Nauvoo is a city located in Hancock County in the US state of
Illinois. In the 2010 census, it had a population of 1,149
inhabitants and a population density of 91.91 persons per km².
Nauvoo attracts a large number of visitors each year due to its
historical-religious legacy, both for members of The Church of
Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints as well as for other groups
derived from the Latter-day Saint movement, as well as having
been one of the notable American Icarian utopian communities.
Its proximity to the Mississippi River adds peculiar natural
elements of the state of Illinois.
The city was founded
by Joseph Smith, and named for him from the Sephardic Hebrew
language with Anglo-Saxon spelling, a word that comes from the
book of Isaiah: "How beautiful they are on the mountains...!".
The religious aspect that dominated Nauvoo's past has lost
momentum today, as it is now primarily a wine-producing region,
boasting the oldest vineyard in the state. Nauvoo's ZIP code is
62354.
The area has been inhabited by various Native American tribes for 12,000 years. The territory now occupied by Nauvoo was occupied by a colony of Fox and Sac Indians called Quashquema until they were removed by the Indian Removal of 1824. Hancock County was created in 1825 and formally organized in 1829, eleven years later. of Illinois becoming a state. For that year the territory had a few families, mostly farmers and ragpickers. In 1834 two investors, A. White and J. B. Teas, laid out the town of Commerce in one of the bends of the Mississippi River, about 53 miles (100 km) north of Quincy, Illinois. By 1839, the town declined without being able to attract settlers, and only a few houses were built. Plans for commercial success, based on the town's location being a gateway to the rapids in the area, failed especially due to the fact that the site was a malarial swamp.
In early 1839, members of the Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day
Saints fleeing Missouri as a result of the Mormon War of 1838, and a
legal proclamation known as the extermination order, issued by the
then-governor of that state, Lilburn W. Boggs, arrived in Quincy.
Quincyans, shocked by the harsh treatment of their neighbors in
Missouri, opened their town and its gates to the refugees.
Joseph
Smith, the President of the Church, remained incarcerated in Liberty
Jail in Missouri. One of his counselors in the First Presidency, Sidney
Rigdon, had been released and met with the church body in Quincy. Israel
Barlow, one of those who had fled Missouri, entered Illinois further
north than the rest of the Mormon group, learning in that area that an
agent, Isaac Galland, had put up a large amount of land in the area for
sale. of Commerce. Barlow contacted church leaders with the proposal,
giving Galland the opportunity to offer Rigdon and church members title
to land in Hancock County, as well as areas across the river in Hancock
County. de Lee's Iowa Territory. The leaders of the newly founded church
purchased the land, as well as the almost entirely vacant Commerce
plats, in 1839, immediately beginning the settlement of Santos, as the
faithful called themselves.
Weak after months of mistreatment,
Smith and other religious leaders were allowed to escape Liberty,
joining the Latter-day Saints at Commerce in May 1839. Smith renamed the
town Nauvoo, meaning, the beautiful.
Despite the name, the site
was, at first, a swamp that no one had developed. Epidemics of cholera,
malaria, and typhoid fever took their toll on the Mormons, until the
swamp was drained. Despite the name, the site was At first, a swamp that
no one had developed. Epidemics of cholera, malaria, and typhoid fever
took their toll on the Mormons, until the swamp was drained. The smaller
community of Commerce had few buildings, so that, in response to the
immediate demand for rooms, the construction of buildings began rapidly.
Certain elements of the general plan of a city once laid out by Joseph
Smith in 1833, known among the church as the Zion map, were used in the
design of streets and lot layouts in Nauvoo. The community began
building wood-framed houses, annexes, gardens, orchards, and grazing and
grazing plots, each laid out in an orderly grid system. In general, the
buildings were single-family, similar to New England building styles,
with commercial and industrial buildings following the same pattern.
