The Belle of Nauvoo - Book One

Chapter Twenty-one

Chapter Twenty-one

All the blossoms were out on the fruit trees. It was a pleasure to drive to our farm on the prairie and see them. The whole county was a-blossoming.

Were the people of Hancock County as wicked as in the days of Noah? Would the Lord send the floods again? It seemed so, for while the trees were blossoming, the Mississippi River was rising and rising. But the bow had been seen in the sky that year; and Uncle Joseph said that any year the bow was seen, the Lord would not destroy the earth by flood or famine. Well, in the year 1844, he certainly wasn’t going to destroy it by drought. Perhaps the crops would flood out and we’d have a famine due to that, but we certainly had no lack of water.

It rained and it rained and it rained. Indeed, it seemed as if the fountains of the deep arose, for the river was higher than in any man’s living memory.

Father preached that Enoch had a great soul that swelled wide as eternity. I went home and read about it. The scriptures said that Enoch wept for the iniquity that Mother Earth had to bear upon her crust. I wondered if maybe Enoch was in heaven weeping floods for what the earth had to bear, for iniquity abounded in our country. The Warsaw Signal printed malicious lies about the Mormons and stirred up the countryside to hate us and do evil to us. And right here in our own fair city, within the shadow of the temple of God, evil and rebellion stewed. Perhaps those were Enoch’s tears falling! The heart of the Mississippi seemed to swell up with grief. As tears wash away the impurities caught in the eye, the river swelled up to wash away the impurities caught along its banks.

Brother Law’s mill, situated along the bank of the river, went under and had to stop its works. Some of the town of Warsaw went under water. Parts of other towns suffered the wrath of Mother Nature also.

Unfortunately, several of Nauvoo’s farms suffered from flood and rain as the mighty Mississippi washed away the evil along its banks. Who can stay the hand of the Lord? Who dares to oppose his mighty works? Yea, the waters almost came even to our yard, but by hard work and prayer we were preserved. We built drainage ditches and piled the excess dirt across the way. Not everyone was so fortunate.

The flood of the river brought more converts from England, river travel over the Keokuk rapids being made easier and faster. They too were absorbed into the life of the city.

Several months previous, a certain convert named Thomas A. Lynde had come up the river. What a blessing he proved to be to the city! Mr. Lynde was a tragedian who had played on the stage in New York with the actress Charlotte Cushman. With the help of several others, he got up a theatrical exhibition featuring “Pizarro or Death of Rollo!” It was the most thrilling thing I ever saw – more so than the Mabie and Howes Circus Company that had come the previous year. Brigham Young took the part of the Peruvian high priest and Porter Rockwell played Davilla. Hiram Clawson and my father’s cousin, George, each had minor parts. The performance just sent shivers up and down my spine!

Lorin took me again the second night, where to my delight I met Emily and Eliza and sat beside them.

“Are you happy in your present situations?” I leaned over and asked them.

“I try to be,” confided Emily.

And Eliza said, “I am resigned to my lot and bear all things cheerfully.”

Emily, anxious for a crumb of news about the family, begged, “Tell me everything. How is your Grandmother Smith? Did Frederick’s tooth come in? Does your Uncle Joseph bear the trials he is under with equanimity? Oh, how I miss them all!”

“Though I know not of Frederick’s tooth, I can tell you that Grandmother and Uncle Joseph both appear well. You must ask Lorin, who is with them from day to day.”