We caught the spirit of Old Nauvoo as we spent Memorial Day, May 26 to 29, 2017, with Dave's sister, Nancy Moench, and her husband, Darrell, in Nauvoo, Illinois. They are senior missionaries helping to man the living history museum of Nauvoo, which replicates life on the frontier in the 1840s. Mormons congregated in Nauvoo, along the Mississippi, before traveling West.. Nancy and Darrell gave us private tours of all the 20 or more restored homes and buildings in Nauvoo, including this Seventies Hall.
Nancy, we learned, was a Big Boss in Nauvoo. She is the director of the musical in which all 200 senior missionaries participate---"Rendezvous in Old Nauvoo." Wherever we visited in Nauvoo, senior missionaries called out, "Hello, Sister Moench". Darrell stood on the steps of the Playhouse as we arrived, welcoming all the guests in top hat and tails.
The sister missionaries were dressed for their performance in "snoods" and bonnets, lace collars, and long calico dresses.
Nancy was not only director of the show, but a star in it. She played Agatha, a shrewish wife who was terrified that her son would marry a Mormon. Of course he did, and Agatha mellowed out and went West with her hen-pecked husband, George (Darrell), their son, and his Mormon wife.
George arranged for Agatha to be hauled off to a sanitorium, to give himself some peace, and Agatha tried to flee from the doctor who arrived to take her away.
The senior missionaries put on funny skits and songs, with more or less skill. Nancy auditions all the new missionaries and says some of them are horrified to learn that the required mission activity includes singing and dancing!
The men gathered their guns to protect Nauvoo from the mobs which gathered to force them out.
The final song was the touching "Farewell to Old Nauvoo."
Nancy and Darrell wear their missionary tags and Church clothes all day, every day.
We explored the shops in the town of Nauvoo, outside the living history museum. We ate breakfast at this cafe.
We followed Nancy and Darrell to Carthage, where they spent a day leading tours at Carthage Jail, where Joseph Smith was murdered, along with his brother Hyrum. Hyrum and Joseph were being held for trial at the jail. Their alleged crime was ordering the destruction of a press in Nauvoo that published false and inflammatory reports about the Church. Even though the Governor of Illinois promised they would be protected if they peacefully submitted themselves for trial, mobbers broke into the jail and shot them.
Nancy pointed out the window that Joseph Smith fell from, after being hit by a rifle ball.
She showed us the hole in the door where the bullet came through that killed Hyrum Smith.
We spent the evening at a performance of the Nauvoo Band. Mormon teenagers and young adults audition to fill the several companies of musicians, dancers, and singers who perform in Nauvoo every summer.
Most of the musicians in the band were young women, including this drummer!
The dancers and singers were very professional--the best of a culture that encourages performing.
On Sunday, after Church, and on Monday morning, Nancy and Darrell took us on tours of the Nauvoo restored homes and shops.
We were especially interested in Heber C. Kimball's home. Our long-time neighbor in SLC, Bill Kimball, was the son of Legrand Kimball, who spent a lifetime developing Nauvoo from a deserted village to a tourist and religious site that millions of people visit each year. Legrand Kimball was the grandson of Heber C. Kimball. My Uncle Spencer, who became president of the Church, was also a grandson of Heber C. Kimball.
The missionaries are rotated as guides through the various shops and homes. Darrell especially enjoyed the pottery, where he helped make 900 miniature bricks per week that he gave away to Nauvoo visitors.
Another favorite rotation, for Darrell, was the wagon shop, where he demonstrated how wheels for wagons were made.
Darrell also enjoyed the print shop, since his lifetime occupation was a printer, and his great-grandfather had been a printer in Nauvoo. And, he enjoyed the John Browning house, with its collection of priceless guns. Darrell has his own collection of guns at home.
One of Darrell's fellow tour guides.
On Monday morning, we took a ride behind the huge work horses that used to pull plows and wagons in Nauvoo.
We watched the "Youth of Zion" performance, with eight young singers and dancers acting out vignettes from the lives of teenagers in Nauvoo. We were sad to leave Nancy and Darrell, and they were sad to see us go. We are good friends, as well as relatives.
