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 10> they would break; and some of them drew up and voted for the very ordinances they are striving to use as a ‘scare crow’ to frighten the surrounding country in rebellion, mobbing and war; and whereas, while the blood of [HC 6:433] our brethren from wells, holes, and naked prairies, and the ravishment of female virtue from , and the smoke from the altars of infamy, prostituted by , and continued in the full tide of experiment and disgraceful damnation, by the very self called fragments of a body of degraded men that have got up a press in , to destroy the charter of the ; to destroy Mormonism, men, women, and children, as did, by force of arms; by fostering laws that emanate from corruption, and betray with a Kiss; wherefore to honor the State of , and those patriots who gave the charter, and for the benefit, convenience, health, and happiness of said :
“Sec. 1 Be it ordained by the City Council of the City of , that if any person or persons shall write or publish in said , any false statement, or libel any of the citizens, for the purpose of exciting the public mind against the chartered privileges, peace, and good order of said , or shall slander, (according to the definition of slander or libel by Blackstone or Kent, or the act in the statute of ,) any portion of the inhabitants of said , or bribe any portion of the citizens of said for malicious purposes, or in any manner or form excite the prejudice of the community against any portion of the citizens of said , for evil purposes, he, she, or they, shall be deemed disturbers of the peace, and upon conviction before the Mayor, or Municipal Court, shall be fined in any sum not exceeding five hundred dollars, or imprisoned six months, or both, at the discretion of said Mayor or Court.
“Sec. 2 Be it further ordained, that nothing in the foregoing section shall be so construed as to interfere with the right of any person to be tried by a jury of his vicinage, with the freedom of speech, or the liberty of the press, according to the most liberal meaning of the constitution, the dignity of freemen, the voice of truth, and the rules of virtue.
“Sec. 3 And be it further ordained, that this ordinance shall be in force from and after its passage.
“Passed, June 10th., 1844
, President pro tem.”
, Recorder”
I also insert a brief synopsis of the proceedings of the City Council of the City of , relative to the destruction of the press and fixtures of the “Nauvoo Expositor”.
“City Council, Regular Session,
June 8th, 1844.
“In connection with other business, as stated in last week’s paper, the [HC 6:434] Mayor remarked, that he believed it generally the case that when a man goes to law, he has an unjust cause, and wants to go before some one who wants business, and that he had very few cases on his docket, and referring to , editor of the Nauvoo Expositor, suggested the propriety of first purging the City Council; and referring to the character of the paper and proprietors, called up , a mechanic, who being sworn, said that the Laws, ( and ), had brought Bogus Dies to him to fix.
“Councilor enquired what good , and his , and the Higbee’s, and Laws, had ever done; while his brother Joseph was under arrest from the persecution, the Laws, and , would have been rid<den> on a rail if he had not stepped forward to prevent it, on account of their oppressping the poor.
“Mayor said, while he was under arrest by writ from , pursued him for $40,00 he was owing , and it took the last expense money he had [p. 75]
Nauvoo City Council Minute Book / Nauvoo City Council. “A Record of the Proceedings of the City Council of the City of Nauvoo Handcock County, State of Illinois, Commencing A.D. 1841,” ca. 1841–1845. CHL. MS 3435.
Smith, Joseph. Collection, 1827–1846. CHL. MS 155.