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Petition from Albert P. Rockwood and Others, 18 July 1842

Source Note

and others, Petition, , Hancock Co., IL, to mayor (JS), aldermen, and counselors of the City of Nauvoo, Hancock Co., IL, 18 July 1842; handwriting of ; presumable signatures of 129 individual petitioners; four pages; Nauvoo, IL, Records, CHL.
Two leaves, the first measuring 12 × 7½–7¾ inches (30 × 19–20 cm) and the second measuring 5¾–6¼ × 7⅝ inches (15–16 × 19 cm). The first leaf is ruled with thirty-seven lines (now faded); the second leaf contains nineteen lines. The petition was inscribed in blue ink. The left, top, and bottom edges of the recto of each leaf were unevenly cut, and the right edges of the recto of each leaf were unevenly torn. The leaves were folded together, with the first leaf folded twice horizontally and the second leaf folded once.
This document was presumably kept among city records. In 1845, the city of Nauvoo was disincorporated. Many if not most of the city records were listed in an inventory that was produced by the Church Historian’s Office (now CHL) in 1846, when they were packed up with church records that were taken to the Salt Lake Valley. Subsequent inventories of church records in Salt Lake City indicate continuous institutional custody.

Footnotes

  1. [1]

    “An Act to Repeal the Nauvoo Charter,” 14th General Assembly, 1844–1845, Senate Bill no. 35 (House Bill no. 42), Illinois General Assembly, Enrolled Acts of the General Assembly, 1818–2012, Illinois State Archives, Springfield.

    Illinois General Assembly. Enrolled Acts of the General Assembly, 1818–2012. Illinois State Archives, Springfield.

  2. [2]

    “Schedule of Church Records. Nauvoo 1846,” [1], Historian’s Office, Catalogs and Inventories, 1846–1904, CHL.

    Historian’s Office. Catalogs and Inventories, 1846–1904. CHL. CR 100 130.

  3. [3]

    “Inventory. Historian’s Office. 4th April 1855,” [1]–[2]; “Index of Records and Journals in the Historian’s Office 1878,” [11]; “Index to Papers in the Historians Office,” ca. 1904, 7, Historian’s Office, Catalogs and Inventories, 1846–1904, CHL.

    Historian’s Office. Catalogs and Inventories, 1846–1904. CHL. CR 100 130.

Historical Introduction

On 18 July 1842, prepared a petition, which he and 128 other , Illinois, residents signed, urging JS as Nauvoo’s mayor, as well as the city councilors and aldermen, to pass an ordinance to remove driftwood from the edge of the . Such driftwood posed potential hazards both to health and navigation. The Nauvoo charter granted the city’s inhabitants the power “to improve and protect” public property. The charter also authorized the city council to make laws for the cleanliness of Nauvoo and the health of its citizens, and it further empowered the council “to make regulations to secure the general health of the inhabitants, to declare what shall be a nuisance, and to prevent and remove the same.” In his inaugural address as Nauvoo’s mayor, given in February 1841, had advised that the “low lands” bordering the Mississippi “should be immediately drained, and the entire timber removed” for the sake of the public’s health.
In the 18 July 1842 petition featured here, the petitioners noted navigational difficulties caused by the driftwood, but they focused their complaint on potential health issues: the wood created stagnant water, which the petitioners linked to effluvium, a substance they viewed as “injurieous to health.” and many of the other petitioners lived in the northwest part of , an area on the curving bank of the that was particularly susceptible to deposits of driftwood.
Although the document carries a date of 18 July 1842, the date it was submitted to the city council is unknown, and extant municipal records do not indicate whether the city council considered, discussed, or acted on the petition.

Footnotes

  1. [1]

    Act to Incorporate the City of Nauvoo, 16 Dec. 1840. Six days earlier, the charter was in process of being printed as a pamphlet, which would have made this power more public. (Nauvoo City Council Minute Book, 12 July 1842, 94; see also Pay Order to Nauvoo City Treasurer, 12 July 1842.)

  2. [2]

    Act to Incorporate the City of Nauvoo, 16 Dec. 1840.

  3. [3]

    John C. Bennett, “Inaugural Address,” Times and Seasons, 15 Feb. 1841, 2:318; see also Proclamation, 15 Jan. 1841. Other extant petitions issued before the 18 July petition did not address public health but instead dealt with improving and protecting property, especially building and altering roads. (See Petitions, 1841–1842, Nauvoo, IL, Records, CHL.)

    Nauvoo, IL. Records, 1841–1845. CHL. MS 16800.

  4. [4]

    Contemporaneous medical publications supported a connection between effluvia and malaria. In summer 1839, a malaria epidemic struck the communities of Nauvoo and Montrose, Iowa Territory. These communities continued to suffer from malaria during the summers of 1840 and 1841. (See “Miasm,” in Dunglison, Medical Lexicon, 451; Barker, Inaugural Dissertation on Typhus Fever, 7; JS, Journal, 8–23 July 1839; Discourse, 28 July 1839; Discourse, 30 July 1840; and Introduction to Part 3: 3 July–30 Sept. 1841.)

    Dunglison, Robley. Medical Lexicon: A New Dictionary of Medical Science, Containing a Concise Account of the Various Subjects and Terms; with the French and Other Synonymes, and Formulae for Various Officinal and Empirical Preparations, &c. 3rd ed. Philadelphia: Lea and Blanchard, 1842.

    Barker, Thomas Collis. Inaugural Dissertation on Typhus Fever. [Giessen, Germany]: G. F. Heyeri, 1842.

  5. [5]

    See Book of Assessment, 1842, First Ward, copy, Nauvoo, IL, Records, CHL.

    Nauvoo, IL. Records, 1841–1845. CHL. MS 16800.

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Document Information

Related Case Documents
Editorial Title
Petition from Albert P. Rockwood and Others, 18 July 1842
ID #
12121
Total Pages
4
Print Volume Location
JSP, D10:295–298
Handwriting on This Page
  • Noah Guyman
  • John Taylor

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