DAYS 9 & 10--MARK TWAIN AND FAR WEST

On Sunday, we finished our stay in Nauvoo. We said goodbye to our lovely hostess Lana at the Rufus Abbot B & B, visited a couple more sites in Nauvoo, and did some genealogy at the Land and Records Office. In this lovely home, a seamstress for Sarah Granger Kimball, its mistress, suggested to Sarah that she wanted to make shirts for the men building the temple but had no money for materials. Her idea was the beginning of what is today the largest women's organization in the world--the Relief Society. At the Land and Records office, I found that my great, great grandfather Henry Sisson Richardson owned an acre lot in Nauvoo. It was a wonderful discovery. We then drove to Hannibal, Missouri, which I've wanted to visit since seventh grade when my teacher, Mrs. Whitesides, who had grown up in Hannibal wove her magic tales of Mark Twain.

On Monday we visited a complex of eight sites all related to Samuel Langhorn Clemens aka Mark Twain. This picture is from Mark Twain's house and each room had a glass covering which had a yellow strip of tape to prevent people from hurting themselves, I guess. Each room had a marble statue of the author in various poses with a quote from him.



This was inside Becky Thatcher's house which is being restored. Again there is glass encasing the room. We also visited Grant's drug store, Huck Finn's house, Sam's father's office and the museum which was extremely well done.

Our next adventure was Tom Sawyer's Cave. It was fantastic! I was amazed at the thought that children would play in this cave with only matches to guide them. Our guide was a very funny guy named Brandon who talked like a Missourian. Besides the fictional characters from the book, Samuel Clemens and his "gang", thousands of people have visited the cave as attested to by the hundreds of names written on the walls. Jesse James and his gang hid in the cave and he wrote his name. A man named C E Tucker signed his name several times.

This is in the entryway where the walls have been cleaned to show the true color of the limestone.


This is called Marriage Corner because marriages have been performed here. You can see some of the grafiti. A visitor to the cave saw the name Brady on the wall and did some research and found he was her great grandfather so she came back later and was married under his name.

After we left Hannibal, we drove to Adam-ondi-Ahman which is near Gallatin, Missouri. Here a settlement of Mormon saints flourished. This is a sacred and very beautiful spot.

Our next stop was at the site of Far West where the Saints planned to build a temple. Today you can see the four cornerstones of the temple. The Saints were driven from this place so were never able to complete the temple. This was another beautiful, serene place. It was immaculate even though it is in the middle of nowhere.

We also found a headstone of John Whitmer in a little town and looked for almost two hours for the site of the Haun's Mill Massacre, but didn't find it. We're hoping to do that today on our way to Independence, Missouri, with stops in between here and there.

We've spent the night in Chillicothe, Missouri. We're finding the heat and humidity to be most interesting!