In the mid-1840s, John C. Bennett, Captain General of the Illinois
State Militia, converted to Mormonism and became a personal friend and
confidant of Joseph Smith. Bennett's experience in the Illinois
government allowed him to help Smith lay the legal foundation for
Nauvoo. The new city's documents granted it a number of important
powers, including the establishment of a municipal court, a university,
and an independent militia unit. By this time, the Illinois state
government was made up of an almost identical division of Democrats and
those of the Whig party. Both wanted to take advantage of the votes of
the new inhabitants of the state in Nauvoo, so legal approval to
establish the city occurred without delay. Bennett was chosen as the
first mayor, and Smith called him into the First Presidency of the
church. A militia was created under the name of the Nauvoo Legion (from
the English "Nauvoo Legion") in which Smith and Bennett were its first
generals.
The city continued to grow as more Latter-day Saints
flocked to the area. In its heyday, Nauvoo's population, though smaller
than Chicago today, was equal in size to Quincy and Springfield,
Illinois. Many of the new converts came from the British Isles as a
result of missions in Europe. Two newspapers were published in the city,
one religious and belonging to the church, the Times and Seasons and one
secular and independent, edited by Joseph Smith's brother, William
Smith, called The Wasp - later renamed the Nauvoo Neighbor. . Although
it existed only in documents, a university was established, Bennett
being its rector. Church meetings usually took place in the open air
around the temple, which was still under construction.
On April
6, 1841, members of the Nauvoo Legion led a parade in honor of the
cornerstone laying of the new temple where Sidney Rigdon had given the
dedicatory address. The bases of the Nauvoo Temple measured 25 meters by
39 meters, and when it was completed, the pinnacle measured 30 meters.
Alpheus Cutler, a member of the church in Nauvoo, was responsible for
the construction of the sanctuary, built of stone. The church appointed
another committee to build a large hotel in the center of the city on
Water Street, which they called the Nauvoo House. John D. Lee was in
charge of building the first chapel for the quorum meetings of the
Seventy.
Between October 1841 and March 1842, a Masonic Lodge was
established in Nauvoo,18 with Bishop George Miller as its first leader
or Grand Master. The lodge then allowed the admission of a larger number
of members than was customary in the practices of Freemasonry, causing
several leaders of the church in Nauvoo to obtain prominent positions
among the Masons.
By the time of Nauvoo's creation, the church was led by the First
Presidency, which consisted of the President of the Church and two
Counselors. For its part, the Presiding High Council, known in Nauvoo as
the Nauvoo High Council, was the administrative authority following the
First Presidency, supervising the judicial and legislative affairs of
the church, with a Stake President as its leader. The administrative
affairs of the church's missions were handled by the Quorum of the
Twelve Apostles, also known as the Church's Traveling Council.
It
was in Nauvoo that Joseph Smith, Jr. introduced and expanded a number of
diverse religious ceremonies. These included baptism for the dead, the
Endowment, and the ordinance of the Second Anointing. Additionally, he
created in the church an inner council, containing both women and men,
called the Anointed Quorum.
The controversial practice of
polygamy dates back to the days of Nauvoo, when Smith received a
revelation to the church on the subject, recorded in the church records
on July 12, 1843. The aforementioned revelation states that, as occurred
with Abraham, Moses, Solomon, and others in the Biblical past, a man
legally married to more than one woman "stands justified; he cannot
commit adultery." The public controversy arose because Smith's counselor
in the First Presidency, and mayor of Nauvoo, John C. Bennett, was
caught in adultery - although Bennett referred to them as spiritual
wives (from English "Spiritual Wifery") - assuring that Joseph Smith
endorsed and, even more, practiced that measure. The discrepancy
consisted in that in the In Smith's revelation, plural marriage involved
a formal, legal marriage ceremony, as opposed to Bennett's temporary,
passing relationships. For his sins, Bennett was excommunicated from the
church in mid-1842 and, that same year, resigned as mayor of Nauvoo, a
position subsequently taken by Joseph Smith. With Bennett's fall,
Brigham Young, ordained an apostle of the church in 1835 , began to
emerge as one of Smith's confidants, becoming active in the settlement
of Nauvoo and the construction of its temple. Joseph Smith continued to
maintain discretion regarding polygamy, publicly denying that he was
practicing plural marriage, while opponents of him continued to present
accusations and evidence to the contrary. In October 1843, Smith
instructed his clerk "to prosecute those persons who were preaching,
teaching, or practicing the doctrine of plurality of wives...I have
constantly said that no man shall have more than one wife at a time,
unless the Lord dictates otherwise."
