September 5, 2015 - Saturday in Nauvoo

Mom and I hit the ground running this morning as we geared up for another day here in Nauvoo.  We were up early and mom started the laundry while I was just getting up.  She is always on top of the things that need to be done in our busy schedules.  We had our devotional and prayers together and then we took our morning walk around Nauvoo.  And our walk was warm and pretty quiet this morning.  I caught some pictures as we were walking;

This was an interesting shot of two vultures perched in a very dead tree!

And the beautiful morning view of the Nauvoo Temple

Our walks are always invigorating and interesting!  It takes us about 45 minutes to walk our trail of three miles around the flats in Nauvoo.  The best part is that there aren't too many people out walking at 6:00am!

Mom had a split shift at her site today at the Lucy Mack Smith House.  That means that she worked 8:45am to 12 noon and 3:00pm to 6:00pm.  I worked at the Browning Gun Shop from 11:45am to 6:00pm.  Next week begins the fall, winter, spring shift where the sites are open from 10:00am to 5:00pm, instead of 9"00am to 6:00pm. 

However, today we had a pretty steady flow of visitors all day.  I had to get up to speed pretty quick today to meet the demands of the guests!  This was my first time working in the Browning Gun Shop!  Here is a little history of Jonathan Browning and his son John Moses Browning;

Browning Gun Shop on Main Street Nauvoo

  Jonathan Browning (October 22, 1805 – June 21, 1879) was an American inventor and gunmaker. Born in Sumner County, Tennessee, he started earning a living as a blacksmith and later switched to become a lock and gunsmith. He invented a 'sliding breech' repeating rifle also called a Harmonica gun between 1834 and 1842 while living in Quincy, Illinois. He achieved success with the Harmonica gun and he received many orders. It is estimated that each Harmonica gun took 2 weeks to make, and Browning sold the guns for twenty-four dollars.
With his local prominence in Quincy, Browning was elected the justice of the peace. He came to know a young lawyer by the name of Abraham Lincoln who was an overnight guest in his home on at least two occasions.
In October 1838, Governor Lilburn Boggs issued the Extermination Order that caused the Mormon followers of Joseph Smith to flee Missouri. In his capacity as a judge, Browning came into contact with many of the Mormon exiles. Curious about the new settlement of Mormons in the swampy lands of Nauvoo, Illinois, Browning paid a visit to Nauvoo. His meeting with Mormon Prophet Joseph Smith led Browning to convert to the Mormon faith. His conversion led to him being ostracized by the community in Quincy. Browning sold his gun shop and land in Quincy.

Holiness to the Lord Our preservation

The label on a Browning gun from the Nauvoo period, stating: "Holiness to the Lord - Our Preservation."

He moved to Nauvoo, Illinois and joined the Mormon community in 1842, where he established a gun shop. Guns that Browning produced during these times were labeled "Holiness to the Lord - Our Preservation." The Browning Gun Shop has been restored as a museum, and is open to the public at no charge.

Browning fled Illinois with Brigham Young in late 1846 to escape religious persecution. He settled in the temporary Mormon community of Council Bluffs, Iowa (then called Kanesville in honor of Thomas L. Kane) and repaired guns for the Mormon settlers who were migrating to Utah. He was awaiting Brigham Young to invite him to join the main body of settlers in Utah. When the Mormon Battalion was formed during the War with Mexico, Browning wanted to join them, but was told by Young that his skills would not be needed by the soldiers as much as they would by the main body of pioneers in Kanesville.

As was common in the Mormon community at that time, Jonathan Browning was a polygamist, having taken three wives. He fathered 19 children; prominent among them was the gun designer, John Moses Browning, one of the most important figures in the development of modern automatic and semi-automatic firearms.

Browning received the word to join the main party of Mormon settlers in 1852. He left his gun-shop in Iowa and migrated across the Rocky Mountains as the captain of a group of pioneers. He arrived with six wagons and six hundred dollars in the Salt Lake Valley. Browning moved to Ogden, Utah and established a gun shop there. His activities were limited to repairs in the Ogden shop, however. His son John Moses recalled, "We ridiculed some of the guns we fixed, and I damned some of them when Pappy wasn't near, but it never occurred to us to make better ones. He was too old, and I was too young."

Here is some information on his son, John Moses Browning;

John Moses Browning

Born in Ogden, Utah, The United States January 23, 1855

Died November 26, 1926

John Moses Browning was an American firearms designer who developed many varieties of military and civilian firearms, cartridges, and gun mechanisms, many of which are still in use around the world. He is arguably the most important figure in the development of modern automatic and semi-automatic firearms and is credited with 128 gun patents. He made his first firearm at age 13 in his father's gun shop, and was awarded his first patent on October 7, 1879 at the age of 24.

Browning influenced nearly all categories of firearms design. He invented or made significant improvements to single-shot rifles, lever-action rifles, and slide-action firearms. His most significant contributions were in the area of autoloading firearms. He developed the first auto-loading pistols that were both reliable and compact by inventing the telescoping bolt, integrating the bolt and barrel shroud into what is known as the pistol slide. Browning's telescoping bolt design is now found on nearly every modern semi-automatic pistol, as well as several modern fully automatic weapons. He also developed the first gas-operated machine gun, the Colt-Browning Model 1895—a system that surpassed mechanical recoil operation to become the standard for most high-power self-loading firearm designs worldwide.

Browning's most successful designs include the M1911 pistol, the Browning .50 caliber machine gun, the Browning Hi-Power pistol, the Browning Automatic Rifle, and the Browning Auto-5, a ground-breaking semi-automatic shotgun. These arms are nearly identical today to those assembled by Browning in the 1920s, with only minor changes in detail and cosmetics. Even today, John Browning's guns are still some of the most copied guns in the world.
I had an interesting day in research the Browning's and serving in the gun shop!