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Show I George Wi Romney, Pres. Hugh B. Brown and David M. Kennedy confer at groundbreaking. Elder Harold B. Lee dedicates Nauvoo Branch Chapbl. ED K STORY AND PHOTOS By J M. HESLOP NAUVOO, ILL. chapter In the history of the was written May 24 as ground for the $900,000 Nauvoo Information Center. This Is a soul searching experience to stand on this place where so many of Gods people lived and some died, said President Hugh B. Brown, first counselor in the First Presidency. As I look over the Mississippi River as Another flows through Nauvoo and remember what happened here I realize the Lords plan is unmovable, for he knows best what is good in the overall picture, he added. Twelve men spaded the warm, damp soil as rain clouds disappeared to bring the first sunny days in nearly two weeks. President Brown along with Elder Harold B. Lee and Elder Delbert L. Stapley of the Council of the Twelve were joined by Secretary of the Treasury David M. Kennedy and Secretary of Housing and Urban Development George Romney in manning file shovels. George B. Hartzog Jr., director of National Parks Service; Mayor R. C. Yager of Nauvoo, J. LeRoy Kimball, Harold Fabian, A. Hamer Reiser, J. Willard Marriott and A. Edwin Kendrew, officers of Nauvoo Restoration Inc., also manned shovels. The meeting that preceded the ground breaking was held in a larga circus tent on a grassy slope next to the vineyard on Young Street between Main and Partridge. Twelve hundred guests were seated under the tent and another 680 were counted in the oversow area around the open-side- it d tent Elder Delbert - L. Dr. Kimball, president of Nauvoo Restoration, extended his greetings and introduced the program The speakers included Mr. Fabian, who said This saga of American history must be restored because it is an important part of the westward movement. What we are doing here will put a spark of life back in Nauvoo. Secy. Kennedy marveled that the Nauvoo settlers built so substantially. They were men of faith, vision and energy. They I wish we did it almost without money could do the same thing now, George, he chided Secy. Romney. He indicated that he bad given up most of his board assign ments, including that of chairman of the Continental Bank, but I remained with Nauvoo Restoration. Secy. Romney indicated that both of his grandfathers had been part of the Nauvoo era. He said "The Mormons of Nauvoo bad no arguement about which came first Stapley signs 'Sytographs at Nauvoo event. - Continued on page It |