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.
<July 26> (the ) asked me if I thought it was best to suffer it. I replied, No, no, for God’s sake don’t suffer it, that will never do, no never. Just see for a moment what that would do; it would be the means of murdering thousands of innocent men, women and children, and destroying thousands of dollars worth of property, and that would never do, it would not be sanctioned, it would disgrace the nation. You have now got the principal men here under your own control, they are all you want; What more do you want? When they are out of the way, the thing is settled, and the people will be satisfied, and that is the easiest way you can dispose of it; and concluded upon the whole that was the best policy, and I know it will be done.’
“Mayor’s Office, Great Salt Lake City)
Utah Territory, January 13 A. D. 1855)
“Personally appeared before me , Mayor of said City, Jonathan Calkins Wright, who being duly sworn deposeth and saith that the foregoing statements contained in his report of the conversation between himself and Enoch C. March, in presence of George T. M. Davis Esq., on the 26th. day of June 1844, in the City of , is true to the best of his knowledge and belief, and further this deponent saith not.
Jonathan Calkins Wright.
“Sworn to and subscribed before me this 13th day of January 1855, in Great Salt Lake City, Utah Territory
Mayor of G. S. L. City.”
“Personally appeared before me , County Recorder in and for Great Salt Lake County, in the Territory of Utah, , who being first duly sworn, deposeth and saith that about the hour of three o’clock in the afternoon of the twenty seventh day of June, one thousand eight hundred and forty four, a short time only before addressed the citizens of , he <()> and his suite occupied an upper room in the of Joseph Smith in the City of , when he, the said had of necessity to enter said upper room for his hat, and as he entered the door, all were sitting silent except one man, who was standing behind a chair making a speech, and while in the act of dropping his right hand from an uplifted position, said ‘the [HC 6:588] deed is done before this time,’ which were the only words I heard while in the room, for on seeing me they all hushed in silence. At that time I could not comprehend the meaning of the words, but in a few hours after I understood them as referring to the murder of Joseph and in Carthage Jail.
“Subscribed and sworn to before me, the fourteenth day of April 1856
Great Salt Lake County Recorder”
“State of Deseret)
Great Salt Lake County)
“Personally appeared before me recorder in and for Great Salt Lake County, this third day of October one thousand eight [p. 166]