Opening and Closing the Door to Nauvoo   In 1838 Israel Barlow, a refugee from the Missouri persecution order, opened the door to what was to become Nauvoo, the Beautiful.  Ten years later, John Solomon Fullmer, as a trustee for the Church.  closed the door on the Nauvoo saga.  These men were our 3rd great grandfathers.     Israel Barlow opens the door to the Nauvoo saga Fleeing Missouri  "In the fall of 1838 Israel Barlow left the state of Missouri under the exterminating order of Gov. Lilburn W. Boggs. By missing his way he left Missouri on a different route to that followed by the great body of the exiles. Taking a northeasterly course he struck the Des Moines River a short distance above its mouth and traveled into Iowa where he was received kindly by the people, who supplied him with much needed food and raiment. To the few settlers in that region of country he told the story of the persecutions of the saints in Missouri and how his people, poor and destitute as himself, were fleeing from Missouri en masse. The sympathies of the people in Iowa being aroused, they gave Elder Barlow letters of introduction to several gentlemen among whom was Dr. Isaac Galland, a man of some influence living at Commerce, Ill. Dr. Galland owned considerable land in Commerce and vicinity which he offered for sale and which was later bought by the Church. Other purchases were subsequently made and thus most of the saints who had been expelled from Missouri settled in Commerce which, the next year (1840), was incorporated as the city of Nauvoo." [i] Another account about Issac Galland meeting Israel Barlow "By the winter of 1838-1839, Isaac Galland had settled in Commerce and was living in a large stone house which he had purchased from James White.  It is doubtful that Isaac Galland had any idea that this swampy, mosquito-infested peninsula on the Mississippi River would soon become one of the largest cities in the state.  "Isaac Galland's association with the Mormons began in October or November of 1838 when he met Israel Barlow, who with other Mormons had fled northeastward towards Quincy, Illinois, from Far West, Missouri, but by missing their way, had arrived at the Des Moines River in Iowa. They observed the abandoned barracks of old Fort Des Moines near what is now Montrose and were informed that Isaac Galland held extensive claims to this area known as the Half-Breed Tract. Israel Barlow and his associates talked with Dr. Galland, who after hearing of the Mormons, difficulties in Missouri, began negotiations with these destitute Mormons to sell them his lands and buildings in Commerce as well as in the Half-Breed Tract.  Not authorized to make purchases for the Church, Elder Barlow directed his course downstream to Quincy. After an exploring party had been sent to examine Galland's lands, Church leaders convened in Quincy to discuss the propriety of settling in Commerce and in Lee County, Iowa. William Marks presided at this meeting where Isaac Galland's liberal offer was presented. Dr. Galland had agreed to sell "about twenty thousand acres, lying between the Mississippi and Des Moines rivers, at two dollars per acre, to be paid in twenty annual installments, without interest."[ii]  John S Fullmer closes the door on the Nauvoo saga Eight years latter, John Solomon Fullmer was called by the Quorum of the Twelve Apostles along with three others trustees to close the affairs of the church in Nauvoo.   The Twelve realized that it was unlikely they could dispose of the Nauvoo Temple and other properties before the Saints had to abandon the city. They would have to leave agents behind to represent their interests. At a meeting on 18 January 1846 with the captains of the various emigration companies, the Twelve presented the names of five men to form a committee to dispose of the property of the Saints Almon W. Babbitt, Joseph L. Heywood, John S. Fullmer, Henry W. Miller, and John M. Bernhisel who would receive letters of attorney authorizing them to act legally for the Church.[iii] Babbitt was an attorney, and Heywood and Fullmer were both trusted and experienced businessmen.[iv] John S. Fullmer was described as "a man of detail and assertion, one who could hold his own in any argument and give as much as he took." [v] Brigham Young's said, "I appointed the Trustees myself, Babbitt for lawyer, Fullmer for bulldog and growl, and Heywood to settle debts."[vi]  The Trustees would need all the bulldog they could muster to see this calling through to completion. The Trustees had a difficult and frustrating task representing the interests of the church and many private interests to sell vastly depreciated assets in Nauvoo which was rapidly being abandoned because of persecution.  Their task was daunting: In addition to selling Church properties, including the temple . . . they were responsible for paying outstanding Church debts, contesting legal actions, helping the poor and destitute still languishing behind, and keeping a watchful and caring eye on Emma Smith, widow of the Prophet, and her immediate family as well her mother-in-law, Lucy Mack Smith.  