I've posted this several times in the past, and the main rebuttal I've gotten (can't remember if it came from Don or not, who has posted, at times, on this board), is that the swamp was being drained, so it was possible that in the two year period of draining the land became very healthy. I am extremely skeptical of this. Of course draining the swamp will help, but I have found several sources that attest to the fact that the Saints had health problems the entire time they lived in Nauvoo. Even if we grant that, by 1843, the draining of the swamp was significant enough to merit Joseph Smith claiming "in the name of the Lord" that the land was the most healthful, there is still evidence that Joseph Smith pushed people to move to this part of Nauvoo in 1841, when it was still a deathly sick hole.
I've accumulated several citations from different texts that are pertinent to this discussion, and I’ll share them here with brief commentary. I made some errors in transcriptions and have temporarily added the missing letters within apostrophes until I can later verify them later.
"TRUTH WILL PREVAIL."
Vol. 2. No. 24.
City of Nauvoo, Illinois, October 15, 1841.
Whole No. 36.
Times and Seasons, Vol.2, No.24, p.567
AN EPISTLE OF THE TWELVE,
Most of the plats in this city before referred to, as well as several farms and large lots of land in this and the adjoining counties are paid for, and are secured to the church by good and sufficient titles; while the town plat for the Town of Warren near Warsaw is secured on such conditions that the brethren can be accommodated with lots on very reasonable terms; but the large plat in Nauvoo purchased of Messrs. Hotchkiss, Tuttle & Co. of New Haven, Conn., remains unpaid for, and the time has now arrived, when it is very desirable on the part of the church as well as on the part of the gentlemen of whom it was purchased, that payment should be made and a warrantee title secured; to accomplish which we have been called upon by the united voice of the General Conference to address the churches in the eastern states to advise with the brethren in those regions, and devise ways and means whereby this debt may be liquidated, Hotchkiss & Co. satisfied, the plot secured to the church, and the brethren in the east at the same time transfer their real estate from the place where it now is, to this city or region of country according to their desire.
The contract for the "Hotchkiss purchase" in Nauvoo, consisting of upwards of five hundred acres, was entered into on, or about the 9th of August 1839, for the specified sum of fifty three thousand five hundred dollars, and security was given to Messrs. H. R. Hotchkies, Smith Tuttle, and John Gillet, for the amount of the same in two notes of equal amount one payable in ten years, and the other in twenty years from the date thereof signed by Messrs. Hyrum Smith, Joseph Smith, and Sidney Rigdon. In August last, interest to the amount of six thousand dollars, or upwards, had accumulated on said notes which it has not been in the power of the church to pay up to the present time. The nature of this purchase and the situation of the church is such, that it is necessary that the note should be take a warrantee title secured immediate in progress with Messrs. Hotchkies & Co. to effect this thing, and bring forward a final settlement.
But, say you, what can we do to accomplish this great and desirable object: Let the brethren in the eastern states, who have lands which they wish to dispose of, so that they may remove hither and secure to themselves an inheritance among the saints, either in the cities or farms in the vicinity, and are willing to have their lands in the east made over to Messrs. Hotchkies & Co. towards the payment of the foregoing notes, communicate with us immediately, at this place, stating to us the extent and value of their property. Then as soon as we shall have received communications concerning property sufficient to cancel the obligations, and the necessary preliminaries are understood with Messrs. Hotchkies & Co., we will dispatch an agent to New Haven, to complete the negotiation, transfer your property, take up the notes, and secure a deed; and those whose property is thus transferred can have the value thereof here, in city lots, or lands in the vicinity; and thus your property will prove to you as good as money, inasmuch as you desire to emigrate, and you will no longer be obliged to tarry afar off, because that money is so scarce you cannot sell and get your pay. If there are those among you, to whom God has given in abundance, and they desire to appropriate some portion thereof for the benefit of his people; for the redemption of Zion; for a blessing to the widows of those who have been slain for the word of God, and been buried in a well, for a sustenance to their fatherless children, and provide for them a habitation, they cannot do it more effectually than by devoting a portion of their sustenance towards liquidating this claim.
