By Julene Thompson
George Washington Johnson was given six keys and a charge to watch over the Nauvoo Temple as the sorrowing members of The Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints walked westward.
Threatening mobs forced the saints to leave their temple behind just weeks after its dedication in 1846.
Five years later, after mobs, fires, and a cyclone left the temple in ruins, Johnson turned west to join his family and the saints in Utah.
Throughout his journey, the six temple keys jingled in Johnson''s pocket.
Johnson passed the keys on to his son David Almon Johnson, whose widow gave them to Edward M. Rowe, a BYU professor of English and president of the Sons and Daughters of Utah Pioneers in Provo.
After the death of Rowe in 1951, his widowed wife gave the keys to a nephew, Provo attorney J. Rulon Morgan.
According to Allen Morgan, J. Rulon Morgan''s son, his dad stored the keys in a vault in his office.
They remained there for 43 years until just before Morgan''s death in 1994 when he requested his children, Alan Morgan and Jaynann Morgan Payne, put them in a safety deposit box, which they did.
Finally, after years of obscurity, Morgan''s children have brought the keys to light.
'When we heard the announcement that the Nauvoo temple was to be rebuilt, we knew we should do something with the keys,' said Jeanene Morgan, wife of Alan Morgan.
Four of the keys were donated to The Church of Jesus Christ on April 30.
'The keys will be appropriately placed in the Nauvoo temple signifying a ''return home'' and will serve as a wonderful reminder of our pioneer heritage to all who have an opportunity to view them,' wrote the First Presidency of the church in a letter thanking the Morgan''s for donating the keys.
Though four of the keys have 'returned home,' the remaining two stayed in Provo.
Morgan''s children donated them along with a collection of Nauvoo temple memorabilia to the Daughters of Utah Pioneers Museum in Provo on 500 N. 500 West.
The collection was opened to the public after a commemorative program May 29.
'We knew many of our family members wouldn''t have a chance to go to Nauvoo, so we donated some keys to museum,' Jeanene Morgan said.
The keys have fostered the already mounting interest in the history of the Nauvoo Temple as the date of its dedication approaches.
'There is a lot of excitement about the Nauvoo temple just because so many of our ancestors took part in building it. I know mine did,' said Barbara Brewer, 42, from American Fork.
Kay Newren, 46, a custodian for the church from Provo explains the connection Utahns have with Nauvoo.
'Utahns appreciate the Nauvoo temple because it began the migration to Utah. They have a feeling for it,' he said.
Neighboring the keys in the museum is a small sculpture of Joseph Smith and Brigham Young and a miniature sunstone replica, both by sculptor Dee Jay Bawden.
Two pictures of the Nauvoo Temple by local artist Chad Hawkins hang above the keys.
Also in the collection is a Nauvoo temple handkerchief and a fragment from the original temple.
The museum is open 12 to 4 p.m. Wednesday, Friday and Saturday.