Carthage

This morning we left for Carthage Jail.  I liked this painting in the visitor's center.  It shows how much of the Nauvoo temple was built when Joseph and Hyrum went to Carthage.  Too bad they never were able to see it finished.  They definitely knew they would be killed.  Five days before he died Joseph Smith told Stephen Markham, "if I and Hyrum were ever taken again we should be massacred or I was not a prophet of God."

Joseph and Hyrum were falsely imprisoned for treason.  They had put Nauvoo under Marshall Law in order to protect the Saints.  This is the reason they were charged with treason, which makes no sense. It was the first time anyone had been charged with treason by the state and not the federal government.  There was no bail for treason.  The jailers at Carthage were incredibly nice.  They invited Joseph and his friends to eat with their family.  They felt that the downstairs jail cell was not safe, so they gave the men their bedroom.

Family dining room at Carthage  

Bullet hole that killed Hyrum

Floor of the bedroom jail

Mike, Jorja, Maysen, Stockton

This is the window Joseph fell from

Stephanie, Jorja, Preston, Mike, Maysen, Stockton

Joseph fell from this second story window

Joseph had asked Governor Ford to stay in town.  He felt he would be safe if the governor was in town.  Instead the governor went to Nauvoo. He was even fed by Emma while he was there.  My dad found a book written by Governon Thomas Ford titled History of Illinois (1818-1847) He wrote this in the book: At the death of the prophet, fourteen years after the Mormon Church was organized, the Mormons in all the world numbered about two hundred thousand souls; a number equal, perhaps to the number of Christians, when the Christian Church was of the same age.  It is to be feared that, in course of a century, some gifted man like Paul...may command a hearing...and make the name of the martyred Joseph Smith ring as loud, and stir the souls of men as much, as the mighty name of Christ itself.  Sharon, Palmyra, Kirtland, Far West, Nauvoo, and the Carthage Jail, may become holy and venerable names, places of classic interest, in another age; like Jerusalem, the Garden of Gethsemane, the Mount of Olives, and Mount Calvary to the Christian.  And in that event, the author of this history feels degraded by the reflection, that the humble governor of an obscure State, who would otherwise be forgotten in a few years, stands a fair chance, like Pilate and Herod, by their official connection with the true religion, of being dragged down to posterity with an immortal name, hitched on to the memory of a miserable impostor.

Preston kept knocking of the statue of Joseph and Hyrum because he said it sounded hollow....except the hat.

Preston

Stockton and Preston humored me and recreated the statue of Joseph and Hyrum.  Two sets of brothers.

Preston & Stockton

Preston had an easier time keeping

a straight face than Stockton did.

I had them smile for this one

Preston wanted to do the pictures again holding

a book and a hat, just like the statue.

Stockton is so nice to him.

Preston kept his pose even after I took the book and hat and Stockton left.  I picked him up and pretend I was taking the statue with me.  He stayed stiff as he could until we got back to the motorhome.  He was laughing pretty hard though.

Preston Statue

This is the inn the mobsters celebrated

at after they killed Joseph and Hyrum

The Warsaw Signal that printed hateful things about the Mormons

We drove to Quincy and learned how in contrast to Warsaw, Quincy was friendly to the mormons.  Quincy was a town with a population of a couple of thousand.  There were probably seven thousand mormon refugees.  The town housed them through the winter.  It was Mayor Wood's idea.  Many more people would have died without the people of Quincy's help.  My dad says that the only town that didn't get touched by the civil war along the Mississippi River was Quincy Illinois.  There is a monument to the people of Quincy down by the river.  You can barely see the tip poking up.  We didn't go down there because it was raining like crazy!

We stopped at the Mark Twain museum in Hannibal.

Tom Sawyer and Huckleberry Finn

Memorial that was never completed because of the cost

Preston white washing the fence

Preston convincing Jorja she wants to paint the fence

Jorja

Preston thought this sign was so funny

Sketch by Norman Rockwell

Painting by Norman Rockwell

Tom Sawyer and Becky Thatcher

We then drove to Adam-ondi-Ahman.  That was a fun place to be.  It is so beautiful.  The only thing that would have been better was if there hadn't been so many bees.  They weren't really bees, but there was this weird bug thing that was everywhere.  Mostly they bothered Stockton.

Maysen

Maysen & Mike

My dad teaching my kids

Preston & Jorja enjoyed the rabbits

Stockton, Stephanie, Maysen, Jorja, Mike, Preston

Pondering the past & future events that took place/will take place here

Stockton, Jorja, Mike, Preston, Stephanie, Maysen

My instagram post

The kids had a lot more fun with Mike's posts.  Notice Stockton starting to sneeze and then sneezing. Maysen is giving herself a high five.

Dad, Stephanie, Stockton, Jorja, Maysen, Preston

Dad, Stephanie, Stockton, Jorja, Maysen

Jorja had my camera for a bit.  Here are three of the pictures she took.

Stockton

Dad

Stephanie

Jorja

We drove to a different part of Adam-ondi-Ahman.  It is called Tower Hill.  It was really pretty.

The trees were so cool

Mike, Preston and I walked down to them

Mike

Preston taken a panorama picture

Maysen, Mike, Stephanie, Jorja, Preston, Stockton

With my dad added in

Dad

When we got back to the car we noticed a deformity on our motorhome.  Boo!  We think it happened when we were leaving Hannibal.  Mike guesses it was a street sign that we were parked near. Dang it!

Court house in Gallatin where Mormon's weren't allowed to vote

Preston & Stockton