Views from the Iowa Side of the Mississippi River: Contemporary Accounts from the Nauvoo Years (1839–1846)

The years 1839–1845 were dramatic times for the followers of Joseph Smith in Nauvoo, Illinois. Those years were also filled with robust episodes for the settlers pouring into Iowa Territory on the opposite side of the Mississippi River, where the towns of Burlington, Fort Madison, Montrose, and Keokuk were booming after the US Army Corps of Engineers, commanded by a young Robert E. Lee in the late 1830s, blasted a deeper channel that opened the upper Mississippi River to larger riverboat traffic. At the same time, Joseph Smith selected that area for the gathering of many thousands of Latter-day Saints on both sides of the river. At one point, Joseph Smith even thought of building two ­temples as twin pillars on the Mississippi, one on the east in Nauvoo and the other on the west in Montrose. But guns and cannons also blasted away. A border war was fought between Iowa and Missouri in 1840, and influencers—including Laban Fleak, David Kilbourne, and Thomas Sharp—fanned anti-Mormon flames, while men of law—such as Hawkins Taylor, the sheriff of Lee County—worked tirelessly to maintain law and order. In 1846, Iowa was granted statehood and the Mormon pioneers began trekking west. This book publishes, often for the time, handwritten histories, personal letters, and various documents that let these passionate voices be heard once again.

“John W. Welch and Brooke R. LeFevre have produced an outstanding work accomplishing fundamentally important things. Especially, the original-source documents presented in this work, often for the first time, are welcomed additions to the canon of early-Church-history records. They present new, focal perspectives through which to view in more detail events in Iowa Territory on the western side of the Mississippi River, right across from Nauvoo. Better understanding this area of Church history is essential to seeing the whole picture of the brief but fascinating, formative final years in the life of the Prophet Joseph Smith, as well as the commencement of the pioneer exodus, across Iowa, to Zion in the West.

“To be found here are such intriguing things as

• records giving new information about the perspectives of prominent Iowa settlers right across the Mississippi River, who had hot-and-cold connections with Latter-day Saints, and interestingly, the distinctive beliefs of Latter-day Saints took a back seat to those Iowans’ economic and political concerns;  

• many first-hand accounts of what life was like in the earliest days of Iowa’s history, along with new information found in accounts by Sherrif Hawkins Taylor regarding his visits to Nauvoo and legal matters involving Latter-day Saints in Iowa Territorial courts;  

• candid reports of unfortunate effects of certain vices of some of the Mormons in Iowa, including thieving, drinking, arguing, and fighting;  

• and, most of all, numerous letters written to Missouri Governor Thomas Reynolds by former-Missourians David Kilbourne and Laban Fleak in Lee County, Iowa, aiming directly at the execution of Joseph Smith.

“While the Joseph Smith Papers collection has wonderfully superseded many documentary histories of Joseph Smith, these further documents and more-broadly ranging details are also critically important to understanding the challenges and lives of Latter-day Saints during this fascinating, tumultuous, and formative period in American and LDS Church history.”

—Stephen S. Davis
Missouri Municipal Judge and Historian

“This valuable collection of historical papers from Iowa helps serious researchers better understand various perspectives on Nauvoo from across the river in Lee County, Iowa. Personal recollections by County Sheriff Hawkins Taylor bring to life the legal and political challenges faced on that side of the river during those groundbreaking years. The lengthy life histories of Laban Fleak and David Kilbourne, aspiring men in Keokuk and Montrose, help make sense of their collusive letters to Missouri Governor Reynolds attempting to arrest and execute Joseph Smith in 1842. At the same time, records of conferences and disciplinary councils of Saints in the Iowa towns of Montrose and Zarahemla help readers hear their faithful voices for the first time. This volume is thoroughly introduced, meticulously transcribed, carefully researched, and fully footnoted. It supplements the Joseph Smith Papers in many useful and intriguing ways.”

—Jeffrey N. Walker
J. Reuben Clark Law School