When the Mormon Prophet Joseph Smith and the Latter-Day Saints arrived in Commerce Illinois they were simply searching for a place to call home, free to practice their religion and raise their families. Needing a large tract of land for the many Latter-Day Saints that had wagon-trained from Missouri, Joseph Smith purchased the unwanted and uncultivated swampland that lay between Commerce and the mighty Mississippi River.

The Mormons designed and developed a breathtaking "public works" project to rid the newly-purchased land of the swamp that covered much of it. The Mormons created a massive drainage system that soon cleared the area. This system was an incredible undertaking, requiring thousands of hard labor hours and precise planning on the part of the Mormons. But, the Mormons were used to hard work in their travels. This drainage system is still in use today.

Soon Commerce Illinois was renamed Nauvoo. The name is from the old Hebrew word for "beautiful place." Not long after the name change took effect, Nauvoo received a special charter of incorporation from the state legislature of Illinois. This charter gave the elected leaders of Nauvoo far-reaching rights, including the right to raise a militia for defense.

Missionaries from the group were spread wide and far. Some were in the southern United States while others were in Europe spreading their faith. Converts came to Nauvoo by the hundreds from places near and far. By 1844 Nauvoo was the largest city in Illinois with a population in excess of 12,000, as large as Chicago. The industrialist Mormons built a thriving city where once there was nothing.

The Mormons began construction of a massive physically imposing structure of limestone; it was called the Nauvoo Temple and it stood 128 feet long, 88 feet wide and was capped with a tower that measured 82 feet from the ground. It was a magnificent structure that stood as the crown jewel of Nauvoo. You could see it perched on the highest spot in Nauvoo for miles around.