About This Cemetery:
|
Sculpture Monument at
Old Nauvoo Burial Grounds
by Richard D. Young and
Dee Jay Bawden |
|
n these walls are the names
of some of those who died while
living at Nauvoo between 1839
and 1846. There are
others, we know not who or how
many, as time has erased them
from our records and our
memories. Many of them
were children and each of them
had a story worth telling.
We don't know all of their
stories but we do know that they
are loved and the Savior knows
and loves each one."
|
|
From the Pavilion Display |
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
Old Nauvoo Burial Grounds
by Elder Larry Nichol
The cemetery is
located on the south side of Parley Street two miles east of
Highway 96 in Nauvoo (Durphy Street). Most of the Saints who
died in Nauvoo are buried here. Some of those buried in the
Durphy Street Cemetery were moved here as a result of closing
that cemetery.
The cemetery was
maintained from the 1860’s to 1989 by the Reorganized Church of
Latter-day Saints (Community of Christ). In 1989 the Church of
Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints acquired the grounds and
rededicated the cemetery on October 7, 1989. Over the years the
cemetery has been known as the Marks Cemetery, Miller Hill
Cemetery, Old Mormon Cemetery, Parley Street Cemetery, Pioneer
Burial Grounds, Pioneer Cemetery, Pioneer Saints Cemetery and
Old Pioneer Cemetery.
Today, a bronze monument of a grieving family stands sentinel
over this sacred cemetery, a peaceful and wooded resting place
for early pioneers who sacrificed their lives in search of
religious freedom.
To
memorialize many of those early Saints for whom no marker
exists, a kiosk at the cemetery includes the names of many who
died in Nauvoo.
|
|
|
Map
Old Nauvoo Burial Grounds
40o
32’ 13.29” N, 91o 20’ 55.32” W
Click
HERE for a Google map giving
directions to the
Old Nauvoo Burial Grounds,
Nauvoo, Illinois |
|
Journal
Excerpts: An Answered Prayer
by Charles Lambert, a Nauvoo Temple Stonecutter
Tombstone of Joel Scovil, Old Nauvoo Burial Grounds |
|
"I must mention a
circumstance that took place a short time previous to finishing
the Temple. I was going home when my wife met me at the
door and began crying --- said she could stand anything but this
(that was our children crying for bread and she had none to give
them). I replied: Why do you not go and ask the Lord to send you
some? Why not you go with me? We went into our bedroom and
fastened ourselves in, and there made our request. In
about an hour after, Brother Lucius Scovil came and after some
little talk said he would like me to make a grave stone to mark
the place where his son was buried [Joel Scovil]. I told
him I would do it. He said he was in no hurry but wanted
it done. I told him I had a family depending on me.
He said he did not have anything to pay with, but in a while
told me he could let have some wheat if I wished it. I
told him I would be pleased to get some. He wished me to
go with him and he would let me have it. I went got the
wheat --- 4 or 4 1/4 bushels. I got it, took it to
Knights' Mill and returned home with the grist, thus were our
prayers answered."
Richard Neitzel
Holzapfel and T. Jeffery Cottle, Old Mormon Nauvoo and
Southeastern Iowa, Historical Photographs and Guide, page 175.
|
|
|
From
the bronze monument of a grieving family in the
Old Nauvoo Burial Grounds
"The place where a man is buried
is sacred to me"
Joseph Smith
|
|
|
|
"I am the
resurrection and the life: he that believeth in me,
though he were dead, yet shall he live:
And whosoever liveth and believeth in me shall never
die..."John
11:25-26 |
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
Aiken, Nancy Layell 1845 |
Hofheins, Catherine (1844) and B Frederick (1845) and Charles
(1845) |
Rich, Artemesia 1843 |
|
|
Averett, Dorcas (Willis) 1843 |
Holbrook, Nancy (Lampson) 1842 and Nancy J (1843) |
Robison, Charles 1840 |
|
|
Blood, Isaac 1845 |
Houghton, Emeline |
Robison, Ellen 1850 |
|
|
Bradley, Hannah 1845 |
Huffaker, Susan G (Robinson) 1845 |
Robison, Ellis H 1854. |
|
|
Brown, Cordelia 1840 |
Jackman, Catherine (Golden) 1849 and Evaline M 1849 |
Robison, Hannah (Hughes)1861 |
|
|
Casper, William |
Kay, Mary 1890 |
Robison, James 1841 |
|
|
Chandler, Charles 1876 |
Kempton, Richard 1846 |
Robison, Jerusha |
|
|
Chandler, Harriet
1882
|
King, Rhoda 1854 |
Sanders, John 1844 |
|
|
Clark, Francis 1855 and Elizabeth (Hodge) 1890 |
Lincoln, Ira 1845 |
Scovil, Joel |
|
|
Cormack, Richard 1847 |
Loomis,
Francis 1851 |
Scovil, Lury (Snow) 1846 and Mary and Martha (twins) 1846 |
|
|
Curtis, Nahum 1846 |
Loomis, Laura 1845 |
Sears, Alfred |
|
|
Durphy, James |
Lyon, Asa Marion and Phylopheen |
Standing, John 1843 |
|
|
Fawkes, John |
Mendenhall, Abraham 1844 |
Stevenson, Elizabeth (Pilkington) 1880 |
|
|
Frisby, Mary 1877 |
Partridge, Edward 1840 |
Swartz, Emily 1847 |
|
|
Garner, Elizabeth (Hedrick)1842 |
Pickels, Ann 1844 |
Taylor, Lenora A 1843 |
|
|
Goodale, Catharine (Lines) 1842 and Legrand (1842) |
Pilkington, Adam 1856 |
Thomas, Elizabeth |
|
|
Green, Tanner 1846 and DM 1843 and Daughter and Son 1844 |
Pilkington, Jane 1880 |
Tracy, William and Theodore |
|
|
Hampton, Jonathan |
Prier, Roxena Ann 1845 |
Washburn, Sarah |
|
|
Harrington, Elizabeth 1843 |
Pye, Ann 1845 |
Webb, James and Hannah |
|
|
Hoagland, Cornelia (1843) |
Rahn, George 1879 and Mary (Chandler) 1911 |
Wellington E 1850 |
|
|
|
Little Sarah, Dear,
Farewell!
