The Nauvoo Pageant



The official Nauvoo pageant tee-shirts have a quote on the back

"And giving of ourselves---There was so much to give."

The Nauvoo pageant has begun in Nauvoo.  The dates are July 10 through August 4, 2012.  What a wonderful pageant it is.  It is held in Nauvoo on an outdoor stage every Tuesday through Saturday at 8:30 p.m.  In addition there is a Frontier Country Fair every pageant night at 7:00 p.m.  Round dancing, handcart pulls, pioneer games, concessions, and crafts are all included.  There is no charge for any of the events.

Liberty dancing at the Frontier Country Fair

Carolina dancing barefoot at the Frontier Country Fair with who knows who.

The pageant has a professional cast and a family cast.  The family casts come for two weeks.  The first week they practice and the second week they perform in the pageant.  Our children, Marianne and Robert Johnson, and their six children were able to be in the first week of the pageant as family cast members.  Mark and I went often and I went a few times without Mark.  I can never resist a play that has my family performing.  It was wonderful.  In this post I will share some photos of the Johnsons in the pageant.

The Johnson children with the professional actors portraying Emma and Joseph Smith in the pageant.  Deseret, Carolina, Clarissa, Liberty, Emma, Joseph, Morgan, Hyrum.

Deseret carried a flag in the opening of each night's program.

Deseret is carrying the blue flag at the top left.  The Nauvoo Brass band is playing the Star Spangled Banner and the bagpipe band is at the right and left of the stage.

Desi with flag entering the stage.



 The pioneers are portrayed entering Nauvoo from the Mississippi River.



Marianne in green skirt & bonnet, Liberty in front of her, Carolina in green pinafore, Robert & Hyrum carrying a trunk, Clarissa behind.  Morgan must be behind one of them.



Robert in a dancing scene.  He is about 4th from the left in green pants and brown vest.





Clarissa jumping off a trunk.  

 

 

Carolina is dancing at the front and middle in a green pinafore.  Liberty is to the left of her.

The picnic scene.  Marianne is kissing Robert hello as he comes home from working.



During the picnic, Carolina skips around the family.



Marianne in the gold dress second from right in group dancing.  Clarissa is in the middle in green.  They were happy that the temple would be built.



Carolina in green, Liberty, Hyrum, and Morgan



The children playing games.  Hyrum was chosen as pitcher.  Morgan is left of Hyrum in brown vest.  Carolina at right.







Hyrum pitching and Morgan batting at right.

Marianne sewing for the temple--middle back

Robert in the center panel--working on the temple.





The finished temple.  Marianne is right in front of temple with her arms around lady in red.  Clarissa, Deseret are seated.  Robert and Hyrum at left standing where they heaved the temple up.



Hyrum and Robert leaving Nauvoo with their trunk.



Liberty and Carolina leaving Nauvoo.  Marianne & Morgan can be partly seen at left.

Marianne and Morgan leaving Nauvoo.  Clarissa at right behind them.

Deseret and Clarissa leaving Nauvoo.

The finale..Hyrum is near left, Liberty near the center.  Clarissa and Marianne and Deseret can be seen.

The pageant was wonderful.  The ending testimonial was that our Savior lives.  Joseph Smith bore testimony that He lives because he saw Him.  It was a great production which left us feeling very happy.

The Johnson family had such a good time and we enjoyed watching them so much.  They are back home now, but will never forget their experience.  We won't ever forget it either.

The pageant runs through August 4.  Come and see it!

July Happenings



Mark & I with Doc & Dan


We have been busy and keeping very warm.  The temperatures have been in the high 90's and low 100's but with the humidity, the heat index has been over 100 every day.   The wagon and carriage ride times have been changed.  We now start the rides at 7:00 a.m. which means the teamsters need to be at work at 6:00 a.m.  But they are finished by noon or 1:00 p.m.  When the heat index hits 105, they stop the rides for the day.  They have had to do that every day this week.  It disappoints the people but the horses can't take the exertion in the heat. 

Mark, Emma, Adam, Thelma, Braeden in front of the Pendleton Home and Log School

Our big news is that we've had visits from two of our children and their families.  It has been wonderful.  First, Thelma and Adam Davis and family came for 3 or 4 days in June.  We had such a good visit with them.  We hadn't seen them for a year and it was great to spend time with them. 

Braeden, Thelma, and Emma singing at the play, "Just Plain Anna Amanda"

Mark enjoying "Just Plain Anna Amanda"

Emma in the Cultural Hall with their metal goat, Horace.

Grandpa teaching Mark about making rope at the Family Living Center

Grandpa showing Emma and Braeden how to make ropes.

The Davis family with the Nauvoo Temple in the background.

We enjoyed having the Davises here.  We loved visiting with them, going to some of the sites with them, and having them as an enthusiastic audience at our shows.  While they were here, the BYU Living Legends were here and we saw that show with them.  We were able to attend the temple with them.  We appreciate them coming to visit us. 

