Ann's Carthage Site Assignment

Carthage Jail (south side)

Today, I (Ann) was assigned to serve at the Carthage Jail for the day. Two couple missionaries serving in the Nauvoo Mission are asked to live there at Carthage for a six month period. Carthage is a 30 minute drive from Nauvoo. During the summer there are young sister missionaries assigned there, too. Since they are now gone to other missions for the slow winter season, senior missionaries who serve in the Nauvoo sites are also assigned days to serve at the Carthage Visitors Center. I was glad for that experience because it is a very special place.

Kitchen / Living Room inside the Jail

This month of October in Nauvoo has been very busy. The mission president said that it is busier than one year ago.Lots of tour buses have come with people on church history tours.

Debtor's Cell on Ground Floor

We had several bus tours come to Carthage today. The tours start with an 18 minute film in the visitors center about Joseph Smith's life. Most of the material for the film comes from journals and diaries from that period. The visitors are then taken on a tour of the jail which is next door to the visitor center.

Dungeon Cell on Second Floor

The jailer, his wife and seven children lived in part of the jail building. He knew that Joseph and his eight companions were not dangerous so he put them in the debtor's cell on the ground floor the first night because it was cooler there with larger bared windows. The dungeon cell located upstairs on the second floor where prisoners were usually kept just had slits in the walls for outside air and would have been much hotter.

Bedroom/Martyrdom Room & widow from which Joseph fell 

The next night, the jailer let them stay in his bedroom upstairs which was a bigger room with a bed. The jailer didn't feel they were safe in the debtor's cell on the ground floor with the large windows. The following morning, Joseph sent all of the men but three on errands for him. The three remaining with him were Hyrum Willard Richards and John Taylor.

East side & upstairs window from which Joseph fell

There is such a sacred spirit in the upstairs bedroom where the martyrdom took place. I had tears each time I was in there. We play a tape of what went on in that room for the tourists. You hear John Taylor singing "A Poor Wayfaring Man of Grief." It is pretty solemn in that room.

I have come to know so much more about Joseph Smith. I know he was a prophet of God. He and Hyrum gave their lives for the Church and Jesus Christ.