1839 - Around this time, the first home built by a Latter-day Saint in Commerce, soon to be Nauvoo, a log structure, was built by Theodore Turley.  The Prophet began to dictate his history to his clerk, James Mulholland.  He recorded this description of his new home in Illinois: "The land was mostly covered with tress and bushes, and much of it so wet that it was with the utmost difficulty a footman could get through, and totally impossible for teams.  Commerce was so unhealthful, very few could live there; but believing that it might become a healthful place by the blessing of heaven to the Saints, and no more eligible place presenting itself, I considered it wisdom to make an attempt to build up a city" (History of the Church, 3:375).