The Johnson family came to visit us on July 1.  They will be here for two weeks.  They are here to be part of the family cast for the Nauvoo Pageant.  They have a busy schedule.  It is much busier than ours.  But we have been able to see them for at least a few minutes every day and that has been wonderful.  They visited the Pendleton Home and Log School the other day.

Clarissa, Caroline with the school bell, Liberty, Deseret, Me, Morgan, and Hyrum at the Log School.

The reason there are so many photos of the log school is because I am there often.  I am the assistant site leader there and so I work there twice a week.  I'd like to tell you about it.



The outside of the Pendleton Home and Log School.

 This home is a rebuilt home on the property that Calvin Pendleton owned in Nauvoo in the 1840's.  The front part is his rebuilt home and the back room is a school room. 

Calvin Pendleton's photo--on top of the mantel

Calvin Pendleton was born in Maine in 1811.  He went to an eclectic school of medicine in Ohio.  Henry Sherwood met him and taught him the gospel.  He was baptized into the Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-Day Saints.  He moved to Nauvoo, and Joseph Smith called him on a mission to Maine where he served for 3 1/2 years.  After returning to Nauvoo, he bought this property, married Sally Ann Seavey, and built a log cabin on his property.  He and Sally had a baby girl named Emmeline.  He supplemented his medical income by working with Jonathan Browning, his neighbor, in the Browning Gun Shop.  When the pioneers left Nauvoo in 1846, he and Sally went with them.  He helped Jonathan Browning outfit people for the trek west in Council Bluffs for 6 years.  He and his family went west in 1852.  He settled in Parowan, Utah where he was a member of the Territorial Legislature and served as a city and county recorder.  He didn't ever teach school in Nauvoo but did teach penmanship in Parowan. 




The fireplace in the living room with a crane to hold the pots.



A table in the Pendleton home.  The blue cone-shape holds sugar.  It came in sugar hats or sugar cones.  The pick at the right would have been used to dig the sugar out.  It is in a hard cone shape.

The Pendleton table with period furniture and dishes, etc.



Part of the kitchen.  The open cupboard shows some of the tools they would have used.  On top at the right is a candle mold.  I love the little spectacles on top of the Bible.

 

The pie safe.  Notice the little holes punched in the tin.  That let the air in but kept the bugs and rodents out.

 

One corner of the log school room.  The slates are real slate and are very heavy.

Mark & Thelma--figuring out how many total homes there were in Nauvoo if there were 350 brick homes, 650 frame homes, and 1500 log homes.


Even though Calvin Pendleton didn't teach school in Nauvoo, he was an avid supporter of education.  Perhaps that is why the school room was added to his home.  In February, 1841, the Nauvoo City Council authorized the creation of the University of Nauvoo.  That wasn't a school or a campus, but it was a school board which was responsible for education in Nauvoo from elementary through adult education.  During the 6 1/2 years the Saints were in Nauvoo, there were 86 elementary teachers who passed tests and received certification to teach school.  In addition there were 53 private or subscription school teachers during those years.  So there were private and public schools in Nauvoo.  There were little schools such as this one in every neighborhood.  They taught basic subjects.  The public school teachers were paid by the number of students taught.  If the students were sick at home, the teacher didn't get paid for teaching that student that day.  The private school teachers would earn app. $1.00 per week for teaching 1 student 5 subjects--reading, writing, arithmetic, grammar, and geography.  Sometimes they were paid in money and sometimes they bartered. The average wage in Nauvoo during that time was $1.00 per day so if they sent their children to private school, it was a large part of their wages.

This is me at the pulpit in the school.

When we give a tour of the school we talk about how the spelling in those days wasn't standardized.  We have a little mad gabs game to see if students can read words spelled phonetically.  I finish the tour by talking about the importance of education.  Our cars, homes, money, and land won't go with us when we die, but our knowledge will.  "Whatever principle of intelligence we attain unto in this life, it will rise with us in the resurrection."  D&C 130:18.  I talk about secular education and spiritual education and invite them to learn all they can and to work on developing a better relationship with our Savior, Jesus Christ.  I enjoy working in the log school. 

Me and Sister Bird

I work with Sister Bird in the school very often.  She is serving her third mission and will be 82 this month.  She is very happy and when you ask her how she is, she says, "It's my best day yet."  Years ago she was baptized in Elko Nevada in the same church I was baptized in.  Small world.

Carolina, Morgan, Hyrum, Liberty, Clarissa, Robert, Deseret, Marianne, and Sister Bird--watching the young performing missionary vignettes.

So that's what I've been doing lately--the log school.  Mark has been driving horses more and more.

Mark driving the wagon ride in front of our home with horses Chuck and Mick

The wagon ride.  Mark is driving.

The wagon ride goes down Main Street in Nauvoo.  It is passing the historic post office now.  We have a tour in there but it is not a working post office now.  One day when I was working there, some tourists came in and wanted to buy postcards.  It is an interesting tour.  For another time.

The moon and the temple.  July, 2012

Mark and I were on our way home the other night when we saw this view of the temple.  Luckily we had our camera with us.  Hope all of our friends and family are doing well.