To those brethren who live so far distant that they cannot send in their loaded teams, and yet desire to assist in building the Lord's House, we would say, gather yourselves, substance, your silver, and gold, and apparel and of your superabundance Lord and see if be will not pour you out a blessing till there is not room enough to receive it.
Brethren the blessings of the kingdom are for you, for the body of Christ, for all the members, and God will help those who will help themselves, and bless those who will bless each other, and do as they would be done unto. The gold and the silver is the Lords; all the treasures of the earth, the flocks and the herds of the fields and the cattle of the thousand hills are his; if he were hungry would he crave thy food, or thirsty would he ask thy drink? Nay! he would only ask that which was his own, he would feast on his own flocks and quench his thirst at his own springs. This God is the God of the saints, he is your God, and he has made you stewards of all that has been committed to you, and will require his own with usury; and will you not be faithful in a little that you may be made rulers over many cities? Yes, you will, we know you will.
The journeyings and gatherings, and buildings of the saints are nothing new, and as they are expecting, looking and praying for the completion of the dispensation of the fullness of times, they must also expect that their progress will be onward or they will be of no avail, for what is not of faith is sin, and can you believe that God will hear your prayers, and bring you on your journey, gather you, and build your houses, and you not put forth one hand or make one exertion to help yourselves? No! therefore inasmuch as the saints believe that father Abraham journeyed to a distant land, at the command of the Highest, where himself and household, (whose household we are, if we keep the commandments,) might enjoy the fruits of their labors unmolested, and worship the God of heaven according to the dictates of their own conscience and his law. That his seed afterwards gathered to Canaan, the Land of Promise; that David was commanded to build a house where the Son of Man might have a place to lay his head, and the disciples be endued w with one accord in one place; they must also believe that this dispensation comprehends all the great works of all former dispensations; and that the children must gather as did the fathers, must build a house, where they may be endued, and be found together worshipping and doing as their fathers did, when Jehovah spake and the angels of heaven ministered unto them; and if these things are not in this generation then we have not arrived at the dispensation of the fullness of times as we anticipate and our faith and prayers are vain.
Is it possible that we labor in vain, and toil for nought, and that we shall be disappointed at the last? No! we know assuredly that the set time to favor Zion has come, and her sons and daughters shall rejoice in her glory. The time has come when the great Jehovah would have a resting place on earth, a habitation for his chosen, where his law shall be revealed, and his servants be enduer the honest in heart from the four winds; where the saints may enter the Baptismal Font for their dead relations, so that they may be judged according to men in the flesh, and live according to God in the spirit, and come forth in the celestial kingdom; a place, over which the heavenly messengers may watch and trouble the waters as in days of old, so that when the sick are put therein they shall be made whole; a place where all the ordinances shall be made manifest and the saints shall unite in the songs of Zion, even praise, thanksgiving and hallelujahs to God and the Lamb, that he has wrought out their deliverance, and bound satan fast in chains.
What then shall we do? Let us all arise and with one united and mighty exertion, by the strength of Israel's God, oppose the powers of darkness, and every being and principle that may rise up against us, and complete the work already commenced. Let us not for a moment lend an ear to evil and designing men, who would subvert the truth, and blacken the character of the servant of the Most High God, by publishing (that he is enriching) himself on the spoils of the brethren. When Br. Joseph stated to the general conference the amount and situation of the property of the church, of which he is trustee in trust by the united voice of the church, he also stated the amount of his own possessions on earth; and what do you think it was? we will tell you; his old Charley horse, given him in Kirtland; two pet deer; two old turkeys, and four young ones; the old cow given him by a brother in Missouri, his old Major, dog; his wife, children, and a little household furniture, and this is the amount of the great possessions of that man whom God has called to lead his people in these last days; this the sum total of the great estates, the splendid mansions and noble living of him who has spent a life of toil and suffering, of privation and hardships, of imprisonments and chains, of dungeons and vexatious suits, and every kind of contumely could heap upon him, and last of all report him as rolling in wealth and luxury which he had plundered from the spoils of those for whose good he had thus toiled and suffered. Who would be willing to suffer what he has suffered, and labor near twenty years as he has done, for the wealth he is in possession of?
