----church as a marker for their grave.
After the tour we went on a carriage ride. This ride took us through some of the wooded areas of Nauvoo.
And told of experiences those who first inhabited Nauvoo had in the area. Could you imagine having to clear these kinds of wooded areas to be able to build a house and have some farming land? Not to mention the fact they had to divert water out of the area to be able to farm it. When they arrived it was nothing more than a marsh.
I had to get a picture of our tour guide
These are some of the original homes that were in Nauvoo. I'm sure they have had a lot of work done since they are still lived in today.
The Mighty Mississippi as seen on our carriage ride.
Following the carriage ride we went to the Temple grounds to get some photos for our Temple Tour.
I thought it was appropriate to post some pictures of the memorial for Joseph and Hyrum that is in from=n of the Temple
There happened to be someone else there who was willing to trade taking family pictures in front of the temple for us.
We headed into town to visit some more sites. The kids has fun trying on the "running water" yolk. A boy's job, as soon as he was tall enough (Harrisen is not quite there) was to carry one of these down to the river fill the buckets and carry them back to the temple site This was quite a distance and up hill towards the temple.
The other kids wanted to give it a try. Madison...
And Bailee....
We had tickets to another show "Just Anna Amanda" so we took a break from the heat to go see the show. Another great performance by the "Young Preforming Missionaries".We decided to head to Carthage when we stopped for lunch that way we could eat in the car on the way and have more time.
Carthage was AmAzInG! We had to wait a little while to go in because there was an EFY group in front of us (How fun would that be? EFY in Nauvoo) when we did go in it was really nice because there was not a group behind us that was waiting to come in. The missionary giving our tour took her time telling us all about the building and the events that took place there. When we got to the room where Joseph and Hyrum were Martyred we were actually able to close the door and sit in the room and talk as a family about the feeling you feel in that room. It was amazing! The missionary said never before since she had been thee had this happened. So awesome!
This little room was the room that the prison keeper and their family would live in. the prison and another bedroom (where the martyrdom took place) were upstairs. 
This was definitely one of the highlights of the vacation!Following Carthage we returned to Nauvoo to visit the places we still had yet to see We went to the print shop, the post office, the Seventies hall, the black smith shop (where we all got prairie diamonds), and the brick yard (where our family was given a Nauvoo brick) before going to see some of the homes. The Lucy Mack Smith Home and the Woodruff home were my favorites. By the time we finished the homes everything else was closed up for the evening so we drove to the end of Parley street, the same way the saints did as they left their beautiful city Nauvoo to head west. Then we headed back to Burlington. Leaving Nauvoo for the last time on this trip. What a great experience for our family. Tomorrow we'll have a bit of a drive, stopping to see some more sites on the way.
2 comments:
What an incredible trip!!! I would love to go there, I'm glad you went so we could see the pics and read what you saw and did. Awesome!
sounds like a great vacation. Hope I can do that one day!
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