Another important
development was the establishment in 1844 of a Council of Fifty, based
on the political theory of a theodemocracy, in which the traditional
elements of a democratic republic based on the Constitution of the
United States of America would be fused, combined with theocratic
elements. . The Council would function as a political organization that
would immediately take over the roles of secular governments destroyed
at the Second Coming of Christ. The Council did not take any political
or religious function during its existence, which extended past the days
of Nauvoo. Because the group met in secret, it fueled rumors outside the
church of a possible aggressive theocracy that would promote Joseph
Smith as king, in areas extending beyond Nauvoo.
As the months passed and the population of Nauvoo grew, the
non-Mormon communities of Hancock County, especially the towns of Warsaw
and Carthage, felt threatened by the political power that the dominant
vote of the inhabitants would exert over them. Mormons and the probable
imposition of a theocracy. Joseph Smith (Jr.) was not only the President
of the Church, but he was also the mayor, presided over the municipal
court, and was a general of the militia. By then, Nauvoo's population
was larger than Chicago's, so the city's inhabitants, because of their
larger population and social unit, enjoyed collective effort in their
industries, such as farming, which did not exist among farms. isolated
and independent from farmers in neighboring towns, resulting in
suspicion and envy.
During much of Nauvoo's heyday, officers in
Missouri attempted to arrest Smith and extradite him to that state on
Mormon War-related charges. Each time he was apprehended, Smith
routinely appealed to the Nauvoo municipal court, which issued a writ of
habeas corpus, forcing his release. The court regularly ruled in the
same way whenever an attempt was made to arrest a Latter-day Saint on
any charge. It began to be felt throughout the rest of Illinois that the
action by the Nauvoo municipal court was an act of judicial subversion,
apparently unaware of the vengeful spirits of the perpetrators of the
Missouri lawsuits against of Smith and his followers.
Discontent
with the perceived theocracy also took root within the church. In 1844,
William Law, a member of the church's First Presidency, merchant, and
confidant of Joseph Smith, separated from the church's president on the
grounds of plural marriage. After plotting to murder Smith, Law was
excommunicated and founded a Reformed church called the True Church of
Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints. He also published a newspaper called
the Nauvoo Expositor, which threatened to expose the practice of
polygamy. On June 10 of that year, Smith met with the town council,
where, after two days of meetings, the Expositor was condemned as a
"public disturbance" and Smith was given the power to order the printing
press shut down. destroyed, action criticized by the governor of the
state Thomas Ford for violating the fundamental right of freedom of
expression.
The destruction of the printing press was the
opportunity longed for by critics of the church such as Thomas Sharp,
editor of the newspaper in Warsaw who publicly called for the
destruction of the church. The general sentiment, fueled by Sharp and
others, was that the action against the printing press was illegal and
unconstitutional, and those around the Mormons, especially the
disaffected in Hancock County, began to clamor for Smith's arrest. While
incarcerated in the county seat, Carthage, a mob attacked the jail and
murdered Joseph Smith and his brother Hyrum, despite the guarantee of
safety offered by Illinois Governor Ford.
After Smith's death, the agitation against the Nauvoo religionists
continued. The conflict escalated into what has sometimes been called
the Mormon War in Illinois. Opponents of the Mormons in Warsaw and
Carthage began calling for the removal of the Latter-day Saints from
Illinois. In October 1844, a meeting was held in Warsaw. Although the
purpose of the meeting was to organize a "fox hunt," it was understood
that the "foxes" to be hunted were Mormons in Nauvoo. When the governor,
Thomas Ford, learned of the plans, he sent a militia to disperse the
gathering and keep the peace in the region.26 However, as he would write
on a future occasion:
"The malcontents abandoned their design, and
all their leaders fled to Missouri. The Carthage flock fled almost in
one body, taking their arms with them. During our stay in the county,
the anti-Mormons crowded into the camp and conversed freely. with the
men, who were quickly incited by their prejudices, and it proved
impossible to find officers to help expel them."