Brethren, in view of all these things let us be up and doing. Let those in the eastern states use all diligence in communicating to us their ability to assist in the Hotchkiss payment, being assured that no exertion they can make, will equal what has already been made for them and the church generally; and let all the saints come up to the places of gathering, and with their mites and their abundance as God has given them in trust, help to build up the old waste places which have been thrown down for many generations, knowing, that when they are completed, they will belong unto the people of the Most High God, even the meek, the honest in heart, he shall possess all things in the due time of the Lord. Be not covetous, but deal in righteousness, for what the saints shall not possess in righteousness they shall not possess for no unrighteous thing can enter into the kingdom; therefore, beloved brethren, deal justly, love mercy, walk humbly before God, and whatever your hands find to do, do it with your might, keeping all commandments, and then, whether in life or in death, all things will be yours, whether they be temples or lands, houses or vineyards, baptisms or endowments, revelations or healings, all things will be yours, for you will be Christ's and Christ is God's.
Comments: this is an official epistle from the Twelve, printed by the church’s newspaper. It clearly phrases the invitation for Saints in the East to sell their land (transfer over to pay the debt) and move to Nauvoo in language that implies or outright states that
this is their religious duty. The date is 1841, the same year that Joseph Smith expressed his view that the land was a deathly sick hole.
MINUTES OF A CONFERENCE OF THE CHURCH OF Jesus Christ OF LATTER-DAY SAINTS, HELD IN NAUVOO. ILL, COMMENCING OCT. 1ST, 1841.
Tuesday 5th A. M. Conference opened by the choir singing hymn 274 and prayer by Bro. O. Pratt.
Bro. Orson Pratt, by request of Pres't Joseph Smith, presented and read to the conference a recent letter from Smith Tuttle Esq, one of the proprietors of the Hotchkiss purchase, in reference to some misunderstanding in the adjustment of their claims, and conciliatory of any hard feelings growing out of such misunderstanding.
Bro. B. Young spoke on the contents of the letter and expressed his earnest desire that that business might be speedily adjusted, and a proper title obtained by ttion, Voted that Pres't. Joseph Smith write an answer to Mr. Hotchkiss on the subject of his claim.
On Motion by Pres't Joseph Smith -- Voted that the Twelve write an epistle to the saints abroad to use their influence and exertions to secure, by exchange, purchase, donation &c, a title to the Hotchkiss purchase.
Joseph Smith, History of the Church, Vol. 4, p.408
[p.408] The Hotchkiss purchase, to which the foregoing letters relate includes all the land lying north of the White purchase to the river and thence on the river south, including the best steamboat landing, but is the most sickly part of Nauvoo.
Robert B. Flanders, Nauvoo: Kingdom on the Mississippi, p.41
The "Hotchkiss Purchase" was for Smith and the Church the greatest business venture since the Kirtland Bank.45 Hotchkiss apparently [p.42] knew a city when he saw one coming upon his property; accordingly the price was high, considering the approaching deflation and monetary stringency. The purchase was in the form of a land contract, the Church to have possession of the property but not the deeds until the debt was paid. Apparently no money was paid down, and the terms were entailed in a series of notes. Two notes of $25,000, one maturing in ten and one in twenty years, seem to have been the principle. There were forty additional notes of $1,500 each, two of which were due every twelve months for twenty years. These were apparently the interest: eight per cent a year simple interest on $50,000. There were two additional notes of $1,250, one due in five years and the other in ten. So the Church was to pay the Hotchkiss partners $3,000 each year for twenty years, plus $1,250 the fifth year, $26,250 the tenth year, and $25,000 the twentieth year. Finally an additional $2,000 was to be paid Hugh White, who owned a small interest in the property. The total amount was $114,500.46 Smith subsequently claimed that Hotchkiss had agreed verbally that no interest was to be charged, but the contracts do not suggest any such agreement. The obligations of the Hotchkiss Purchase forced Smith and the Church into the real-estate business on a large scale and determined that city lots in Nauvoo would not be inexpensive.
