Walking Tour of Kanesville

This week was a special treat as our resident historian Gail Holmes took us on a walking tour of Council Bluffs (Kanesville). The picture shows Patriarch Holmes at the marker for the Block House built by the Army in 1837 to protect the Indians, later sold to the Catholics for a school for Indian children until 1842. Church members bought it in 1846 for a meeting house.

The city has changed a great deal of course, but still has much of the same layout and Broadway is still the main street. It is sad to note that over the years that much that had to do with Mormons has either been blotted out or ignored as the people in this area up until just a few years ago saw us as terrible people to be feared. Their Chamber of Commerce brochure in the 1950’s talked of the Mormons coming to town-- “they were a bad lot, but we took them in.” None of which was true. Mormons were the first settlers in 1846 so no one “took them in.” Our guide wrote the local newspaper about all the historical errors and they printed it resulting in invitations to speak to many groups. It has taken a while, but people seem to feel better towards us now, as many people have worked hard to change this sad, erroneous image. It may give you cause to think about why the Iowa Caucus was not too friendly to a Mormon named Romney!

Brother Holmes stands with Elder John Watson, my brother, and Director of the Mormon Trail Center at Historic Winter Quarters and Elder Bill Naylor. They are standing on Broadway in what would have been the heart of old Kanesville.

Orson Hyde was one of the most important players in Kanesville. He was well educated and a good businessman. He ran the newspaper, The Frontier Guardian, that stood on the corner across from the church (in the picture). It spread the word about this area all over the East and the British Isles encouraging people to come west to Zion. He was the Apostle that Brigham Young designated to preside over the Council Bluffs area (a large area along the Missouri River). He had dedicated Jerusalem to the return of the Jews in 1841 and a plaque honoring that dedication was placed in the Orson Hyde Garden (next to the Garden of Gethsemane) by the mayor of Jerusalem in 1948 when Israel was made a nation.

Orson Hyde loved music and the arts and built two Music Halls—a second after the first was made the Court House (above site). He convinced Aldo Dami to leave West Point Academy and come teach brass and woodwind music to the youth of Council Bluffs. They had band concerts regularly and even put on Macbeth.

There were many kinds of prosperous businesses in Kanesville. One man came to town and saw how well things were and went back to his hometown and got merchandise and set up a store. The largest store, The Emporium of the West, carried everything you could want. It even had a hall above that could be rented for weddings or special events and the food could be served from his bakery next door. The owner, Joseph Ellis Johnson, also owned the blacksmith shop down the street. There were five hotels, a post office, drug stores, two confectionry and bakery shops, a boot and shoe store, a library (you ‘rented” books), a watch repair shop and a Daguerreotype shop that would come to your home to photograph your family. Sad none of these pictures seem to have survived. It even had a saloon that was hit by lightning and burned to the ground!

The important Church site in Kanesville is the Tabernacle, a replica built a few years ago to commemorate the sustaining of Brigham Young as the Second President of the Church to follow Joseph Smith. His counselors were Heber C. Kimball and Willard Richards. The calling of Brigham actually took place in Orson Hyde’s home when the word of God was heard so clearly and loudly by the Apostles in attendance, that neighbors came running to find out what was happening.

Kanesville/Council Bluffs today is a charming little town that is mix of old and new, and classy modern and the not so classy—beautiful redone high school (ala UE or Binghamton High Schools in NY) and lovely landscaped brick fences with pictures of the past. It was the most important “jumping off”point (going beyond the western boundary of the US) in the whole Missouri Valley and saw thousands of Mormons, Gold Seekers , and other pioneers come to get supplies to move west. It represented a time of huge transition in the west—the end of “Indian sovereignty” and the rise of “white man rule.”