Vigilante gangs
continued to roam the county, forcing Latter-day Saints in the
surrounding areas of Nauvoo to abandon their homes and gather in Nauvoo
for protection.
When the state legislature met in December 1844,
there was strong support for striking down Nauvoo's legal papers.
Governor Ford acknowledged that Mormons had abused their privileges, but
urged the legislature to simply amend the document, saying, "I don't see
how 10 to 12 thousand people can do well without some of their legal
privileges. However, on January 29, 1845, the petition for full repeal
passed by a vote of 25-14 in the Senate and 75-31 among the
co-legislators in the House of Representatives.
Following its
legal disincorporation, the Nauvoo government and civil institutions
found themselves without legal support and the administrative structure
of the church was the one that operated as a de facto government or by
default. Now being more theocratic in character, the disincorporation of
Nauvoo was known informally by its residents as the City of Joseph.
After the Mormon leadership succession crisis, Brigham Young won the
support of the majority of the faithful and retained temporary control
of Nauvoo. Informal security processes were established, including what
was called the whittling and whistling brigade, referring to the points
of observation by those in their daily tasks. It was made up of young
men and boys who carved wood with large knives and whistled in the
vicinity of some suspicious stranger reaching the city limits. According
to a witness:
"The process of carving a journeyman was as follows: A
tall and large man by the name of Hosea Stout was the captain of the
society of carvers, and he had a dozen assistants. They all carried a
large Bowie knife and would take a long piece of a pine board and they
would approach some officer pretending to carve his little pine board
but he would carve it close to the officer.Meanwhile the younger
children would surround the officer ringing old pots and bells making a
clattering noise.No one would touch or address him the word to the man,
but the noise drowned out everything he had been saying."
Nauvoo's population for 1845 reached its peak, having up to 12,000
inhabitants, in addition to suburbs of almost the same size, rivals of
Chicago, whose population in 1845 was about 15,000 people. By the end of
that year, it was clear that peace talks between the LDS and their
antagonistic neighbors were not possible. Church leaders negotiated a
truce so that their devotees could leave the city early. The winter of
1845-1846 saw enormous preparations leading up to the exodus of the
Mormon pioneers. By early 1846, most of the Saints had left Nauvoo.
After the departure of the Mormons, the temple stood until arsonists
destroyed it in 1848.
On April 1, 2004, the Illinois State House
of Representatives unanimously passed a resolution regretting the forced
removal of Mormons from Nauvoo in 1846.
Emma Smith, widow of Joseph Smith, remained in Nauvoo with her family
after most Latter-day Saints left for the west. In 1860, his son, Joseph
Smith III, claimed to have received a revelation in which he would take
the place of prophet and president of a group called the Reorganized
Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints. They continued on to
Nauvoo, which functioned as the headquarters of this new church, until
1865, currently known as the Community of Christ. In 1866, Smith moved
from Nauvoo to Plano, Illinois, where the church printing press was
founded. She personally took responsibility for the Saint's Herald
edition, and Plano became the headquarters of the Reorganized Church.
Towards the end of her life, members of her church began to move to the
city of Independence, Missouri, a place that her father would have
designated as the central place of the City of Zion. Latter-day Saints
planned to return to those lands so important to their theology, since
their expulsion from Missouri in 1833.
Icarians
In 1849, the
Icarians had moved to Nauvoo to implement a utopian socialist community,
based on the ideals of the French philosopher Étienne Cabet. At its
height, the colony numbered 500 members, but dissensions over legal
issues and Cabet's death in 1856 caused some of its members to leave
their colony, moving to other Icarian communities in eastern St. Louis
(Missouri), Iowa, and California. The Nauvoo Tribune weekly newspaper,
founded by the Icarians with political themes, socialism, communism,
science, agriculture, etc. It ceased to be published around 1854, and at
present there are but a few original copies that shed light on this
utopian society.
The descendants of this colony of Icarians still
live in Hancock and McDonough counties. The Icarian Historical
Collection is located at the Western Illinois University Library in the
city of Macomb, Illinois. The Nauvoo Historical Society has placed
historical items from Nauvoo's Icarian community in a museum called the
Rheinberger House on the grounds of Nauvoo State Park, which is open
only in the evenings from May 15 through October 15 each year.