They also represented the private business concerns of many former citizens. Properties were to be sold at the best price possible and the proceeds credited either against past debts or toward future purchases. Individual tithing accounts often needed settling; those who had been advanced Church teams and wagons on credit had no other form of repayment. Several men who had worked as laborers on the construction of the temple were still unpaid. And when time permitted, the trustees were also to push the cause of gathering, counter opposition, and allay discontent and all this as a Church calling without remuneration. Misunderstood and unappreciated by their own people, whose property values plummeted as the city emptied, and distrusted by the anti-Mormons, who viewed them contemptuously as the last vestiges of an evil empire, the trustees inherited a lose-lose situation. Almost everyone with Nauvoo property and improvements got far less than they needed or deserved no more than one-eighth the value and often far less than that at sale. Ill feelings inevitably developed. [vii]  After the battle of Nauvoo, in September, 1846, the Trustees, much against their will, signed a peace treaty with the mob, in order to spare the lives of the remaining Saints, and to save the Temple.  John S. described the treaty as "ignoble and cruel" in all its features. Still the temple remained unsold.  Writing to his cousin George Fullmer in September 1847,  John S said, "The Temple is still unsold, and I do not know but that God of Heaven intends to have it so remain as a standing monument of our sacrifice, and as witness against the nation Sold or unsold, I should think it such as we shall not be able at best to get one dollar in twenty of what it cost." [viii]  Various lawsuits encumbered their efforts to sell the properties including litigation by Emma, who had by 23 December 1847 married Lewis Bidamon.   John S wrote to Brigham Young, " Now these twain concocted a grand scheme by which they would effectually block our wheels and enrich themselves. They hit on the idea that the church, according to a limited construction of one of our state laws, could only hold ten acres of land, and that consequently, the deed from Emma and Joseph to Joseph as a Trustee was illegal."   He observed that this placed "the Trustees in the extremest difficulty, as to title, while it destroys the confidence of everyone, and it prevents those who would have purchased, from doing so." [ix]    The difficulties involved in selling distressed property to opportunistic and often hostile buyers meant the trustees were able to sale the property at 60 to 85 percent of the actual value. [x]  Noting the disappointments of the private interests John S wrote, "We have a conscience void of all offence." [xi]     Upon receiving a release from Brigham Young the Trustees were released and in the spring of 1848, John S. left Nauvoo on the journey that was to take him to the valley in the mountains.  At Council Bluffs, he joined Olive Amanda and others of his parent's family and started on the journey west.  John S. served as a captain of 10 in the Willard Richards Company.  They arrived in the valley in October of 1848 and settled in what is now Davis County, Utah.  On 9 October 1848, an arsonist set fire to the temple.  Brigham Young said, "I hoped to see it burned before I left, but I did not. I was glad when I heard of its being destroyed by fire, and of the walls having fallen in, and said, "Hell, you cannot now occupy it." [xii]  So ended the saga of early Nauvoo and the first Nauvoo Temple with Israel Barlow and John Solomon Fullmer opening and closing the doors. John S. Fullmer wrote expensively about his experiences  in Nauvoo and published  The Expulsion of the Saints from Nauvoo in the same pamphlet with his account of the Assassination of Joseph and Hyrum Smith.   John S. published these two writings as a single pamphlet or tract while a missionary in England. John Solomon Fullmer was in a unique position to write about both Assassination and the Expulsion.  This pamphlet has been described in Bancroft's History of Utah as the best narrative, and indeed the only one that enters circumstantially into all the details of the expulsion from Nauvoo.  These and many other writings of John S. Fullmer are found in " John Solomon Fullmer, The Man and His Writings" complied by Jerry D. Wells and published by Brigham Young University. [i] Encyclopedia Encyclopedic History of the Church, p.561 [ii] Lyndon W. Cook, BYU Studies, Vol. 19, No. 3, p.267 [iii]  History of the Church, 7:569; Watson, Manuscript History of Brigham Young, 1846-1847, 14.  [iv] "A Perfect Estopel: Selling the Nauvoo Temple", Mormon Historical Studies, Lisle G. Brown, Curator of Special Collections, James E. Morrow Library, and Professor/Librarian IV, Marshall University, Huntington, West Virginia.  [v] Bennett, We'll Find the Place, 318. Fullmer, who was born in 1807, was a member of the Nauvoo Legion as well as the Council of Fifty. He served a mission to England. He was also active in politics and served the Utah Territorial Legislature. He died in Springville, Utah, in 1883. See "John Solomon Fullmer", in Black, Membership of the Church, 17:519 -25.  [vi] Minutes of Trustees Meeting, 22 January 1847, Brigham Young Papers, LDS Church Archives, quoted in Bennett, We'll Find the Place, 317.  [vii] Richard E. Bennett, We'll Find the Place: The Mormon Exodus 1846-1848 (Salt Lake City: Deseret Book, 1997), 317-18  [viii] John S. Fullmer to George Fullmer, 2 September 1847, John S. Fullmer Letterpress Book, LDS Church Archives, cited in Leonard, Nauvoo, 593. [ix] 96. Journal History, 27 January 1848, LDS Church Archives. [x] Leonard, Glen M. Leonard, Nauvoo: A Place of Peace, Nauvoo, 591?92. [xi] John Fullmer to Brigham Young, 26 June 1846, Brigham Young Papers, LDS Church Archives.  [xii] Journal of Discourses, 26 vols. (Liverpool: F. D. Richards, 1855?1886), 8:203, 8 October 1860.