Minutes, 30 October 1841, Copy

The street immediately east of Warsaw Street appears to have been Rich Street. (See map of Nauvoo, Illinois.)  

At the city council meeting held on 16 October 1841, John Barnett motioned “that some work be done on Parley Street, and the Street opened,” and the motion was carried. This proposal to work on another street suggests that the city was interested in continuing to improve the area. (Nauvoo City Council Minute Book, 16 Oct. 1841, 22.)  

On 23 October 1841, the city council condemned a “grog shop,” owned by Pulaski Cahoon and John Eagle and located on the hill near the temple lot, as a nuisance. Two days later, two companies of the Nauvoo Legion destroyed the building, and in the process, Eagle became involved in an altercation with one of the troops, John Scott. Eagle was charged with assault and battery. A jury in the mayor’s court found him guilty of the charge and ordered him to pay a fine of $65 plus costs. Stiles, acting as Eagle’s attorney, asked the city council on 30 October to remit “the fine returned by the jury.” The council, advised by Emmons, voted against remitting the fine. Eagle may have also violated a Nauvoo city ordinance that prohibited all persons and establishments from “vending Whiskey in a less quantity than a Gallon, or other Spirituous Liquors in a less quantity than a quart, to any Person whatever, excepting” someone with a doctor’s recommendation. According to a later source, Eagle threatened JS when he tried to summon Eagle to appear in court for violating the ordinance. (Nauvoo City Council Minute Book, 15 Feb. 1841, 8; Nauvoo City Council Rough Minute Book, 23 and 30 Oct. 1841, 26, 28–30; Woodruff, Journal, 30 Oct. 1841; and Docket Entry, between 25 Oct. and ca. 29 Nov. 1841, State of Illinois v. Eagle [Nauvoo Mayor’s Ct. 1841], in Nauvoo Mayor’s Court Docket Book, 12; Osborn, Reminiscences and Journal, 66.)  

Woodruff, Wilford. Journals, 1833–1898. Wilford Woodruff, Journals and Papers, 1828–1898. CHL. MS 1352.

Osborn, David. Reminiscences and Journal, 1860–1893. CHL. MS 1653.

All three men were apostles. Woodruff wrote in his journal that he was notified of this appointment on the morning of 30 October. (Woodruff, Journal, 30 Oct. 1841.)  

Woodruff, Wilford. Journals, 1833–1898. Wilford Woodruff, Journals and Papers, 1828–1898. CHL. MS 1352.

Conferring the “freedom of the city” was a symbolic gesture of trust and friendship granted to distinguished visitors of a city. It encouraged them to freely move about the city as they pleased. “Freedom of the city” had been previously granted to Stephen A. Douglas. Sylvester Emmons and George Stiles were both attorneys visiting Nauvoo at this time. Each of them later served in Nauvoo city government in different capacities. (Letter to Editors, 6 May 1841; Illustrated Atlas Map of Cass County, Illinois, 23, 40.)  

Illustrated Atlas Map of Cass County, Illinois, Carefully Compiled from Personal Examinations and Surveys. [Edwardsville, IL]: W. R. Brink and Co., 1874.

Though JS motioned earlier in the meeting to have Eagle’s fine remitted, he appears to have changed his mind. According to a later history, JS “attended——the City Council and spoke against the Council’s remitting a fine assessed against John Eagle by a Jury of twelve men considering that the Jury might be as sensible men as any of the City Council and . . . asked the Council not to remit the fine.” (JS History, vol. C-1, 1242.)