By the mid-20th century, Nauvoo was a primarily Catholic town, and the majority of the population today is Catholic. Catholic schools, especially an all-girls boarding school known as St. Mary's, were run, until the 1980s, by local parishes and convents. St. Mary's was established by four nuns from Chicago, initially in a building used as a warehouse by the Mormons and later by the Icarians as a machine factory. St. Peter's and St. Paul's elementary schools continue to offer elementary education. St. Mary's was sold and used as a visitor center for the Nauvoo Temple, which is across the street, until winter 2006. The building was auctioned off and demolished in 2007.
The Temple, residential areas, and business district are located in the higher areas of the city, especially along Mulholland Street (Illinois Route 96), most of which have been developed for tourists interested in history. mormon. The plains are occupied by a number of old-fashioned brick houses and other buildings that have survived the vicissitudes of the 19th century, including large tracts of land where the neighborhoods of the past have disappeared.
Nauvoo is a town with a rich historical heritage for the Latter-day
Saint movement. Ownership of these historic points is between the
Community of Christ and the Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints,
who share the same origins. Community of Christ, organized by the son of
Joseph Smith, owns most of the buildings on the southern plains and
maintains several important historical sites located in and around
Nauvoo. These include Joseph Smith's farm, the so-called red brick
store, the Mansion House, and the Smith family cemetery overlooking the
Mississippi River, the burial site of Joseph and Emma Smith as well as
their brother, Hyrum Smith. The tour guides are organized and depart
from the Visitor Center of that church, located in the southern part of
the city, accessible from Highway 96.
For its part, the Church of
Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints owns most of the remaining historic
sites in Nauvoo, including the home of Brigham Young, Heber C. Kimball,
and other members of the church from the days of their beginnings, as
well as other important historical buildings. Most of these sites are
open to the public, where historical items are on display, and tours are
supervised by missionaries on duty, usually led by the tourist
themselves. It is common to witness theatrical productions on stages and
on the banks of the Mississippi River. This church also has a visitor
center with theater rooms and a relief map of Nauvoo from the year 1846.
In 1897, the president of The Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day
Saints, Wilford Woodruff, was the first to begin negotiations to buy
back the Nauvoo temple lot, eventually leading to the purchase of each
block portion in various stages through 1967. In June 2002, The Church
of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints, on the site of the original
19th-century Nauvoo temple, completed construction of a new temple,
active for its ecclesiastical ceremonies and not as a historical site
for city tourism.
The temple has an area of 6,000 m² and, like
the original, it has six levels, including a basement, where the
baptistery is located. The exterior, as well as much of the interior, is
an exact copy of the original temple. Limestone mined from Alabama is
indistinguishable from the original limestone. The exterior differs from
the original temple in three aspects:
The temple was positioned 4
meters further to the south to allow access to the parking lot on the
north side;
There are two additional doors, one to the north to allow
access for people with physical disabilities, and an emergency exit door
in the eastern basement; and
An erect statue of the angel Moroni was
placed atop the pinnacle, as is the tradition in modern church temples.
The original temple had a statue of the angel flying horizontally.
The temple, like the rest of the temples of the church, after its
dedication, has not been open to the public. Other than the temple,
Latter-day Saints of the past did not build significant buildings in
Nauvoo for their congregations. Church meetings, especially if large
crowds gathered, were held on makeshift platforms around the temple.
Shortly before the 1846 expulsion, Orson Pratt was assigned to build a
canvas tabernacle where they could hold church meetings. The chase
forced Pratt to take the tarp and his plans to the Great Salt Lake
Valley in Utah Territory. It was those plans and dimensions that served
as the prototype for the construction of the Salt Lake City tabernacle,
home of the Mormon Tabernacle Choir.
Nauvoo is bordered by the oldest vineyards in the state of Illinois.
