March 11, 2015 - Wednesday

This has been the most spring-like day so far here in Nauvoo.  It was our Preparation day and we had a few things to do!  To begin the day we walked to our weekly Wednesday morning one hour training meeting at the Visitor's Center.  The walk is less than a half mile.  After the meeting we walked back to our apartment to move some clothes we were washing into the dryer and then walked up to the Nauvoo Temple to attend the 10:00am temple session.  The morning was beautiful and the air was clean and we got to the training meeting before most of the missionaries here had a chance to drive by us with their car emissions.  

The Nauvoo Temple

 I love taking the pictures of the Nauvoo Temple!  This is the view as we take our walk from our apartment to the temple.  We are about four blocks from the temple.

The inscription over the front doors of the Nauvoo Temple

The entry to the Nauvoo Temple

Just below the upper level windows, the blocks of granite change to a larger size.  That level where the change takes place is where the temple construction was at on June 24, 1844, the day the Prophet and his brother Hyrum left Nauvoo for Carthage on horseback.  It would be the last time they would see the temple in their mortal bodies.

The view from the top step of the Nauvoo Temple

This is the picture one would see on a beautiful pre-spring morning from the steps of the Nauvoo Temple.  The monument of Joseph and Hyrum taking one last look at the temple before riding off the Carthage on the morning of June 24, 1844.

The temple session was wonderful as it always is, and we went home to change clothes, have lunch and do a little more laundry before my hair-cutting appointment at 2:00pm.  We met Robert the barber that we were told to meet by our friends Wayne and Mary Call.  By the way Sister Call, Robert remembers, fondly, you and Brother Call!  What a nice man and he did a great job!  He will have us for the next 21 months for sure!

Robert cutting Elder Robert's hair!

After the hair cut, mom and I went to Keokuk for a few groceries.  We are trying to keep to just what we need in case there is a relocation within the Nauvoo Mission in our horizon.  We will know that in just less than one or two weeks whether we stay here of go to Carthage.  

As we were returning home from Keokuk, I had to make this turn: >>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>

Warsaw is a city in distress.  It was the place that Thomas Sharp, editor of the Warsaw Signal wrote articles that incited hatred for the Mormons in 1843-1846.  His efforts were primarily political with the Mormon Saints voting for the leaders who most represented their beliefs.  They usually voted in blocks and their votes counted!  His hatred for the Mormon's  eventually led to the Martyrdom of the Prophet Joseph Smith and his brother Hyrum, on June 27, 1844, and, less than 5 weeks later, to the Prophet's younger brother Samuel.  I had to take some pictures while the remainder of the building where the printing shop was located is still standing.  I don't have a desire to return to this city.

The front view of what remains of the Warsaw Signal

The remaining epitaph of the proprietor

In the rubble lies the printing press of Thomas Sharp

At one point there was talk in the Warsaw City Council of making this a monument to the editor.  That discussion seems to be lacking funds and public support from the city.  Here are some notes on him:

 Sharp was born in Mount Holly Township, New Jersey, the son of prominent Methodist preacher Solomon Sharp. He attended Dickinson College in Carlisle, Pennsylvania and was admitted to the legal bar of Cumberland County, Illinois in April 1840. However, Sharp was partially deaf, which made his functioning in courtrooms difficult and he gave up his Illinois legal practice after a few months.

Warsaw Signal and anti-Mormonism

Sharp moved to Warsaw, Illinois in September 1840. Approximately 18 months earlier, Latter Day Saints had begun to arrive in the same county and settle in the town of Commerce, which by 1840 had been renamed Nauvoo. In November, Sharp and a business partner purchased a Warsaw newspaper entitled Western World, which they renamed Warsaw Signal in 1841. Sharp used the paper to promote his opposition to the Mormon presence in Hancock County.
Within a few months, "Old Tom Sharp" had become a strong opponent of the Latter Day Saints. Sharp and some associates formed the Anti-Mormon Party to oppose Mormon influences in Hancock County. In 1841, Joseph Smith noted in his journal that Sharp "devoted his entire time to slandering, to lying against and misrepresenting the Latter-day Saints." Sharp also opposed non-Mormons who assisted or were sympathetic to the Latter Day Saints, dubbing them "Jack Mormons". However, due to financial losses Sharp was forced to sell the Signal to its original owner in 1842.
In 1842, Sharp ran as a candidate for the Hancock County seat in the Illinois House of Representatives as a representative of the Whig Party. His principal opponent was William Smith, a Mormon apostle who ran for the Democratic Party. Smith won the election easily as a result of overwhelming Mormon support from voters in Nauvoo.
In February 1844, Sharp resumed ownership of the Warsaw Signal. The Signal was vigorously anti-Mormon in its editorial stance. In a June 11, 1844 editorial, Sharp wrote:

