During the winter of 1838–39, more than 5,000 Latter-day Saints were seeking food and shelter after being expelled from Missouri by Gov. Lilburn W. Boggs’ extermination order.
They found refuge and kindness across the river from Missouri in Quincy, Illinois, where the town’s 1,600 residents took in the Saints.
Now, in connection with the 200th anniversary of the formation of Adams County, Illinois, wherein Quincy sits, The Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints is providing a historical marker to remember the “Mercy on the Mississippi.”
A rendering of the interpretive panel, which provides more detail than past markers, was unveiled at Clat Adams Bicentennial Park by the Mississippi River on May 10, reported a news release on ChurchofJesusChrist.org.
Quincy is about 55 miles south of Nauvoo, Illinois, where Saints lived from 1839 to 1846.
Larissa McShane, the Nauvoo Illinois Stake Relief Society president, told the more than 100 people in attendance how her ancestors, James Bean and Elizabeth Lewis, were Quincy residents and sheltered the Saints.
Their son, George, wrote in his journal, “My father, having added to his lands and improvements for some time, was possessed of several houses and cabins, which were then filled with these people.”
McShane said, “Their mercy changed the trajectory of the lives of countless people for generations to come.” Her Quincy ancestors later joined the Church and headed west in 1846.
Charles Scholz, chair of the Adams County Bicentennial Commission and a former mayor of Quincy, spoke about when the late Church President Gordon B. Hinckley visited Quincy in 2002 in conjunction with the rebuilding of the Nauvoo Temple. The Tabernacle Choir at Temple Square performed a benefit concert that raised $75,000 to help the city start a community foundation.
“It was a wonderful evening,” Scholz said. “At the conclusion, [President Hinckley] turned to the choir … and he said, ‘I’d like to have everyone in the choir who had ancestors that were sheltered in Quincy stand up.’ And they all stood up, and an audible gasp went throughout the crowd. That’s what brought it home to us of how significant this is.”
