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Ordinances, 30 January 1843

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Ordinances, 30 January 1843

Source Note

Nauvoo City Council, Ordinances, , Hancock Co., IL, 30 Jan. 1843. Featured version copied [ca. 30 Jan. 1843] in Nauvoo City Council Minute Book, pp. 151–158; handwriting of ; CHL. For more complete source information, see the source note for Nauvoo City Council Minute Book, 1841–1845.

Historical Introduction

On 30 January 1843, as mayor of , Illinois, JS signed an omnibus ordinance that attempted to regulate increasingly concerning behaviors in the city as Nauvoo’s population grew. Owing to its wide-ranging purposes, the ordinance is made up of six divisions, each split into its own sections establishing laws on a different issue. The Nauvoo City Council approved the new measures with the goal of increasing law and order in the city amid rapid population growth. Extant records indicate that during 1842 and early 1843, the arrival of Latter-day Saints from Great Britain may have added more than 1,800 people to Nauvoo and the surrounding regions. The additions represented a dramatic population increase for a city that, according to the national census, had approximately 2,450 residents in 1840.
As ’s population grew, city and leaders became increasingly preoccupied with disorderly conduct in the city. In an attempt to solve these problems, on 14 November 1842 the city council appointed , , and as “a select Committee to prepare a Code of Criminal Laws.” Two months later, on 14 January 1843, the city council added and to the committee. On 30 January, the city council met at six o’clock in the evening, and the committee presented a bill titled “Laws and Ordinances of the City of Nauvoo” for the council’s approval.
The proposed ordinances included several provisions intended to maintain order in the city. The ordinances were designed to help the city handle the population increase by enumerating disturbances of the peace, keeping streets and alleys free of construction supplies and other impediments, preventing fires, granting the city council power to regulate the night watch, and furthering regulations on the public market and the disposal of garbage and other nuisances. The city council passed the proposed ordinances, whereupon JS signed them.
A preliminary draft of the ordinances, which the committee presumably used during its proposal to the city council, was filed with other municipal documents. On 8 February 1843, the Wasp published a copy of the ordinances, evidently basing its version upon the draft copy or another manuscript copy that is not extant. City recorder recorded a fair copy of the ordinances in the Nauvoo City Council Minute Book, presumably on or shortly after 30 January. The fair copy recorded in the Nauvoo City Council Minute Book is featured here as the official ordinances by which the city was governed. Because it is not possible to feature each of the city ordinances passed during this time period, these ordinances represent a sample of the kinds of ordinances and laws the Nauvoo City Council passed between September 1842 and February 1843.

Footnotes

  1. [1]

    “Emigration Movements,” Millennial Star, Mar. 1842, 2:155; “Emigration,” Millennial Star, Oct. 1842, 3:112; Andrew Jenson, “Church Emigration,” Contributor, Oct. 1891, 441, 444–448.

    Latter-day Saints’ Millennial Star. Manchester, England, 1840–1842; Liverpool, 1842–1932; London, 1932–1970.

    Jenson, Andrew. “Church Emigration.” Contributor 12, no. 12 (Oct. 1891): 441–450.

  2. [2]

    No reliable count of Nauvoo’s population during the 1840s exists. Different estimates of the city’s population range from 12,000 to 15,000. In January 1843, for instance, JS estimated the population was about 12,000. Nearly three years later, however, an actual count of city residents reported a population of only 11,057. (Black, “How Large Was the Population of Nauvoo?,” 91–94; JS, Journal, 5 Jan. 1843; “Mobocracy,” Times and Seasons, 15 Nov. 1845, 6:1031; “Nauvoo,” Times and Seasons, 1 Oct. 1842, 3:936.)

    Black, Susan Easton. “How Large Was the Population of Nauvoo?” BYU Studies 35, no. 2 (1995): 91–94.

    Times and Seasons. Commerce/Nauvoo, IL. Nov. 1839–Feb. 1846.

  3. [3]

    Godfrey, “Crime and Punishment in Mormon Nauvoo,” 198–212. Available evidence does not suggest higher crime rates in Nauvoo than in surrounding areas with comparable populations, but critics of JS and the church denounced Nauvoo as crime ridden, causing city authorities to try to reassure observers that order reigned there.

