Temple keys

NAUVOO, Ill. — As members of The Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints around the globe anticipate the dedication of the reconstructed temple here Thursday, many will reflect on the "keys" that early church leaders spoke of as the underlying purpose for such an edifice.

While the term was used then, as today, to connote spiritually significant doctrines taught in the temple, another set of keys — these made of metal — have been much discussed by LDS historians and now apparently reproduced at the direction of President Gordon B. Hinckley.

Housed about 50 miles south of Nauvoo in Quincy, Ill., an original set of 16 keys to the first Nauvoo Temple reside with the Historical Society of Quincy and Adams County. According to the society's executive director, Phil Germann, about 18 months ago a craftsman was sent by the church from Salt Lake City to Quincy to photograph and measure the keys "in order to make a replica" so reproductions could be made.

"I understand the original plan was to give them out at the dedication ceremony," he said Tuesday. But those plans may have changed, Germann said, noting the last plan he is aware of is that the replicas would be available for President Hinckley to use "when he visits abroad or encounters foreign leaders or dignitaries in the U.S."

Germann said the original plan called for 40 to 50 replicas to be made, but he's not sure whether those plans changed as well.

Wednesday, the church confirmed only that a limited number of reproductions of a key had been made for commemorative use.

Nauvoo historian C. Michael Trapp, who has been researching the history of the area since 1964 with a specialty in the history of Quincy, said he has also been told the keys may be a part of the dedication ceremonies, but only the church knows for sure.

Trapp said Wednesday he has never come across any information that would lead him to believe the keys in Quincy are not authentic. "But that's one thing about history. It's hard to ever know anything for sure" unless you were actually there, he said.

Germann said there is no doubt in his mind about whether the keys are authentic. The historical society received them decades ago from descendants of Artois Hamilton, who operated the Hamilton House Hotel in Carthage, Ill., about two blocks from the jail where church founder Joseph Smith and his brother, Hyrum, were martyred on June 27, 1844. Following the murders, while many residents of Carthage fled fearing retribution by church members, Hamilton "remained behind to prepare coffins for Joseph and Hyrum Smith and sent the bodies back to Nauvoo for burial," according to an official account provided by the historical society.