Samuel Kendall Gifford

We stayed a short time in Quincy and then Father moved about 22 miles up the river, about two miles above Seyma and fourteen miles below Warsaw in Hancock County. A committee was appointed by the Saints to find a location for the Saints’ headquarters. They found a place above Warsaw about eight miles that was called Commerce. It consisted of three stations or dwellings.


This was a very sickly place and none but Saints could live there and many of them died before they could subdue the destructive elements that filled the air in consequence of the low marshy land that lay right in the midst of the town.

But through the perseverance of the Saints coupled with the blessings of God, the swamps were drained and the land and elements were dedicated, and sickness and death became less frequent. Comfortable dwellings, fruitful fields, orchards, gardens, mills and other improvements and comforts sprung into existence to the astonishment of all around.