    Godfrey, Kenneth W. “Crime and Punishment in Mormon Nauvoo, 1839–1846.” BYU Studies 32 (Winter and Spring 1992): 195–228.

  4. [4]

    Nauvoo City Council Rough Minute Book, 14 Nov. 1842, 47.

  5. [5]

    Nauvoo City Council Rough Minute Book, 14 Jan. 1843, 3.

  6. [6]

    JS, Journal, 30 Jan. 1843; Nauvoo City Council Rough Minute Book, 30 Jan. 1843, 5.

  7. [7]

    “Laws and Ordinances of the City of Nauvoo,” Wasp, 8 Feb. 1843, [1]–[2]. In the Wasp version of the laws and ordinances, section 1 in the second division omits the word “Alley,” which appears in the fair copy of the ordinance. The draft version of the ordinances indicates that that word was later added as an insertion and therefore did not appear in the original version of the ordinance. (“Laws and Ordinances of the City of Nauvoo,” 30 Jan. 1843, Nauvoo, IL, Records, CHL.)

Asterisk (*) denotes a "featured" version, which includes an introduction and annotation. Ordinances, 30 January 1843 Nauvoo City Council Minute Book, 1841–1845 Ordinances, 30 January 1843, as Published in the Wasp History, 1838–1856, volume D-1 [1 August 1842–1 July 1843] “History of Joseph Smith”
Fourth Division.
Of the prevention of Fires.
Sec. 1. No pipe of any Stove or franklin shall be put up, unless it be conducted into a chimney made of brick or stone, except where the Mayor or any Alderman shall deem it equally safe if otherwise put up, to be certified under his hand.
Sec. 2. It shall be the duty of the fire Wardens of each Ward to examine carefully under the direction of the City Council any cause from which immediate danger of fire may be apprehended, & to remove or abate with the consent of the Mayor or any Alderman (in case of neglect or refusal of the owner or occupant,) any cause from which danger may be apprehended, & to cause all buildings, chimneys, Stoves, pipes, hearths, ovens, boilers, Ash houses, & apparatus used in any building which shall be found in such condition as to be considered unsafe, to be without delay, at the expense of the owner thereof, or occupant thereof, put in such condition as not to be dangerous in causing or promoting fires.
Sec. 3. If any Person shall obstruct or hinder any person under the direction of the Warden aforesaid, in the performance of his duty under the preceding Section, such person shall, for every such offence, forfeit the penalty of twenty five dollars.
Fifth Division.
Of the City Watch.
Sec. 1. Be it Ordained by the City Council of the City of , that there be established in said a night Watch or patrol to be composed of a Captain of the police & such watchmen as may from time to time be appointed by the City Council, & who shall be governed by such laws & regulations, & endowed with such powers & authority as may be given or imposed upon [p. 156]
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Related Case Documents
Editorial Title
Ordinances, 30 January 1843
ID #
8412
Total Pages
8
Print Volume Location
JSP, D11:376–385
Handwriting on This Page
  • James Sloan

Footnotes

  1. [17]

    During the previous two decades, metal cooking stoves became increasingly popular. Between 1820 and 1839, the United States patent office issued 165 patents for cookstoves. A Franklin was an iron stove and fireplace hybrid innovated by Benjamin Franklin in the 1740s. Despite the emergence of smaller cookstoves, the Franklin remained popular because it combined the convenience of a stove with the aesthetic of an open fire. (Brewer, “Advertising, Design, and Consumer Response to the Cookstove,” 36–37.)

    Brewer, Priscilla J. “‘We Have Got a Very Good Cooking Stove’: Advertising, Design, and Consumer Response to the Cookstove, 1815–1880.” Winterthur Portfolio: A Journal of American Material Culture 25, no. 1 (Spring 1990): 35–54.

  2. [18]

    An ash house was a small shed used to store ashes from fires until they could be used for fertilizing fields and garden plots. (Sharpe, Traditional Buildings of the English Countryside, 21.)

    Sharpe, Geoffrey R. Traditional Buildings of the English Countryside: An Illustrated Guide. London: I. B. Tauris, 2011.

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