Once the largest city in Illinois, Nauvoo has a colorful history. When the Mormon prophet Joseph Smith was driven out of Missouri, he came with his Latter-day Saints to a tiny village called Commerce on a promontory overlooking the Mississippi River and established what was virtually an autonomous state. A city of 8,000 houses was created, and, in 1841, construction began on a great temple. A schism in the church and the threat of Mormon political power led to riots and persecution of the Mormons. Joseph Smith and his brother were arrested and murdered by a mob while in the Carthage jail. Brigham Young became leader of the Nauvoo Mormons. When the city charter was repealed and armed clashes broke out anew, Young led much of the population westward in 1846 to its final settlement in Utah. Nauvoo became a ghost city, and the almost-completed temple was set on fire by an arsonist. In 1849, the Icarians, a band of French communalists, migrated to Nauvoo from Texas and established their short-lived experiment in communal living. They attempted to rebuild the temple, but a storm swept the building back into ruin. The Icarians failed to prosper and in 1856 moved on. The city was gradually resettled by a more conventional group of Germans, who developed the wine culture begun by the French group.