History
The area of Nauvoo was first called Quashquema, named in honor of the Native American chief who headed a Sauk and Fox settlement numbering nearly 500 lodges. By 1827 white settlers had built cabins in the area. By 1829 this area of Hancock County had grown sufficiently so that a post office was needed and in 1832 the town, now called Venus, was one of the contenders for the new county seat. However, the honor was awarded to a nearby city, Carthage. In 1834 the name Venus was changed to Commerce because the settlers felt that the new name better suited their plans.
In late 1839 arriving Mormons bought the small town of Commerce and in April 1840 it was renamed Nauvoo by Joseph Smith, Jr., who led the Latter Day Saints to Nauvoo to escape religious persecution in Missouri. The name Nauvoo is derived from the traditional Hebrew language with an anglicized spelling. The word comes from Isaiah 52:7, “How beautiful upon the mountains...” It is notable that “by 1844 Nauvoo's population had swollen to 12,000, rivaling the size of Chicago” at the time.
After Joseph Smith's death in 1844, continuing violence from surrounding non-Mormons forced most Latter-Day Saints to leave Nauvoo. Most of these refugees, led by Brigham Young, eventually went to the Great Salt Lake Valley. In 1849, Icarians moved to the Nauvoo area to implement a utopian socialist commune based on the ideals of French philosopher Étienne Cabet. At its peak the colony numbered over 500 members, but Cabet's death in 1856 caused some members to leave this parent colony and move elsewhere. In the early and mid 20th century Nauvoo was primarily a Roman Catholic town, and the majority of the population today is Catholic.
Read more about this topic: Nauvoo, Illinois
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