Yelrome, or Morley’s Settlement, was located twenty-five miles south of Nauvoo and approximately three miles north of Lima. Although Lima is technically in Adams County, it was so close to the Hancock County settlements that for all intents and purposes it can be included with them. Indeed, Lima, when combined with the minor colonies of Yelrome and Bear Creek, was one of the two major LDS colonies in Hancock County. It was also referred to by Joseph Smith as one of the “spokes on the wheel.â€
Spokes on the Wheel: Early Latter-day Saint Settlements in Hancock County, Illinois
By Donald Q. Cannon Ensign, Feb. 1986, 62
Even the casual student of LDS history has heard of Nauvoo, the “City
Beautiful.†While much is known about Nauvoo, relatively little is known about other Latter-day Saint settlements in Hancock County. Joseph Smith’s vision of settlement was not limited to Nauvoo. On 1 March 1843 he said: “There is a wheel; Nauvoo is the hub: we will drive the first spoke in Ramus, second in La Harpe, third Shokoquon, fourth in Lima: that is half the wheel. The other half is over the river.†1
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Yelrome
Yelrome, or Morley’s Settlement, was located twenty-five miles south of Nauvoo and approximately three miles north of Lima. Although Lima is technically in Adams County, it was so close to the Hancock County settlements that for all intents and purposes it can be included with them. Indeed, Lima, when combined with the minor colonies of Yelrome and Bear Creek, was one of the two major LDS colonies in Hancock County. It was also referred to by Joseph Smith as one of the “spokes on the wheel.â€
Isaac Morley was the first member of the Church to settle in the area that was later to be called Yelrome. Seeking refuge in Illinois after being driven from Missouri in 1839, the Morleys purchased a partially completed cabin, which they furnished and made suitable for a home. A few other Saints joined them, and Yelrome began to grow.
Yelrome is Morley spelled backwards, with an extra “e†for good measure. The name may have originated from an early penchant of the Saints to spell backwards. (The Council of Fifty was also called “Ytfif.â€) Yelrome also had other names: Morley Town, Hancock Settlement, Tioga, and Bear Creek. The name Bear Creek has often been a source of confusion, since it was also the name of another LDS settlement located along the stream. (The settlement of Bear Creek was also called Knowlton’s Settlement to further distinguish it from Yelrome.) The small town where Yelrome once was located is called Tioga, a name that may also have LDS origins, since one of the early Latter-day Saints who lived there was Alpheus Cutler from Tioga County Pennsylvania. 11
The names of the people who lived in Yelrome in the 1840s constitute a genealogical treasure chest. In addition to the Morleys and the Cutlers, many other members of the Church settled in the town, including Thomas Hickenlooper, Lucy Morley Allen, Orville Southland Cox, William Critchlow, Harriet Hawkins Critchlow, Enos Curtis, Edmond Durfee, William Garner, Anna Nash Gifford, and Solomon Hancock. 12
The Saints in this community came from a wide variety of economic, social, and educational backgrounds. Isaac Morley employed twelve men and sold his barrels in Quincy. Another Saint, Frederick Cox, ran a chair-making shop. Isaac Morley’s daughter, Cordelia, taught school. 13
When a branch of the Church was organized at Yelrome, the members sustained Isaac Morley as branch president, with Frederick Cox and Edward Whiting as counselors. Later, when the Yelrome Branch became part of the Lima Stake, the stake had 424 members. 14
Members of the Church in Yelrome had almost as many opportunities to hear the Prophet Joseph Smith speak as the members in Ramus did. On Sunday, 14 March 1843, the Prophet preached on the subject “Salvation through Knowledge,†teaching that “knowledge through our Lord and Savior Jesus Christ is the grand key that unlocks the glories and mysteries of the kingdom of heaven.†15
While the residents of Yelrome had their share of blessings, they also had problems with persecution. As pressures against the Saints in Hancock County increased, Yelrome became the target of mob attacks. Yelrome was vulnerable to attack for several reasons. First, it was located on the outskirts of Hancock County and was rather isolated. Second, it was situated between Warsaw on the north and Adams County on the south—both of which contained strong anti-Mormon elements.
The people of Yelrome were especially vulnerable to attack because of the presence of the noted anti-Mormon leader Colonel Levi Williams, who lived in Green Plains, about ten miles distant.
Whatever the reasons, trouble came in great measure. On 14 February 1845, Isaac Morley arrived in Nauvoo with news of the arrest of five brethren on false pretenses. By September, reports from Yelrome indicated that mobs had burned some LDS homes in the vicinity. An editorial in the Times and Seasons in November 1845 reported that nearly two hundred buildings had been burned. Many of these buildings belonged to settlers in Yelrome. On Saturday, 15 November 1845, a mob shot and killed Elder Edmund Durfee, a resident of Yelrome. Members of the mob later boasted that they killed Durfee over a bet of a gallon of whiskey that they could kill him with one shot. 16
The savage attacks against Yelrome attracted not only the attention of the Saints, but of nonmembers as well. Describing these events, Governor Thomas L. Ford wrote:
“At a Mormon settlement called Morley a few miles from Nauvoo, a band of incendiaries, on the night of September 19th began operations. Deliberately setting fire to the house of Edmund Durfee, they turned the inmates out-of-doors and threatened them with death if they did not at once leave the settlement, Durfee they subsequently killed. The mob continued its nefarious work until Morley was in ashes, and its people homeless.†17
The problems at Yelrome did not occur until relatively late in its history, with most of the mob activity taking place in 1845 and 1846. But the people of Yelrome were not the only ones who suffered. Similar incidents happened among other LDS settlements in Hancock County.
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11. John Clifton Moffitt, “Isaac Morley on the American Frontier,†unpublished paper located at Special Collections, Harold B. Lee Library, Brigham Young University, pp. 19-20; History of the Church, 4:110.
12. T. Edgar Lyon file. Microfilm of name card file in possession of author. The names listed in this paragraph are only a tiny fraction of the hundreds of names on the microfilm.
13. Richard Henrie Morley, “The Life and Contributions of Isaac Morley,†M.A. thesis, Brigham Young University, 1965, pp. 77-79.
14. Ibid, p. 81.
15. Andrew F. Ehat and Lyndon W. Cook, comp. and ed., The Words of Joseph Smith (Provo, Utah: Religious Studies Center, Brigham Young University, 1980), p. 201. Spelling and capitalization have been altered to conform to modern usage.
16. History of the Church, 7:373, 439, 444, 523-24.
17. Thomas L. Ford, History of Illinois, From Its Commencement as a State in 1818 to 1847 (Chicago: S. C. Griggs and Co., 1854), p. 406.
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Gospel topic: Church history
[map] Settlements in Hancock County surrounding Nauvoo. (Illustrated by Brent Birch.)