Picturing history: Early Nauvoo

James White and Hiram Kimball were residents of the Nauvoo, Ill. area before the coming of Joseph Smith and the Latter-day Saints. Captain James White traded 200 bags of corn to Native Americans for the site once known as Quashquema, later Venus, Commerce and ultimately, Nauvoo.

White and his family are traditionally thought of as the first permanent white settlers in that place. James White's headstone is second from the right in one of the attached photos.

Arriving in Commerce (Nauvoo) in 1833, Kimball was very successful in business. Among other ventures, he had a store situated on the foundation, the stones of which are seen in one of the above photos. In 1840, Hiram Kimball married Sarah Melissa Granger, a Latter-day Saint. Their home still stands in Nauvoo, not far from the store foundation site.