War and extermination is inevitable! Citizens ARISE, ONE and ALL!!!—Can you stand by, and suffer such INFERNAL DEVILS! to ROB men of their property and RIGHTS, without avenging them. We have no time for comment, every man will make his own. LET IT BE MADE WITH POWDER AND BALL!!!

In a June 14, 1844 extra edition, the Signal published the minutes of a meeting of Warsaw residents organized by Sharp whereby those in attendance condemned Smith's destruction of the printing press of the anti-Mormon Nauvoo Expositor and resolved that "the Prophet [Smith] and his miscreant adherents, should ... be demanded at their [the Latter Day Saints'] hands, and if not surrendered, a war of extermination should be waged to the entire destruction, if necessary for our protection, of his adherents."
After Smith and his brother Hyrum were assassinated by a mob on June 27, Sharp editorialized in the July 10 edition:

Joe and Hiram [sic] Smith, at the time their lives were taken, were in the custody of the officers of the law; and it is asked by those who condemn the act, why the law was not first allowed to take its course before violence was resorted to? We answr that the course of law in the case of these wretches would have been a mere mockery; and such was the conviction of every sensible man.

Thomas C. Sharp, along with others, was arrested for the murder of the Prophet and his brother but was acquitted in the courtroom in Carthage in the latter part of 1844. He had some success in politics and seemed to live the "good" life during his life time, but can you imagine what he is facing now and through the eternities?  I can't even imagine.

For our last walk tonight, mom and I walked through the Community of Christ, (reorganized LDS), cemetary and here are some pictures:

Final resting place of Joseph, Emma and Hyrum

Joseph Smith Sr and Lucy Mack Smith and family members

As we quietly walked through this area where the Mansion House is, and the Red Brick Store, and the cemetery, there was a subdued reverence for all these people who lived through the terror of the early church period.  There were happy times during the restoration and very sad times as the Adversary took hold of peoples hearts and eventually their souls in an attempt to stop this marvelous work.  You and I are part of the latter-day efforts to keep this work moving forward and we have a great work to accomplish!  I am convinced that we are products from a foundation that was built by these precious Saints and we must re double our efforts to break down misunderstanding and stand as light and truth to our families and our friends and our neighbors.  

Now, one last picture for today:

Here comes Spring!

Thank you for checking in with me tonight!  It has been a marvelous day and Sister Lasher and I marvel that we have been given this opportunity to be here and to be students of the history of the Prophet Joseph Smith.  What a blessing it has been so far!

Post Script - In my studies tonight I am preparing Lesson #6 for Priesthood in two weeks and came across this quote from President Ezra Taft Benson.  How critical is this to the education of our children today?

“The tenth plank in Karl Marx's Manifesto for destroying our kind of civilization advocated the establishment of "free education for all children in public schools." There were several reasons why Marx wanted government to run the schools.…one of them [was that] ‘It is capable of exact demonstration that if every party in the State has the right of excluding from public schools whatever he does not believe to be true, then he that believes most must give way to him that believes least, and then he that believes least must give way to him that believes absolutely nothing, no matter in how small a minority the atheists or agnostics may be.’

It is self-evident that on this scheme, if it is consistently and persistently carried out in all parts of the country, the United States system of national popular education will be the most efficient and widespread instrument for the propagation of atheism which the world has ever seen.”
― Ezra Taft Benson

Just for your consideration - we must do all we can to protect the integrity of the education of the rising generation.  President Benson recorded this over 30 years ago.  Where are we now?

And this is the quote I was looking for!  It will be perfect for my lesson!!

That man is greatest who is most like Christ, and those who love him most will be most like him.

 ― Ezra Taft Benson