Robert B. Flanders, Nauvoo: Kingdom on the Mississippi, p.43
Smith began at once to promote Nauvoo as a new gathering place for the Saints. He wrote letters late in May, 1839, urging his friends to come settle, reserving lots for them, and speaking of house building and the general development of the city. In July he issued a circular to all members of the Church to urge the principle of the gathering:
Robert B. Flanders, Nauvoo: Kingdom on the Mississippi, p.43
There will be here and there a Stake [of Zion] for the gathering of the Saints. Some may have cried peace, but the Saints and the world will have little peace from henceforth. Let this not hinder us from going to the Stakes; for God has told us to flee, not dallying, or we will be scattered, one here, and another there. There your children shall be blessed, and you in the midst of friends where you may be blessed. The Gospel net gathers in every kind.
Robert B. Flanders, Nauvoo: Kingdom on the Mississippi, p.43
I prophesy, that that man who tarries after he has an opportunity of going, will be afflicted by the devil. Wars are at hand; we must not delay.[p.44] …We ought to have the building up of Zion as our greatest object. When wars come, we shall have to flee to Zion. The cry is to make haste. The last revelation says, ye shall not have time to have gone over the earth, until these things come. It will come as did the cholera, war, fires, and earthquakes; one pestilence after another, until the Ancient of Days comes, then judgment will be given to the Saints.49
Once again, note the strong religious language used: if the Saints did not move to Nauvoo, they would be “afflicted by the devil.”
Robert B. Flanders, Nauvoo: Kingdom on the Mississippi, p.44
The evidence does not indicate how many responded to Smith's invitation that first summer. Little notice was taken of the matter in the Prophet's journal. On June 13 he wrote, "About this time Elder Theodore Turley raised the first house built by the Saints in this place; it was built of logs…on the northeast comer of lot 4, block 147, of the White purchase." Four months later he mentioned casually, "Quite a number of families moving into Commerce."50
Robert B. Flanders, Nauvoo: Kingdom on the Mississippi, p.45
At the annual General Conference held in Nauvoo in April, 1840, it became clear that the indebtedness incurred by the land purchases was likely to be a continuing concern for the whole Church. After a report of the First Presidency was read "with regard to their proceedings in purchasing lands, and securing a place of gathering for the Saints," Joseph Smith "made some observations respecting the pecuniary affairs of the Church, and requested the brethren to step forward, and assist in liquidating the debt on the town plot, so that the poor might have an inheritance." That the poor should have [p.46] a literal inheritance of land in Zion and the stakes was basic Mormon doctrine, and one that had caused some difficulty in Missouri, where there seemed to be more poor to inherit than there were rich willing to provide inheritances. If the poor were to be given Nauvoo lots, the problem of "liquidating the debt on the town plot" would indeed put heavy demands on the brethren. Smith further advised the conference that the elders who went on missions should teach the gathering "as set forth in the Holy Scriptures," but that respecting those who gathered, "It had been wisdom for most of the Church to keep on this side of the river, that a foundation might be established in this place; but that now it was the privilege of the Saints to occupy the lands in Iowa, or wherever the Spirit might lead them."53
Robert B. Flanders, Nauvoo: Kingdom on the Mississippi, p.53
The greatest threat to the Nauvoo gathering was the unhealthfulness of the place. Malaria was a disease endemic in the Mississippi Valley, debilitating and killing the inhabitants almost everywhere.69 Nauvoo was on a stretch of the river bottom plagued with an especially high incidence of the disease. The Mormons were afflicted as soon as they began to settle there in the summer of 1839. "There was no meeting," wrote Smith of a sabbath in June, "on account of much rain and much sickness…This week and the following were [p.54] generally spent in visiting the sick and administering to them [the sacred rite of anointing and prayer]; some had faith enough and were healed; others had not…Many remain sick, and new cases are occurring daily."70 John D. Lee called the sickness that summer a "plague," with so many ill there were hardly enough well to care for them. Morale was low, but stories of miraculous healings by the prayer of faith were told and retold.71
