{"id":54547,"date":"2026-09-18T04:13:48","date_gmt":"2026-09-18T10:13:48","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/timesandseasons.org\/?p=54547"},"modified":"2026-09-14T09:22:23","modified_gmt":"2026-09-14T15:22:23","slug":"the-penny-fund-and-the-british-lifeline-financing-the-temple-in-the-1840s","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/timesandseasons.org\/index.php\/2026\/09\/the-penny-fund-and-the-british-lifeline-financing-the-temple-in-the-1840s\/","title":{"rendered":"The Penny Fund and the British Lifeline: Financing the Temple in the 1840s"},"content":{"rendered":"<p data-path-to-node=\"6\">Today, the construction of Latter-day Saint temples is a highly streamlined operation funded by a centralized, global tithing system. But in the 1840s, raising a monumental stone edifice on the edge of the American frontier required an entirely different, grassroots financial engine. A fascinating new interview with Elizabeth Kuehn over at the Latter-day Saint history blog, <i data-path-to-node=\"6\" data-index-in-node=\"352\">From the Desk<\/i>, unpacks exactly <a href=\"https:\/\/fromthedesk.org\/how-was-the-nauvoo-temple-financed\/\">how the original Nauvoo Temple was financed<\/a>. Exploring everything from the trauma of the Kirtland era to the ingenuity of pioneer women, the article details how early Saints relied on a combination of labor tithing, independent women&#8217;s initiatives, and crucial infusions of cash from British converts to build the House of the Lord without bankrupting the young Church.<\/p>\n<p data-path-to-node=\"6\"><!--more--><\/p>\n<blockquote class=\"wp-embedded-content\" data-secret=\"OPzjJ3KqSr\"><p><a href=\"https:\/\/fromthedesk.org\/how-was-the-nauvoo-temple-financed\/\">How Was the Nauvoo Temple Financed?<\/a><\/p><\/blockquote>\n<p><iframe loading=\"lazy\" class=\"wp-embedded-content\" sandbox=\"allow-scripts\" security=\"restricted\" style=\"position: absolute; visibility: hidden;\" title=\"&#8220;How Was the Nauvoo Temple Financed?&#8221; &#8212; From the Desk\" src=\"https:\/\/fromthedesk.org\/how-was-the-nauvoo-temple-financed\/embed\/#?secret=xy22j1oEj0#?secret=OPzjJ3KqSr\" data-secret=\"OPzjJ3KqSr\" width=\"500\" height=\"282\" frameborder=\"0\" marginwidth=\"0\" marginheight=\"0\" scrolling=\"no\"><\/iframe><\/p>\n<h3 data-path-to-node=\"7\">Escaping the Kirtland Debt<\/h3>\n<p data-path-to-node=\"8\">One of the primary drivers of the Nauvoo Temple&#8217;s financial strategy was the economic fallout of the Church&#8217;s first temple in Ohio. The construction of the Kirtland Temple had plunged Joseph Smith and the institutional Church into a massive financial deficit.<\/p>\n<p data-path-to-node=\"9\">To avoid repeating that disaster, explicit directions were given for how this new project would operate. As Kuehn explains, &#8220;Early Latter-day Saints financed the Nauvoo Temple through labor and property tithing to avoid crippling Kirtland-era debt.&#8221; Because hard cash was incredibly scarce on the frontier, this tithing rarely took the form of currency. Instead, the burden was met through property and sweat. Men donated &#8220;one out of every ten days&#8221; to physically work on the building. For those without building skills, tithing was paid through essential &#8220;in-kind&#8221; donations of property, livestock, and produce.<\/p>\n<h3 data-path-to-node=\"10\">The Penny Fund and Women&#8217;s Contributions<\/h3>\n<p data-path-to-node=\"11\">While the men largely supplied the raw physical labor and building materials, the women of the Church drove several independent, highly effective financial campaigns to purchase what could not be quarried or lumbered. One of the most famous of these was the &#8220;Penny Fund.&#8221;<\/p>\n<p data-path-to-node=\"12\">Spearheaded by Mercy Fielding Thompson, this initiative generated the capital needed for expensive, manufactured goods. Kuehn highlights the mechanics of this effort: &#8220;The penny fund that Mercy Fielding Thompson started was a subscription for a penny a week or fifty-two cents a year to buy supplies, like glass and nails.&#8221; Though individually small, these micro-donations successfully pooled into a massive resource. But the sisters didn&#8217;t stop at glass and nails; Kuehn points out that women further &#8220;accelerated Nauvoo Temple construction by purchasing a crane&#8221; for the worksite, on top of donating essential clothing and supplies to keep the laborers working.<\/p>\n<h3 data-path-to-node=\"13\">A Transatlantic Undertaking<\/h3>\n<p data-path-to-node=\"14\">It is easy to view the Nauvoo Temple as a strictly localized project, but Kuehn&#8217;s dive into the ledgers reveals it was actually a transatlantic undertaking. The Saints in Nauvoo were heavily supported by members living far beyond the city limits.<\/p>\n<p data-path-to-node=\"15\">Crucially, the massive undertaking &#8220;drew crucial, often-overlooked financial support from converts in Great Britain.&#8221; Without the influx of funds and goods from these newly baptized British Saints, the localized labor of the Nauvoo residents would not have been enough to push the monumental stone structure to completion.<\/p>\n<hr \/>\n<p data-path-to-node=\"16\">For more of Kuehn&#8217;s insights on what specific ledgers reveal about the day-to-day sacrifices of the Saints, the exact mechanics of 19th-century tithing, and how the Church navigated the chaotic frontier economy, head on over to the Latter-day Saint history blog, <i data-path-to-node=\"16\" data-index-in-node=\"263\">From the Desk<\/i>, to read the full interview about <a href=\"https:\/\/fromthedesk.org\/how-was-the-nauvoo-temple-financed\/\">financing the Nauvoo Temple<\/a> with Elizabeth Kuehn.<\/p>\n<p data-path-to-node=\"16\">While you&#8217;re there, check out our new page about <a href=\"https:\/\/fromthedesk.org\/who-was-orson-pratt\/\">Orson Pratt<\/a>!<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"<p>Today, the construction of Latter-day Saint temples is a highly streamlined operation funded by a centralized, global tithing system. But in the 1840s, raising a monumental stone edifice on the edge of the American frontier required an entirely different, grassroots financial engine. A fascinating new interview with Elizabeth Kuehn over at the Latter-day Saint history blog, From the Desk, unpacks exactly how the original Nauvoo Temple was financed. Exploring everything from the trauma of the Kirtland era to the ingenuity of pioneer women, the article details how early Saints relied on a combination of labor tithing, independent women&#8217;s initiatives, and crucial infusions of cash from British converts to build the House of the Lord without bankrupting the young Church.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":10397,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_jetpack_memberships_contains_paid_content":false,"footnotes":""},"categories":[2890],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-54547","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-from-the-desk"],"jetpack_sharing_enabled":true,"jetpack_featured_media_url":"","_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/timesandseasons.org\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/54547","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/timesandseasons.org\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/timesandseasons.org\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/timesandseasons.org\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/10397"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/timesandseasons.org\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=54547"}],"version-history":[{"count":2,"href":"https:\/\/timesandseasons.org\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/54547\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":54549,"href":"https:\/\/timesandseasons.org\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/54547\/revisions\/54549"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/timesandseasons.org\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=54547"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/timesandseasons.org\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=54547"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/timesandseasons.org\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=54547"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}