On arrival in Nauvoo, the new settlers built small log cabins with
clay and mortar chinks to seal the open spaces between the logs. They were
often built without windows or floors.[1]
Most likely, Robert and Ann’s first home was of this sort. Their property was
listed as T7R9, Section 25 and T7R8 Section 32, S/2, west and northwest of
Nauvoo.
The winter of 1841 in their little log cabin may have been cold and wet for them, as Warren Foote, a Mormon schoolteacher, described in his autobiography. On September 9, 1841 he wrote, “Some parts of the city is very rough broken ground. The log houses are scattered over nine square miles. It looks more like a thickly settled country than a city.”[2] That November, he described an overnight stay in Nauvoo at the home of Mr. Markham, “I awoke this morning and found myself buried in snow. The house we sleeped in had no floor and was very open and the snow had blowed through the crevices and covered us up. It snowed and blowed terribly all day…Many of the houses being very open the snow blowed into them and melting made it extremely disagreeable.”[3]
The winter of 1841 in their little log cabin may have been cold and wet for them, as Warren Foote, a Mormon schoolteacher, described in his autobiography. On September 9, 1841 he wrote, “Some parts of the city is very rough broken ground. The log houses are scattered over nine square miles. It looks more like a thickly settled country than a city.”[2] That November, he described an overnight stay in Nauvoo at the home of Mr. Markham, “I awoke this morning and found myself buried in snow. The house we sleeped in had no floor and was very open and the snow had blowed through the crevices and covered us up. It snowed and blowed terribly all day…Many of the houses being very open the snow blowed into them and melting made it extremely disagreeable.”[3]
[1] George W. Givens, In Old Nauvoo (Salt Lake City, Utah: Deseret Book Company, 1990)
p.22.
[2] Warren
Foote, Autobiography of Warren Foote (1817- 1846), p.45 typescript, Harold B Lee
Library, Brigham Young University, Provo, Utah (http://www.boap.org/LDS/Early-Saints/WFoote.html).
[3] Ibid, p. 47.
It's really great that you have their autobiography. It's such a treasure! I really like how you mentioned this even when it's used for something simple, like describing their environment.
ReplyDeleteUnfortunately, we do not have an autobiography about them but we do have his "Book of Memoranda" which Robert used to record genealogical information, short sentences about their crossing the plains, mathematical problems which he solved and a list of work that he performed in Nauvoo. Most of the detail for this blog comes from the diaries of contemporary people.
Delete