Robert B. Flanders, Nauvoo: Kingdom on the Mississippi, p.54
The following summer, 1840, the epidemic was worse; many died, and few escaped the ravages of the fever. Smith was worried about the situation, but hoped that things would be better in the future. In his "Proclamation" of January, 1841, advertising Nauvoo to the Church he wrote: "This place has been objected to by some on account of the sickness that has prevailed in the summer months, but it is the opinion of Dr. [John C.] Bennett that Hancock County, and all the eastern and southern portions of Nauvoo, are as healthful as any other portions of the western country, to acclimatized citizens; whilst the northwestern portion of the city has suffered much affliction from fever and ague, which, however, Dr. Bennett thinks can be easily remedied by draining the sloughs on the adjacent islands in the Mississippi."72 But in the summer of 1841 the disease was calamitous. The dead included recent gatherers and first settlers alike. The Prophet mourned the loss of his close friend and personal secretary, Robert B. Thompson, his father, the Patriarch of the Church, and his youngest brother, twenty-six-year-old Don Carlos. So many died that Sidney Rigdon preached a "general funeral sermon" for them all. Said the Prophet sadly in a letter to Horace Hotchkiss, "As to the growth of the place, it is very rapid, and would be more so, were it not for sickness and death. There have been many deaths, which leaves a melancholy reflection, but we cannot help it."73
My comments: There can be no doubt that Joseph Smith was encouraging people, using the strongest religious language possible, to move to Nauvoo even as he was well aware that the health risks in Nauvoo were enormous.
Robert B. Flanders, Nauvoo: Kingdom on the Mississippi, p.130
The first notes apparently were paid; but the following summer, 1841, the problem of meeting the second payment would again be acute. So Smith and his brethren hit upon a new device which would meet the Hotchkiss obligation, promote the gathering to Nauvoo, and perhaps even raise extra money. The technique was to send agents among the Saints in the East to convince them to move to Nauvoo, and to give them bills of exchange for the titles to their property. These bills could be cashed in Nauvoo for lots or farm lands of comparable value. The agents would give the titles to eastern lands thus acquired to Hotchkiss in an amount sufficient to pay the notes due him, and if possible sell the rest. Hotchkiss agreed to this arrangement. The Mormon agents who went east in the spring of 1841 were the Smith brothers, Hyrum and William, and Dr. Isaac Galland. The title-trading business seemed at first a success. William Smith wrote from Chester County, Pennsylvania, a fertile field of missionary endeavor, "the cause in these eastern lands is flourishing, and we want more laborers; fifty doors opened for preaching where there is but one laborer. I wish you would send us more."31 Joseph Smith recorded one such exchange of land on February 28, 1842: "Paid Brother Robert Pierce $2,700, the balance due him for a farm Dr. Galland bought…in Brandywine Township, Chester County, Pennsylvania, for $5,000, namely [three Nauvoo lots, valued at $1,100, $800, and $806], the remainder having been previously paid…and Brother Pierce expressed his satisfaction of the whole…" Pierce communicated that satisfaction to the Times and Seasons: "many supposed…that I would get nothing in return [for my farm], but I wish to say to all my old friends and enemies in Pennsylvania…that I have received my pay in full from the Church…through you, sir, as trustee-in-trust, according to the original contract…"32 The need for a testimonial suggests some suspicion of such land barters.
