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Building the City

"At cutting down trees or cutting them up," observed a critical English editor early in the nineteenth century, the Americans "will do ten times as much in a day as any other men I ever saw. Let one of these men upon a wood of timber trees, and his slaughter will astonish you." This was without a doubt somewhat of an exaggeration, but for the Saints settling Commerce, the description was perhaps more accurate than for other comparable groups of western pioneers. There was need to hurry. Most of these Latter-day Saints came to Illinois impoverished by their cruel exile from Missouri. About the only thing they could call their own was the land their prophet had provided for them on the banks of the Mississippi. Once again they had to build homes from what nature offered-and nature did not seem to offer very much. It was, according to one description, a mosquito-infested swamp with a tree-clad hillock where the temple would be built. The marshland of Commerce containing six small houses was so entangled with trees and bushes it was almost impassable to a person on foot and totally impassable to teams.

A handful of the immigrants found homes in long-abandoned cabins in the vicinity, but only a handful. Most of the newcomers were forced to live in wagon boxes, tents, or dirt dugouts while they began their log homes along the marshy lower levels of the eastern river bank. Here terror struck again, but this time the enemy was unknown, and it was even more relentless and deadly than the Missourian mobs. The task of building homes was soon exchanged for one of digging graves and caring for the sick. Malaria, or ague and fever, as it was then called, was quite common in the Mississippi Valley, but it hit the already weakened and ill-housed Saints very hard. The marshy site they had selected for their settlement was ideal for the disease-carrying mosquito. Soon so many entire families were down with the fever that at times there weren't enough healthy people left to care for the sick or even to bury the dead. Sidney Rigdon preached a mass funeral sermon for all the dead.

That was the situation when Joseph Smith began a day of faith-healing of the sick: "On the morning of the 22nd of July, 1839, he arose reflecting upon the situation of the Saints of God in their persecutions and afflictions. He called upon the Lord in prayer, and the power of God rested mightly upon him. . . . He healed all in his house and dooryard, then, in company with Sidney Rigdon and several of the Twelve, he went through among the sick lying on the bank of the river, and he commanded them in a loud voice, in the name of Jesus Christ, to come up and be made whole, and they were all healed."

As the season progressed, the malarial attacks lessened. Strengthened by the arrival of new families from the Quincy area, the Saints began the job of building the town. In October 1839 the high council voted to set prices on town lots, ranging from two hundred to eight hundred dollars. Terms were very easy. Many buyers did not have to pay until 1843 or even 1850; some lived on their land until the exodus without paying one cent.