from the life of Wilford
Woodruff
In
early August 1839, Elder Wilford Woodruff left his home in
Montrose, Iowa, obeying the Lord's call to serve a mission
in the British Isles. He bade farewell to his wife, Phoebe,
and his only child, one-year-old Sarah Emma. At the time,
Phoebe was pregnant with Wilford Jr., who would be born
March 22,1840.
A few months after leaving Montrose,
Elder Woodruff was in the eastern United States, preaching
the gospel and preparing for the journey to Great Britain.
During this stay he wrote in his journal of three separate
dreams in which he saw his wife. After the first dream he
wrote the following entry in his journal: "I saw Mrs.
Woodruff in deep affliction in a dream at Montrose. I did
not see Sarah Emma."1 His report of the second
dream was also short: "I had a dream during the night and
had an interview with Mrs. Woodruff but did not see Sarah
Emma." 2 The third dream was more detailed: "We
rejoiced much at having an interview with each other, yet
our embraces were mixed with sorrow, for after conversing a
while about her domestic affairs, I asked where Sarah Emma
was. . . . She said, weeping, . . . 'She is dead.' We
sorrowed a moment, and I awoke. . . . Is this dream true?
Time must determine."3
On July 14, 1840, Elder Woodruff, now
in Great Britain, wrote a journal entry commemorating an
important day for his family: "Sarah Emma is two years old
this day. May the Lord preserve my wife and children from
sickness and death until my return." Always one to
acknowledge the Lord's will, he added, "O Lord, I commit
them into thy hands; feed, clothe, and comfort them, and
thine shall be the glory."4 Three days later,
little Sarah Emma died.
Elder Woodruff did not learn of his
daughter's death until October 22, 1840, when he read the
news in a letter sent to one of his brethren in the Quorum
of the Twelve.5 Four days later he finally
received the news from Phoebe, in a letter dated July 18. He
copied part of her letter in his journal: "My dear Wilford,
what will be your feelings when I say that yesterday I was
called to witness the departure of our little Sarah Emma
from this world? Yes, she is gone. The relentless hand of
death has snatched her from my embrace. . . . When looking
on her, I have often thought how I should feel to part with
her. I thought I could not live without her, especially in
the absence of my companion. But she has gone. The Lord hath
taken her home to Himself for some wise purpose.
"It is a trial to me, but the Lord
hath stood by me in a wonderful manner. I can see and feel
that He has taken her home and will take better care of her
than I possibly could for a little while until I shall go
and meet her. Yes, Wilford, we have one little angel in
heaven, and I think it likely her spirit has visited you
before this time.
"It is hard living without her. . . .
She left a kiss for her papa with me just before she died. .
. . The elders laid hands upon her and anointed her a number
of times, but the next day her spirit took its flight from
this to another world without a groan.
"Today Wilford [Jr.] and I, with quite
a number of friends accompanying us, came over to Commerce,
[Illinois,] to pay our last respects to our little darling
in seeing her decently buried. She had no relative to follow
her to the grave or to shed a tear for her but her ma and
little Wilford. . . . I have just been to take a pleasing,
melancholy walk to Sarah's grave. She lies alone in peace. I
can say that the Lord gave and the Lord hath taken away, and
blessed be the name of the Lord [see Job 1:21]."6
Other than copying
Phoebe's letter, Elder Woodruff wrote very little about his
daughter's passing. He merely said that Sarah Emma had been
"taken from time" and that she was "gone to be
seen no more in this life."7
Notes
1. Journal of Wilford
Woodruff, November 8, 1839,
Archives of The Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints.
2. Journal of Wilford
Woodruff, November 11, 1839.
3. Journal of Wilford
Woodruff, November 28, 1839.
4. Journal of Wilford
Woodruff, July 14, 1840.
5. See Journal of Wilford
Woodruff, October 22, 1840.
6. In Journal of Wilford
Woodruff, October 26, 1840.
7. Journal of Wilford
Woodruff, summary of the year
1840.
Teachings of
Presidents of the Church: Wilford Woodruff, Lesson 8:
Understanding Death and Resurrection, From the Life of
Wilford Woodruff, page 77, Published by The Church of Jesus
Christ of Latter-day Saints Salt Lake City, Utah.
|
|
|
|