Letter from Missionaries

Chicago, Ill., October 16, 1917.

Millard County Chronicle.

Delta, Utah.

Gentlemen:

Thru the courtesy of one of your subscribers, John Alvey we have been able to read in the Chronicle each week, the news from home.

No doubt all readers of our paper are somewhat interested in the soldIers who go out for Christ as well as those who go at our Country's call.

During our stay in Iowa we have labored as companions for about seven months. Early this summer one of us, Elder Hansen was transferred to Illinois so we had not seen each other since, till we men [met] in Carthage, September 8th 1917. We, in company with several other missionaries of Illinois and Iowa visited the old Carthage jail where the Prophet. Joseph Smith and his brother Hyrum were murdered June 27th 1844.

The jail is now owned by the Church and has been used as a dwelling house for years, but at present Is unoccupied.

In going from Carthage to Nauvoo we went thru Keokuk, Iowa. Here we saw the great Keokuk dam and locks on the Mississippi. Fifteen turbines now being run produce 150,000 horse power. When sale is found for the electricity the plant will be enlarged to twice the present capacity.

Sunday morning, September 9th found us walking up the road leading from the ferry landing to the city of Nauvoo. Thru the kindness of the people living in the Joseph Smith mansion, most of us were permitted to lodge there. The others stayed at the home of Sidney Rigdeon.

In the afternoon we met beneath the quiet shade of the trees, now growing rank on the old Mormon cemetery. Here we sang songs of Zion and enjoyed an inspiring testimony meeting.

Monday we began our sight-seeing of Nauvoo. Nauvoo is generally known as being situated on one of the most beautiful sights on the Mississippi River. The city is located in a bend of the river, Main street running north and south from river to river. Very few of the buildings which once adorned Main street are now standing. Those of note are the Joseph Smith mansion, Nauvoo House and the homes of the Prophet's father, John Taylor and Sidney Rigdeon. In Nauvoo at the present time only about one hundred of the old Mormon houses are intact and about half of these are unused. Many of the homes have been altered and repaired while others are falling in ruin. With the building up of towns down the river, such as Quincy, Illinois, the fine brick which were put into homes in Nauvoo began to disappear on rafts and were used in buildings down there.

Nauvoo has a population of about one thousand. It once was the home of over twenty-thousand people. The chief occupation is that of raising grapes, over seventy carloads being shipped every year. The shipping point is from Montrose, Iowa, after being ferried across from Nauvoo.

We find the people very friendly and they are looking for our people to return and rebuild their city. Thruout Hancock county, Elders doing country work are very kindly received. In fact we find the people in this country more friendly than we do the people in other counties where our labors have called us.

In visiting these places dear to our memory, one cannot but feel the determination and steadfastness of character of those who so freely gave their lives, that truth should not perish from the earth. Into our lives comes a new feeling of duty; that of helping to complete the work they so bravely began.

Yours sincerely,

Elders H. C. N. Hansen,

and Arnold R. Workman. 

  [Arnold Reeve Workman, son of Edwin Monroe Workman, grandson of Andrew Jackson Workman]

A picture of the Elders in the door of the Nauvoo house was enclosed in the letter.

Millard County Chronicle, Oct. 25, 1917, page 1