The years 1839–1845 were dramatic times for the followers of Joseph Smith in Nauvoo, Illinois. Those years were also filled with robust episodes for the settlers pouring into Iowa Territory on the opposite side of the Mississippi River, where the towns of Burlington, Fort Madison, Montrose, and Keokuk were booming after the US Army Corps of Engineers, commanded by a young ¬Robert E. Lee in the late 1830s, blasted a deeper channel that opened the upper Mississippi River to larger riverboat traffic. At the same time, Joseph Smith selected that area for the gathering of many thousands of Latter-day Saints on both sides of the river. At one point, Joseph Smith even thought of building two ¬temples as twin pillars on the Mississippi, one on the east in Nauvoo and the other on the west in Montrose. But guns and cannons also blasted away. A border war was fought between Iowa and Missouri in 1840, and influencers—including Laban Fleak, David Kilbourne, and Thomas Sharp—fanned anti-Mormon flames, while men of law—such as Hawkins Taylor, the sheriff of Lee County—worked tirelessly to maintain law and order. In 1846, Iowa was granted statehood and the Mormon pioneers began trekking west. This book publishes, often for the first time, handwritten histories, personal letters, and various documents that let these passionate voices be heard once again.