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 Wasppublished 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.
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.)
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.
Penalty of two dollars for each and every twenty four hours during which the same nuisance shall be or remain on the same lot or , or on such part of the Street adjoining as aforesaid, but no single recovery shall exceed the sum of twenty five dollars.
Sec. 3. Every Butcher or other person immediately after killing any beeves, Calves, Sheep, or other animals shall destroy the offal, garbage, & other offensive & useless parts thereof, or convey the same into some place where the same shall not be injurious or offensive to the inhabitants, under a penalty of twenty dollars for every offence.
Sec. 4. Whenever any dead carcass, putrid or unsound meat of any kind, fish, Hides or skins of any kind, or any other putrid or unsound substance, shall be found in any part of the , it shall be the duty of Supervisor of Streets to cause the same to be destroyed or to be disposed of in such other manner as may be equally secure as regards the public health, & if any person shall resist the Supervisor of Streets in the execution of the duties hereby imposed, or shall disturb, hinder, molest or resist him or any person or persons by him employed in the execution thereof, such offender shall forfeit the penalty of twenty five dollars.
Sec. 5. It shall be the duty of the supervisor of Streets to cause any stagnant waters to be drained off or removed from any lot, or out of any Street or other place within said , and he is hereby authorized to call upon such persons as owe road labour to assist him therein, & also to abate or remove every nuisance whatever within the .
Sec. 6. It shall be the duty of the supervisor of Streets to report to the City Council, with respect to any other nuisances that may exist in the , such as may be caused from Vats, pits, or pools of stationary water, whether from tanners, skinners, dyers, or other Persons, as he may deem injurious or dangerous to the public health; for their Order thereon, & shall carry the Order of the City Council into effect in the Premises. [p. 155]
In 1839, when the Saints first arrived in the region that became Nauvoo, the area was a swampland “filled with ponds and stagnant waters.” Church member Benjamin Brown recalled that the stagnant waters made the region “so unhea[l]thy very few could live there.” In order to reduce the standing water in the region and to make the land more useful, the Saints began draining the swamplands in 1840. The effort included creating drainage channels for both the northern and southern portions of the city. (Historian’s Office, JS History, Draft Notes, 11 June 1839, 59; Brown, Testimonies for the Truth, 19; Rollins et al., “Transforming Swampland into Nauvoo,” 125–157.)
Brown, Benjamin. Testimonies for the Truth: A Record of Manifestations of the Power of God, Miraculous and Providential, Witnessed in the Travels and Experience of Benjamin Brown. . . . Liverpool: S. W. Richards, 1853.
During the 1840s, road labor was a public responsibility in Illinois and was part of the state’s labor tax. Those who refused to give their labor were subject to a fine of “one dollar and twenty-five cents for each day so neglected to be performed.” (An Act to Amend an Act Entitled “An Act to Amend an Act concerning Public Roads,” Approved January 18th, 1836 [3 Mar. 1837], Public and General Statute Laws of the State of Illinois, pp. 604–605, sec. 2.)
The Public and General Statute Laws of the State of Illinois: Containing All the Laws . . . Passed by the Ninth General Assembly, at Their First Session, Commencing December 1, 1834, and Ending February 13, 1835; and at Their Second Session, Commencing December 7, 1835, and Ending January 18, 1836; and Those Passed by the Tenth General Assembly, at Their Session Commencing December 5, 1836, and Ending March 6, 1837; and at Their Special Session, Commencing July 10, and Ending July 22, 1837. . . . Compiled by Jonathan Young Scammon. Chicago: Stephen F. Gale, 1839.
In the hide and leather industry, tanners and skinners soaked hides in vats of lime and water for months. The soaking process loosened the hair, which they would then scrape off. Because of the smell associated with the tanning process, some American cities deemed unlicensed tanning endeavors to be public nuisances. (“Leather,” in Ure, Dictionary of Arts, Manufactures, and Mines, 762–770; A By-Law to Prevent Nuisances Which Are Injurious to Health [30 Mar. 1795], By-Laws of the City of New Haven, 22–24.)
Ure, Andrew. A Dictionary of Arts, Manufactures, and Mines: Containing a Clear Exposition of Their Principles and Practice. 2nd ed. London: Longman, Orme, Brown, Green, and Longmans, 1840.
By-Laws of the City of New Haven, May 1840. New Haven, CT: Hitchcock and Stafford, 1840.