Monday, June 9, 2014

More geographical river and traveling Information

Here is a bunch of Gazetteers that were developed for the rivers in the US of A. Where not mentioned differently, all scans are on the Internet Archive.

  • Samuel Cumings, The Western Navigator
  • Samuel Cumings, The Western Pilot
    ("containing charts of the Ohio River, and of the Mississippi, from the mouth of the Missouri to the Gulf of Mexico ; accompanied with directions for navigating the same, and a gazetteer, or description of the towns on their banks, tributary streams, &c. ; also, a variety of matter interesting to travelers, and all concerned in the navigation of those rivers" as the title of the 1834 edition promises).
  • George Conclin, Conclin's New River Guide
Conclin's River Guide has an amusing summary of the state of the City of Nauvoo, with some interesting problems and omissions:
NAUVOO, opposite, in Hancock county, 111., is the site of the celebrated Mormon city, which was laid out about 1840, by Joseph Smith and his followers. It is situated on a handsome plain, on an elevated bank, extending for some distance from the river. The city was laid out on a very extensive plan, and intended to be the great city, to which all should look, as the Jews do toward Jerusalem. A great many houses were erected, some of them on a very magnificent scale, and the city was fast being filled with the adherents of that sect, from all parts of the country. A temple was also in course of erection, which, for vastness of dimensions and splendor of design,was intended to be without a rival in the Union. But, difficulties having arisen among the members of the community, and between them and the citizens of the surrounding country, Joseph Smith, the Lieutenant General of the Nauvoo Legion, and High Priest, and Hiram, his brother, were arrested, and thrown into prison, in Carthage, the county-seat, where they were, on the 27th of June, 1844, murdered, by an armed mob, in disguise, who overpowered the guard, stationed at the jail. New troubles subsequently arising, the Mormons were expelled from the state. Many of them returned to their former homes, in the states, reduced in circumstances, and enfeebled by toil and sickness but a large body banded together, and started toward Oregon [sic!], with the intention of there raising up a city, which should fill the place of that one, which had proved so disastrous to them. Nauvoo has since declined rapidly. A religious denomination were about making a contract for the purchase of the Temple, for a college, but it was destroyed in October, 1848, by an incendiary, who fired it in the cupola, and it is now a heap of ruins. (pp.73-74)

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