JS, History, 1838–1856, vol. F-1, created 9 Apr.–7 June 1856 and 20 Aug. 1856–6 Nov. 1856; handwriting of and Jonathan Grimshaw; 304 pages, plus 10 pages of addenda; CHL. This is the final volume of a six-volume manuscript history of the church. This sixth volume covers the period from 1 May to 8 Aug. 1844; the remaining five volumes, labeled A-1 through E-1, go through 30 Apr. 1844.
Historical Introduction
History, 1838-1856, volume F-1, constitutes the last of six volumes documenting the life of Joseph Smith and the early years of the Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints. The series is also known as the Manuscript History of the Church and was originally published serially from 1842 to 1846 and 1851 to 1858 as the “History of Joseph Smith” in the Times and Seasons and Deseret News. This volume contains JS’s history from 1 May 1844 to the events following his 27 June 1844 death, and it was compiled in Utah Territory in 1856.
The material recorded in volume F-1 was initially compiled under the direction of church historian , who was JS’s cousin, and also assistant church historian . Smith collaborated with in collecting material for the volume and creating a set of draft notes, which Smith dictated to Bullock and other clerks. Woodruff gathered additional material concerning the death of Joseph Smith as a supplement to George A. Smith’s work recording that event. Jonathan Grimshaw and , members of the Historian’s Office staff, transcribed the draft notes into the volume along with the text of designated documents.
According to the Historian’s Office journal, Jonathan Grimshaw initiated work on the text of volume F-1 on 9 April 1856, soon after Robert L. Campbell had completed work on volume E-1. (Historian’s Office, Journal, 5 and 9 Apr. 1856.) Grimshaw’s scribal work begins with an entry for 1 May 1844. Unlike previous volumes in which the numbering had run consecutively to page 2028, Grimshaw began anew with page 1. He transcribed 150 pages by June 1856, and his last entry was for 23 June 1844. Though more of his writing does not appear in the volume, he continued to work in the office until 2 August, before leaving for the East that same month. (Historian’s Office, Journal, 2 and 10 Aug. 1856.)
assumed the role of scribe on 20 August 1856. (Historian’s Office, Journal, 20 Aug. 1856.) He incorporated ’s draft notes for the period 24–29 June 1844 on pages 151–189, providing an account of JS’s death and its immediate aftermath. He next transcribed a related extract from ’s 1854 History of Illinois on pages 190–204. Pages 205–227 were left blank.
provided the notes for the final portion of the text. This account begins with an entry for 22 June 1844 and continues the record through 8 August 1844, ending on page 304. (The volume also included ten pages of addenda.) The last specific entry in the Historian’s Office journal that captures at work on the history is for 6 November 1856. A 2 February 1857 Wilford Woodruff letter to indicates that on 30 January 1857, the “presidency sat and heard the history read up to the organization of the church in , 8th. day of August 1844.” (Historian’s Office, Journal, 6 Nov. 1856; Wilford Woodruff, Great Salt Lake City, Utah Territory, to George A. Smith, 2 Feb. 1857, Historian’s Office, Letterpress Copybooks, vol. 1, p. 410; see also Wilford Woodruff, Great Salt Lake City, Utah Territory, to Amasa Lyman and Charles C. Rich, 28 Feb. 1857, Historian’s Office, Letterpress Copybooks, vol. 1, pp. 430–431.)
The pages of volume F-1 contain a record of the final weeks of JS’s life and the events of the ensuing days. The narrative commences with and arriving at , Illinois, on 1 May 1844 from their lumber-harvesting mission in the “” of Wisconsin Territory. As the late spring and summer of 1844 unfold, events intensify, especially those surrounding the suppression of the Nauvoo Expositor in mid-June. Legal action over the Expositor leads to a charge of riot, and subsequently JS is charged with treason and is incarcerated at the jail in , Illinois. The narrative of volume F-1 concludes with an account of the special church conference convened on 8 August 1844 to consider who should assume the leadership of the church.
<June 20> virtuous men and patriots enough yet left to sustain those principles which alone are worth living for. Will you come? Here is . Here is . Where is your ambition? Patriotism? Your ‘separate and independent empire’, if you sit calmly still, and see the most virtuous and noble people that ever trod upon the footstool of Jehovah ground to powder by a miscreant mob, and not stretch forth your potent arm for their defence in all the majesty of a God? If you do not, your turn may come next, and where will it cease? Let the first blow be struck upon us from this hour, and the field is open for every honest patriot from the east to the west sea, and from the to the ends of the earth. , will you stand neutral? Come, and you will know for yourself.
“I close in haste, with good wishes to yourself and family,
.”
“Gen. , , N. Y. [HC 6:518]
I wrote to those of the Twelve Apostles who are absent on missions, to come home immediately, viz; , ; , ; , ; , ; , ; , Portage, N. Y.; , ; , ; , ; & , Baltimore. Also to , O., and , Richmond, Madison Co., Ky. I sent letters by Express by to the on account of the stoppage of the mails.
At 8 P. M, came and read to me the affidavits of , , John Edmiston, , , Allen T. Waite [Wait], James Guymon, Obadiah Bowen, , Hiram B. Mount, and John Cunningham, with the affiants; and afterwards the affidavits were all sworn to before , Esquire.
10 P. M., John Pike and Henry Gates went to the quarters of the , and informed him they had seen a number of men driving about 300 head of cattle in the direction of the mob camp; the drovers reported themselves as having come from , and were about nine miles from . [HC 6:519]
I gave directions to to commence the manufacture of artillery; he asked me if he should not rent a building, and set some men to repairing the small arms which were out of order; I told him in confidence that there would not be a gun fired on our part during this fuss.
I extract the following from a letter from , dated “, June 20th, 1844,” to John Proctor, Sen., :—
“We have a hundred barrels of flour here for the folks, and has no means to live only from the country, and that is cut off sure; there are thousands of armed men ready now, and thousands more coming from , and the country around. Tell John to sleep in the barn, and take care of fire and robbery, and all my things there, as I shall be home soon. Tell to keep his eyes open, as we learn that consecration law will soon commence on him; this we know, and he <had> better look out sharp; let him read this sheet. Tell Norton Gibbs and all my boys that I should be glad to see them a minute, but I cannot come; they must be patient and faithful and I will be there, and reward every man according to his desert; and I won’t forget the perjured villains there either.”
I advised my brother to take his family on the next steamboat and go to . replied “Joseph, I can’t leave you”; whereupon I said to the company present “I wish I could get out of the way so that he may live to avenge my blood, and I will stay with you and see it out.” [p. 130]
Hosea Stout, "Nauvoo Legion History," 20 June 1844, Nauvoo, IL, Legion Records, CHL.
Stout, Hosea. History of the Nauvoo Legion, Draft 1, ca. 1844–1845. Nauvoo Legion Records, 1841–1845. CHL. MS 3430, fd. 10. One of three drafts of the history; includes material dated 4 February 1841 through 22 June 1844. Pages are out of order; in the current order, this draft includes pp. [5]–[8], [15]–[22].