The message of Nauvoo and the renovated Carthage block is one of healing, peace and reconciliation, Elder Loren C. Dunn said Sept. 21 at the Nauvoo Symposium at BYU.
Elder Dunn, a member of the First Quorum of the Seventy and president of the North America Central Area, spoke at the opening forum of the day-long event. Part of his talk was a slide-show tour of Nauvoo showing various buildings and sites that have been restored.He reviewed past events of this sesquicentennial year of Nauvoo's founding and mentioned upcoming events. "During the winter months, there will be a renovation of the interior of the Nauvoo Visitors Center, and new displays will be installed," Elder Dunn noted. "The west wing will depict where the Latter-day Saints come from; the center wing will deal with the Latter-day Saints in Nauvoo; and the east wing will speak of where the Latter-day Saints went after they left Nauvoo and what became of them. A feature of the visitors center will be a 15-foot model of 1846 Nauvoo and surrounding area, which will be in place early next summer."
Elder Dunn noted that all the restoration work in Nauvoo and Carthage has been and will be done using donated funds.
He said the Church owns approximately 1,000 acres of land in Nauvoo, some 700 acres of which are in pasture and such crops as corn and soybeans. Some 330 head of cattle are kept on the property. "The farm helps preserve the rural agricultural atmosphere which was the way of life in the 1840s," he said.
Tracing the history of Nauvoo, Elder Dunn said that in six years it became one of the two largest cities in Illinois, a close rival of Chicago. He said the state legislature granted the saints a city charter, with a young legislator named Abraham Lincoln voting for it.
"No one thought about the comment Heber C. Kimball had made when he first saw the place that would be Nauvoo: `It's a very pretty place, but not a long abiding home for the saints,' " Elder Dunn related.
Heber C. Kimball was right, he said, and the saints left after the murders of Joseph and Hyrum Smith.
"As their wagons headed west with Brigham Young at their head, they left behind some 2,000 homes, a theater and concert hall, many businesses and a barely completed temple on the hill, 146 feet tall. In less than a decade, the temple was destroyed. Most of the city of Joseph decayed and disappeared."
Elder Dunn said the small town later attracted new immigrants. "A French Icarian commune came and went; a few of the some 300 members stayed. Germans and Swiss came. For a while, Nauvoo was a German-speaking town, known for its grape industry."
As early as 1937, some descendants of Nauvoo Latter-day Saints began buying back properties their ancestors left, Elder Dunn noted. Among them were Wilford Wood from Bountiful, Utah, and Dr. J. Leroy Kimball, a Salt Lake City physician. Wood bought the first pieces of the temple site and several buildings, while Kimball bought the home built by his great-grandfather, Heber C. Kimball.
The Church organized Nauvoo Restoration Inc. in 1962 and Kimball became its first president. Since 1962, Elder Dunn said, the corporation has acquired some 1,000 acres of land and restored or reconstructed 17 buildings. Elder Dunn and his counselors in the North America Central area presidency are now the officers of the corporation.
Regarding the healing message of Nauvoo, Elder Dunn said: "It would seem that the Prophet Joseph and Hyrum themselves would not want Carthage or Nauvoo to become famous only as the place of their death and the persecution of the Church. But even more important, it should stand for what they lived for and what they stood for.
"Joseph's testimony of the Savior found on the monuments leading to the Carthage Jail is more significant than the stain on the floor of the jail that some think is the blood of Hyrum."
Elder Dunn reviewed several events of this year that illustrate the spirit of healing. These include the presentation to the Church of the key to the city of Quincy, Ill., by Mayor Verne Hagstrom, who commented that the city "was not welcoming the Latter-day Saints back but rather felt they had never left."
A plaque was also presented to Elder John Sonnenberg of the Second Quorum of the Seventy by the citizens of Warsaw, Ill., Elder Dunn said.
"The most significant event, however, was at the dedication of the renovated Carthage block. On the stand were the mayors or mayors-elect from Carthage, Warsaw and Quincy, and the former mayor of Nauvoo representing his city. Also present were representatives of the Nauvoo and Carthage Council of Churches, including special representatives of the Reorganized Church of Jesus Christ of Latter Day Saints."
Elder Dunn said the wife of Illinois Gov. James R. Thompson attended, representing her husband who at the last minute was unable to attend.
"Present on that occasion were the modern-day counterparts of all the players who were a part of that tragic event some 145 years ago," Elder Dunn commented. "But they were there in the spirit of conciliation and good will - the mayors, the clergy, the representatives of state government, the people."
Nauvoo and Carthage have enjoyed their busiest summer ever, he noted. "Of equal interest is that the missionary guides report that more visitors are coming from the southern Illinois and Iowa communities immediately surrounding Carthage and Nauvoo, and this has not happened to this degree before."