The first recorded wine production for commercial reasons was in 1851,
from the farms of John Sillar and Alois Rheinberger, the latter
continuing to produce grapes, making it one of the oldest continuously
producing vineyards in the United States. The first to plant grape roots
was likely the Catholic priest Johannes Alleman who brought his roots
with him to Nauvoo in the late 1830s. Before Father Alleman, Native
Americans in the region are known to have gathered wild grapes, of which
they still exist in the Nauvoo area.
With the arrival of the
Saints of the Last Days in Nauvoo, the production of grapes for
ecclesiastical purposes was instituted, since it was part of their
theology to administer grape juice for their sacraments. Following the
departure of Brigham Young and the Mormon pioneers, Icarian immigrant
Emile Baxter in about 1857 joined the growing league of Nauvoo
winemakers. By the time the Illinois Horticultural Society met in Nauvoo
in 1863, there were more than 63 varieties of grapes on display planted
on more than 70 acres of vines in the Nauvoo foothills. Between 1886 and
1887, some 230,000 liters of wine were produced each year from the
Nauvoo viticulture.
Wine production in Nauvoo reached such a peak
that it was estimated that it would become the center of the country's
grape planting. With the arrival of the train in 1906, 97 carloads of
grapes planted in Nauvoo were loaded and shipped to growers and
merchants throughout the country. By 1913, more than 200 railcars of
grapes were being shipped throughout the United States. However, with
the 1918 legal ban on liquor consumption by the United States
Constitution, wine production in Nauvoo fell to the decline. bankruptcy,
despite the fact that in 1933 the law was repealed. In Nauvoo, hawthorns
are still visible in the distance, certainly an overpowering minority of
turn-of-the-20th-century production.
Restoration work at the various historic sites in Nauvoo and
surrounding areas is coordinated by a non-profit organization, organized
in 1962, called Nauvoo Restoration, Incorporated (NRI). NRI is sponsored
by both the Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints, Community of
Christ, and other philanthropists interested in Nauvoo history. Due to
the works of the NRI and its participating members, it has been called
the Williamsburg of the Midwest. Compared to other towns in the area,
Nauvoo has enjoyed steady population growth, particularly since the
dedication of the temple, which was attended by some 350,000 people. In
March 2007, Nauvoo was nominated to compete as one of the Seven Wonders
of the State of Illinois. Tourism in the historic area of Nauvoo is for
the most part—including theater performances—at no cost to tourists.
Vitis Baxter Vineyard of Nauvoo, founded in 1857, continues in the
same family and produces wine, tour guides offer free tastings of their
wines.
The Freemasons' Hall, used by Saints of the past as a cultural
hall, was renovated and is now frequently used for plays, concerts, and
other local celebrations.
Nauvoo Blue Cheese Company, a blue cheese
factory founded in 1937, using a new formula designed by an Iowa State
University professor named Oscar Rohde. For his methodology, Professor
Rohde decided to use Nauvoo vineyards to find the right temperatures,
resulting in a successful business that became the second largest
producer of blue cheese in the United States. In 2003, a national
corporation interested in the company name bought the rights to it,
closing the Nauvoo factory in May of that year.
Mark Twain Boyhood
Home and Museum, located about 90 km south of Nauvoo.
Nauvoo is located on the banks of the Mississippi River, has 3 hotels or motels within a radius of 15 km, totaling 216 rooms for guests. Additionally there are 8 inns with a total of 25 rooms and 20 houses available for rent to visitors. Within the same radius, there are 7 restaurants, a golf course, 2 public tennis courts, 6 Protestant church chapels, 1 Catholic parish, and public access to the Mississippi River. It does not yet have a Country Club, public swimming pools or Jewish synagogues.
Nauvoo is located at coordinates 40°32′40″N 91°22′49″W (40.544567,
-91.380317) and is 207 meters above sea level. Located in a wide fold of
the Mississippi River, Nauvoo has the oldest district of the low plains
in the state, a region known as the flats, being only a few meters above
sea level. A prominent hill rises to the east of the city, atop which
stands the recently rebuilt Nauvoo Temple. Beginning with the temple,
this segment of high ground continues east for several kilometers.
According to the United States Census Bureau, the city has an area
of 12.5 km², of which 8.8 km² is land and 3.7 km² (29.88%) is water.
