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At Carthage Jail

At Carthage Jail

Last updated on: March 11, 2025 at 10:50 pm by Dan Peterson

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At Carthage Jail 2025-03-11T22:50:12-06:00 Dan Peterson

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27 June 1844 at the jail in Carthage, Illinois (LDS Media Library)

We were up early and spent most of the first part of the day filming in and around Carthage Jail, a place of deeply tragic significance in the story of the Church. It was the longest time that I’ve ever spent at the site in Carthage, and it was pleasant to be there with very few others around. I’m glad that tourists come to the place in mass quantities — most of them Latter-day Saints but, I’m told, about ten percent of them simply people who see “Visit Historic Nauvoo” signs (and similar signage) and pull in out of curiosity — but I was happy that today wasn’t a heavy tourist day.

What we captured at the jail will, if current plans hold, provide much of the material for the first installment of our Becoming Brigham series of short documentary videos. As they begin to be available, these videos will be released at no charge online. (Of course, producing them incurs costs, so we won’t be terribly upset if you choose to support the project with a donation. If you do so, please expressly indicate that you’re giving to support Becoming Brigham.)

We had lunch in a Mexican restaurant in Carthage and then returned to Nauvoo. While our three film guys were setting up lights and camera and everything else for an interview with Joseph Johnstun a few feet away in an adjacent room — it’s hard work, but they strongly prefer that we less competent types not try to help — the rest of us were given an informal private tour of the Tomb of Joseph Museum by its organizer and proprietor, Brian Christiansen. It wasn’t here yet, I think, the last time that I visited Nauvoo. But it was interesting and I recommend it. It will open your eyes to an aspect of the history of the city and of Joseph Smith with which few are likely to be familiar.

Our Brigham Young from Six Days in August, John Donovan Wilson, handled the afternoon interview, so my wife and I had a bit of free time. In the evening, we went to the home of our friends Ugo Perego and his wife, Jenna, for dinner. They have a stunning backyard view of the Nauvoo Illinois Temple, which stands just a block or so away from their house. Ugo is a superb cook, and the pasta dish that we enjoyed tonight would have been a credit to any Italian restaurant that I’ve ever experienced. And, of course, there was good conversation.

The reconstructed Nauvoo Illinois Temple (LDS Media Library)

Whenever I’ve come to Nauvoo, especially since the rebuilding of its temple, I’ve been struck by the fact that, after the mob thought — and not without some reason — that it had not only destroyed Joseph Smith but “Mormonism” itself, we’re back. Once driven into exile in the Great Basin to the distant west, the Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints has returned. It owns significant properties in Nauvoo, and committed private Latter-day Saints own yet other significant properties. To the extent that there is a local economy, it is largely dependent upon Latter-day Saint investment and tourism. A Latter-day Saint woman even owns (and has renovated) the house where Thomas Sharp lived, in Warsaw to the south, and where he apparently conspired with others to kill Joseph and Hyrum. Carthage Jail, where the Prophet and the Patriarch were murdered, is now itself owned by the Church and has become, in a sense, a shrine to the martyrs. And, of course, most spectacular and significant of all, the Nauvoo Illinois Temple has risen again, towering above both the town and the Mississippi River to the west. I love this place.

A typical scientific laboratory from back around the time when I went to college in the 1880s.
(Wikimedia Commons public domain image)

Although I don’t quite always agree with it, I like the libertarian magazine Reason. (I also like its slogan, “Free Minds and Free Markets.”) Here is an article from Reason on a subject that passionately divides certain people. On this question, though, I’m only interested in the scientific data. I can’t see any real reason for people divide on this topic along political lines: “Do Face Masks Work? Five years after Donald Trump declared a national COVID emergency, here’s what the research says.”

And here, meanwhile — speaking of controversial topics — is a piece in the Deseret News by Valerie Hudson that I liked: “Perspective: Democrats will long pay the price for their position on women’s sports: Eighty percent of Americans oppose biological males on women’s teams. So why have Democrats chosen to die on this hill?”

Hugh W. Nibley (1910-2005)

This went up today on the website of the Interpreter Foundation: Nibley Lectures: Come, Follow Me Doctrine and Covenants Lesson 12 “Seek for the Things of a Better World” : D&C 23-26

During 1978, 1979, and 1980, Hugh Nibley taught a Doctrine and Covenants Sunday School class. Cassette recordings were made of these classes and some have survived and were digitized by Steve Whitlock and recently enhanced by Nick Galieti. Most of the tapes were in pretty bad condition. The original recordings usually don’t stop or start at the beginning of the class and there is some background noise. Volumes vary, probably depending upon where the recorder was placed in the room. Many are very low volume but in most cases it’s possible to understand the words. In a couple of cases the ends of one class were put on some space left over from a different class. There’s some mixup around D&C90-100 that couldn’t be figured out so those recordings are as they were on the tapes. Even with these flaws and missing classes, we believe these these will be interesting to listen to and valuable to your Come, Follow Me study program.

This week we have one Lecture relevant to the March 17 – 23 Come, Follow Me lesson, “Seek for the Things of a Better World” covering D&C 23-26.

“The Nauvoo Temple in Ruins” (Frederick Piercy, 1853; Wikimedia Commons public domain image) The Latter-day Saints had been driven from Nauvoo, Illinois, just six years before, after the murder of Joseph and Hyrum Smith. During the period of Latter-day Saint residence there, Nauvoo had been roughly the same size as contemporary Chicago.

Ryan Burge is invariably interesting and worth reading, and this article follows the pattern: “Is Christianity No Longer in Decline?”

Posted from Nauvoo, Illinois

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