the Bad and Beautiful

This is the seventh volume of an epic series on family and Mormon history, covering the first two and a half years in Nauvoo, Illinois.After the Mormon expulsion from Missouri in 1838 and early 1839, Joseph Smith, despite the resistance of some Mormon leaders,insisted that they again concentrate in one location. Unfortunately, the site he chose was marshy land along the Mississippi that wasteeming with malarial mosquitoes. Many Mormons died over the next several summers and Smith squandered the generous initialwelcome by Illinois residents, making foolish political decisions, building up a huge Mormon army, establishing a theocracy, and secretly introducing polygamy among Church elites. During this period the author’s Spencer and Knowlton ancestors became Mormons, and thousands were converted in Great Britain.