D. Michael Quinn, New Mormon History, Ch.5, p.79
In an 1841 letter to Hotchkiss Smith fumed, "I presume you are no stranger to the part of the city plot we bought of you being a sickly hole [and] although we have been keeping up appearances, and holding out inducements to encourage immigration . . . we scarcely think it justifiable in consequence of the mortality that almost invariably awaits those who come." This was one of the rare occasions when Smith did not "keep up appearances" as all real estate promoters must do and alluded to one of Nauvoo's great problems. Endemic malaria was the worst natural scourge of the Mississippi Basin, and Smith had located his town on a wet river bottomland that swarmed in summer with infected mosquitoes. The plague was an annual event of the hot season, and hundreds died, victims of the "unhealthy air." Draining the area helped, but new settlers in particular remained susceptible to infection by mosquitoes breeding in nearby islands and sloughs.
This affirms my suspicion that draining the swamps would not provide an immediate answer.
Here are excerpts that demonstrate how sick the Saints were:
Brain Stuy, Collected Discourses Vol. 5, p.220
The first time I went to Nauvoo I was full of ague and fever, in the spring of 1840. I called at the Prophet Joseph's house and asked him if I might sleep in his hayloft, being poorly, did not like to lay out of doors, and had no place to go to. He looked at me and said, "Brother Franklin, you shall stay here in the house; I see you are not hearty."
Conference Report, October 1911, p.64
During the previous summer, while the Saints were still in Missouri, the Prophet, voicing the word of the Lord, had directed the Apostles to take a mission to Europe, and the appointment designated the very date upon which they should leave Far West, starting from the Temple lot in that city. This was before the mob troubles arose, and before there was any prospect of an armed collision between Missourians and Mormons. But now all was changed! The Saints had been driven out; and it was almost as much as a Mormon's life was worth to be seen in Missouri. The day set for the departure of the Apostles was approaching, but they were far away, and the mob leaders were boasting that "Joe Smith's prophecy" concerning the event would fail. Joseph himself was a prisoner in the hands of the Missourians, as was his brother, Hyrum Smith, also Parley P. Pratt, and other leaders; but Brigham Young, Heber C. Kimball, Orson Pratt, John Taylor, and others of the Twelve were at liberty, and they determined to fulfill the Prophet's prediction. Accordingly before daybreak on the day appointed, April 26, 1839, they rode into Far West, held a meeting on the Temple lot, ordained Wilford Woodruff and George A. Smith to the Apostleship, and started upon their foreign mission; the enemy meanwhile wrapt in slumber, oblivious to what was taking place.
Conference Report, October 1911, p.64
Delayed by the rounding of Nauvoo, Illinois, and by an epidemic of fever and ague that swept over that newly settled region, the Apostles did not cross the Atlantic until about a year later. Landing at Liverpool, penniless, and among strangers, they remained in Great Britain a little over twelve months, during which period they baptized seven or eight thousand persons, and raised up branches of the Church in almost every noted city and town throughout the United Kingdom. They also established a periodical, "The Millennial Star," with Parley P. Pratt as editor; published five thousand copies of the Book of Mormon, fifty thousand tracts, and three thousand hymn books; besides emigrating a thousand people to Nauvoo, and rounding a permanent emigration agency. The British Mission had previously been opened by Heber C. Kimball and Orson Hyde, with their associates; now its foundations were laid broad and deep.
