Nauvoo, << naw VOO or NAW voo >> (pop. 950), is a small community along the Mississippi River in western Illinois. Joseph Smith, the founder of the Mormon Church, founded it as a Mormon sanctuary in 1839. The site had previously been a failed settlement called Commerce. The Mormons fled to Nauvoo to escape persecution in Missouri. The name Nauvoo is a word of Hebrew origin meaning the beautiful place.
Soon after its founding, Nauvoo became a thriving city. In the mid-1840’s, its population grew to about 12,000 people. For a time, it was the largest city in Illinois. The Illinois government granted Nauvoo home rule (local self-government), and the town had its own militia. The community developed considerable political and economic power, and nearby non-Mormons became hostile to it. In 1844, Smith and his brother Hyrum were assassinated. In 1846, mobs forced the Mormons out of Illinois. Most of the Mormons moved to what is now Utah.
In 1849, a French socialist named Étienne Cabet led a group of followers to Nauvoo and founded a utopian community—that is, a community based on a vision of political and social harmony. The settlers called their town Icaria. They practiced communal ownership of property and equality of work and profit. Icarians split into factions in 1856, and Cabet left with his own following. The Icarian community in Nauvoo ended in 1860.
In 2002, the Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints completed the rebuilding of the Nauvoo Temple, a historic place of worship built by the Mormons. The original temple had been destroyed about 1850. Today, visitors to Nauvoo may see the homes of Smith and of the Mormon leader Brigham Young, as well as other restored buildings.
