The Ottawa Free Trader

The Temple at Nauvoo Destroyed.

A letter from Nauvoo to the St. Louis Republican, gives the following particulars in reference to the destruction of the Temple, by the late storm, which was felt in numerous sections in the south-western part of the state, on the 27th ult:

The temple of Nauvoo, erected by the Mormons, finished in 1845, partially burnt in October, 1848, having but its four walls left—all its timber works having been consumed by flames—was destroyed by a hurricane on the 27th ult.

On arriving at Nauvoo, in March, 1849, the Icarian community bought this Temple with a view to refit it for schools, its studying and meeting halls, for a refectory capable of containing about 1,000 persons, &c.

Many preparations were already made. An agent had been sent to the pine forests of the north to buy timbers of dimensions necessary for re-establishing the roof and floors. Some other pieces of wood were ready; a steam mill was purchased to fit up a saw mill; the saw mill was nearly finished; a vast shed was raising near the Temple, to shelter the carpenters; the masons were laying in the interior the bases of the pillars when, on the 27th of May, a frightful hurricane, the most terrible experienced in the country for many years, burst suddenly upon the hill of Nauvoo, where lightning, thunder, wind, hail and rain seemed to unite to assail the building.

The storm burst forth so quickly, and with such violence, that the masons, taken unawares in the Temple, had not time enough to flee before the northern wall, sixty feet high, bent down over their heads, threatening to crush them and bury them up.

"Friends," cried out the foreman, "we are all lost!" and indeed their loss appeared to be certain, for the southern and eastern walls, which had always been looked upon as the weakest, now shaken by the fall of the former, seemed on the point of tumbling on them. But the running rubbish of the northern wall stopped at their feet.

Now rushing out of the ruins, in the midst of a cloud of dust, hail and rain, wrapped up in lightnings, thunder and a furious blast of wind, expecting every moment to hear the two walls give way upon them, they succeeded in getting out, astonished to see those two walls standing, and frightened at the danger from which they had just emerged.

The same evening the masons reunited and consulted by the greenery, acknowledged and declared that the southern and eastern walls would soon fall down, and that, to avoid any serious accident it was better to destroy them.

Those means having been discussed and agreed upon, they set at work immediately and the walls were pulled down.