Dialogue, Vol.12, No.3, p.20 - p.21
As the Saints moved into the newly purchased area they soon succumbed to the "ague" and chills and fever. They already had been weakened by the rigorous midwinter trek out of Missouri and the ordeal of persecution in that state. Now they moved into an area where malaria was endemic.26 Among the refugees were several other young botanic physicians, who went from bed to bed often prescribing Sapington's pills (which contained quinine) .27 The epidemic, however, was beyond their capabilities and, ultimately, on 22 July 1839 Joseph Smith rose from his own sickbed to go about administering to and healing all the sick in the community. The spiritual healings, in most cases, were temporary, but heal they did. It was not the first time that the Saints had been healed by anointing and blessing, but there had been nothing on a similar scale.
Dialogue, Vol.12, No.3, p.22
During his time among the Mormons Bennett continued to practice medicine, between his duties as mayor, major general, university chancellor and counselor to the president. Under his direction the swamps along the banks of the Mississippi, both in Nauvoo and across the river in Montrose, were drained. A ditch was dug across Nauvoo to rid the lower town of its excess water. He did everything he could to eliminate the miasmas, or fowl air, that were believed to cause the ague, chills and fevers which plagued the city. He also organized a Board of Health. And the general health of the community improved. In 1840 Bennett had been one of the leaders in founding the first state medical society in Illinois, and unquestionably was allied with the orthodox practice on his arrival in Nauvoo. It is impossible to ascertain how "heroic" his practice was, however, and by the time he left Nauvoo he had changed his allegiance. He later joined the faculty of Alva Curtis' Botanico-Medical Institute of Ohio, a neo-Thomsonian school, and wrote for its Botanico-Medical Recorder.33
Dialogue, Vol.26, No.2, p.126 - p.127
A diary recently unearthed by the sixth of the Zinas, my friend and near contemporary Zina Elizabeth Brown, provides a window on the young Zina Diantha from June 1844, just prior to the death of Joseph Smith, until August 1845, as anti-Mormon mobs are beginning the violence which will drive the Saints west the following spring.19 The picture it paints of the little family is one of uncertainty, poverty, sickness. Henry suffers twice in the year with bouts of the "chills and fever"; Zina is afflicted for ten days with a painful swelling in her face, an "ague" she calls it, which finally "discharged wonderfully" when the skin broke; and three-year-old Zebulon contracts scarlet fever which continues to "prey uppon the child" for nearly three weeks. At other times Zina nurses others in her home: Apostle Amasa Lyman; a lone woman whom her brother William brought her; her brother Oliver; a child who eventually dies there.
Journal of Discourses, Vol. 3, p.289
Do any of you recollect when you used to have the ague THIRTEEN months in the year? Do you recollect of ever calling upon an Elder to lay hands on the sick, and of his beginning to shake while he was attending to the ordinances? Can you not recollect that at times, in Nauvoo, there would not be a house without two or three sick persons in it a great portion of the year? And when a heavy person died there, do you not remember that it was as much as we could do t get enough men round the coffin to lift it, because we all were so used up with the ague, and were so very sickly? Is it so now? are nine out of ten of the [p.290] brethren sick here? Do you go to your houses and find a couple shaking on one bed, another in a fever, and a child on the floor unable to get up, and perhaps not one in the family able to get another a drink of water? You can remember such scenes in our former locations, but you are now in a country where these things are comparatively unknown. Do you recollect the time, when in the midst of agues, that the only nourishment many could give the sick was a coarse corn dodger? Corn was often not worth more than twelve cents a bushel, but you could not always get out to carry it to mill; and when you could, you often found the mill so constructed that it would grind two kernels into one, and such was the nourishment for the sick.
Journal of Discourses, Vol. 3, p.290
Every night the sickly season was talked of, and that sickly season lasted all that part of the year in which we wanted to be at work raising bread. And when you went to meeting, and looked round upon the congregation, you saw an assemblage of pale countenances; and often saw numbers of them starting off before the close of the meeting, because they were unable to stay any longer, and looking as though they would fall down and never be able to rise again. But I now challenge the world to produce a healthier looking congregation than this.
Of course Joseph Smith lived in this same sick death hole, so it must be said he was as willing to endanger his own life as he was to endanger the lives of others.