The closest public and commercial airport to Nauvoo is the municipal
airport in the city of Burlington, Iowa, which has a 2,010 meter
concrete runway, illuminated, about 65 km from Nauvoo. The city observes
summer time and its time zone is Central Time (UTC -6).
There are three weather stations near Nauvoo, Fort Madison 7.5 km away at an altitude equivalent to the Nauvoo plains, which registers temperatures of -9 and 0 °C in winter and between 20 and 30 °C in summer. At the Keokuk lock dam station, about 18 km from Nauvoo at an elevation equivalent to the Nauvoo Hills, it experiences 0.5°C warmer temperatures in both winter and summer. While the weather station on the skirt of the Mount pleasant mountain 26 km from Nauvoo, records 0.5 ° C temperatures more cold than in Fort Madison, both in winter and summer. On average, July is the most month warm. The warmest recorded temperature was 40 °C in 1966 and the coldest was -31 °C in 1982. The greatest amount of precipitation occurs on average during the month of May.
As of the 2010 census, there were 1,149 people residing in Nauvoo. The population density was 91.91 inhabitants/km². Of the 1,149 population, Nauvoo was 97.65% White, 0.61% African American, 0.26% Native American, 0.26% Pacific Islander, 0.35% other races and 0.87% were mixed races. Of the total population, 1.57% were Hispanic or Latino of any race.
The Nauvoo city government consists of a mayor, 6 council members
(two from each ward), and a treasurer. Additionally, he is assigned a
town clerk, the police chief, and a Public Works position. In 2007, the
mayor was John McCarty and the aldermen; Gene Shurtz, Dave Koechle,
Marcus Allen, Lee Ourth, Pam Knowles, and Kory Krause.
Separate
from the city is the Nauvoo Fire Protection District and the
Nauvoo-Colusa Public Schools Authority. The Nauvoo Fire Department
covers the city as well as five surrounding municipalities.
In
1991, the Nauvoo Fire Protection District became a non-transport entity
by the United States Department of Labor, meaning that patient
transportation to local hospitals is provided by county ambulances and
not the fire brigade. Recently, due to the delay in the arrival of
ambulances in response to emergencies, the citizens of Nauvoo passed a
referendum with 74% on April 17, 2007, in order to shift the funds
earmarked for county ambulances towards the purchase of an ambulance for
firefighters from the Nauvoo Fire Protection District.
For the
2004 United States presidential election, Nauvooans donated more money
to the Republican party than to the Democratic party.
Nauvoo has public schools within the Nauvoo-Colusa system that include an elementary school, combined with a high school. The primary school has 130 children enrolled with 14 teachers, and the secondary school in turn has 190 adolescents with 19 teachers. The school board has recently been considering the possibility of merging the last two years of high school with the neighboring Warsaw public school system. Nauvoo has no undergraduate, graduate, or technical colleges. The nearest university is 80 km away and the technical college about 20 km. The Nauvoo student average on the ACT pre-college test is 22.7, the Illinois state average is 21.4 while the country average is 21.
Nauvoo does not have a hospital within the city, the closest being 18
km away. You have a local doctor in a private medical practice clinic,
with no emergency medical care. The 911 emergency telephone call system
is activated for services in Nauvoo.
The water is supplied by the
municipality from rivers in the town. Nauvoo has a sewage treatment
plant with a capacity of 3,179,400 liters per day.
The companies with the largest number of employees in Nauvoo are John
A. Kraus with about 50 employees working in hotels, restaurants, etc.
and the Nauvoo Restoration company dedicated to preserving the region's
historic elements, which employs about 20 people. As of 2006, there were
10,033 people employed in Hancock County and 472 unemployed (4.70%),
1.40% of whom were employed in agriculture. Single women tend to be
better paid in Nauvoo than single men.
In the year 2000, the
average income per family was close to US$50,000 per year (US$49,167),
with a high rate of professional graduates living in the city. 87% of
people commute to work by car, although the city's road plan makes it
easier to walk or bike than in most other regions. Nauvoo enjoys shorter
commute times than most other cities of comparable size.