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History, 1834–1836

Genealogies Page 9 5 December 1834 • Friday Page 17 6 December 1834 • Saturday Page 20 Letters from Messenger and Advocate Page 46 Oliver Cowdery to William W. Phelps, 7 September 1834 Page 46 Oliver Cowdery, “Letter II,” November 1834 Page 50 Page [0] Oliver Cowdery, “Letter III,” December 1834 Page 57 Oliver Cowdery, “Letter IV,” February 1835 Page 60 Oliver Cowdery, “Letter V,” March 1835 Page 65 Oliver Cowdery, “Letter VI,” April 1835 Page 71 Oliver Cowdery, “Letter VII,” July 1835 Page 79 Oliver Cowdery, “Letter VIII,” October 1835 Page 89 JS, “To the Elders of the Church,” November 1835 Page 103 JS Journal Entries Page 105 22 September 1835 • Tuesday Page 105 23 September 1835 • Wednesday Page 106 24 September 1835 • Thursday Page 106 25 September 1835 • Friday Page 106 26 September 1835 • Saturday Page 107 27 September 1835 • Sunday Page 107 28 September 1835 • Monday Page 107 29 September 1835 • Tuesday Page 107 30 September 1835 • Wednesday Page 107 1 October 1835 • Thursday Page 107 2 October 1835 • Friday Page 107 3 October 1835 • Saturday Page 107 4 October 1835 • Sunday Page 107 5 October 1835 • Monday Page 108 6 October 1835 • Tuesday Page 108 7 October 1835 • Wednesday Page 108 8 October 1835 • Thursday Page 109 9 October 1835 • Friday Page 109 10 October 1835 • Saturday Page 109 11 October 1835 • Sunday Page 109 12 October 1835 • Monday Page 110 13 October 1835 • Tuesday Page 110 14 October 1835 • Wednesday Page 110 15 October 1835 • Thursday Page 110 16 October 1835 • Friday Page 110 17 October 1835 • Saturday Page 110 18 October 1835 • Sunday Page 110 19 October 1835 • Monday Page 110 20 October 1835 • Tuesday Page 110 21 October 1835 • Wednesday Page 110 22 October 1835 • Thursday Page 110 23 October 1835 • Friday Page 110 24 October 1835 • Saturday Page 111 25 October 1835 • Sunday Page 111 26 October 1835 • Monday Page 111 27 October 1835 • Tuesday Page 111 28 October 1835 • Wednesday Page 112 29 October 1835 • Thursday Page 112 30 October 1835 • Friday Page 113 31 October 1835 • Saturday Page 114 1 November 1835 • Sunday Page 116 2 November 1835 • Monday Page 116 3 November 1835 • Tuesday Page 117 4 November 1835 • Wednesday Page 118 5 November 1835 • Thursday Page 118 6 November 1835 • Friday Page 118 7 November 1835 • Saturday Page 119 8 November 1835 • Sunday Page 119 9 November 1835 • Monday Page 120 10 November 1835 • Tuesday Page 124 11 November 1835 • Wednesday Page 125 12 November 1835 • Thursday Page 125 13 November 1835 • Friday Page 128 14 November 1835 • Saturday Page 128 15 November 1835 • Sunday Page 129 16 November 1835 • Monday Page 130 17 November 1835 • Tuesday Page 134 18 November 1835 • Wednesday Page 134 19 November 1835 • Thursday Page 135 20 November 1835 • Friday Page 135 21 November 1835 • Saturday Page 135 22 November 1835 • Sunday Page 135 23 November 1835 • Monday Page 135 24 November 1835 • Tuesday Page 135 25 November 1835 • Wednesday Page 136 26 November 1835 • Thursday Page 136 27 November 1835 • Friday Page 136 Prayer • 23 October 1835 Page 136 28 November 1835 • Saturday Page 137 29 November 1835 • Sunday Page 138 30 November 1835 • Monday Page 138 1 December 1835 • Tuesday Page 138 2 December 1835 • Wednesday Page 139 3 December 1835 • Thursday Page 139 4 December 1835 • Friday Page 140 5 December 1835 • Saturday Page 141 6 December 1835 • Sunday Page 141 7 December 1835 • Monday Page 142 8 December 1835 • Tuesday Page 142 9 December 1835 • Wednesday Page 142 10 December 1835 • Thursday Page 143 11 December 1835 • Friday Page 145 12 December 1835 • Saturday Page 145 13 December 1835 • Sunday Page 146 14 December 1835 • Monday Page 147 15 December 1835 • Tuesday Page 148 16 December 1835 • Wednesday Page 149 17 December 1835 • Thursday Page 150 18 December 1835 • Friday Page 154 Letter to William Smith • 18 or 19 December 1835 Page 157 19 December 1835 • Saturday Page 162 20 December 1835 • Sunday Page 162 21 December 1835 • Monday Page 162 22 December 1835 • Tuesday Page 162 23 December 1835 • Wednesday Page 163 24 December 1835 • Thursday Page 163 25 December 1835 • Friday Page 163 26 December 1835 • Saturday Page 163 27 December 1835 • Sunday Page 164 28 December 1835 • Monday Page 164 29 December 1835 • Tuesday Page 165 30 December 1835 • Wednesday Page 166 31 December 1835 • Thursday Page 166 1 January 1836 • Friday Page 166 2 January 1836 • Saturday Page 168 3 January 1836 • Sunday Page 169 4 January 1836 • Monday Page 169 5 January 1836 • Tuesday Page 170 6 January 1836 • Wednesday Page 170 7 January 1836 • Thursday Page 171 8 January 1836 • Friday Page 171 9 January 1836 • Saturday Page 171 10 January 1836 • Sunday Page 172 11 January 1836 • Monday Page 172 12 January 1836 • Tuesday Page 172 13 January 1836 • Wednesday Page 173 14 January 1836 • Thursday Page 175 15 January 1836 • Friday Page 177 16 January 1836 • Saturday Page 180 17 January 1836 • Sunday Page 184 18 January 1836 • Monday Page 185

Source Note

JS, History, [Dec. 1834–May 1836?]; handwriting of , , , and ; includes genealogical and financial tables; 154 pages; verso of JS History, 1838–1856, vol. A-1, CHL. Includes redactions, use marks, and archival marking.
Large blank book composed of ruled paper printed with forty horizontal lines in (now faint) blue ink. The text block includes thirty gatherings of various sizes, each about a dozen leaves per gathering, and originally had 384 interior leaves cut to measure 13⅝ x 9 inches (35 x 23 cm). The text block, which was conserved in the late twentieth century, was probably originally sewn on recessed cords and was apparently also glued on leather tapes. The binding features false bands. The endpapers were single-sided marbled leaves featuring a traditional Spanish pattern with slate blue body and black and red veins. The block was bound to pasteboard covers, probably with a hollow-back ledger binding, making a book measuring 14¼ x 9½ x 2½ inches (36 x 24 x 6 cm). The boards were bound in brown suede calfskin. At some point, blind-tooled decorations were made around the outside border and along the board edges and the turned-in edges of the inside covers.
began the text of the document on the thirteenth page of the text block, numbering it as page 9. Cowdery set aside pages 9–16 for genealogical tables for the members of the church presidency. He inscribed the page numbers, table headings, and column and row ruling for the tables in red ink with a quill pen. The content of the tables was inscribed in ink that is now brown with a quill pen, as was the rest of the history. Cowdery inscribed journal-like entries for 5 and 6 December 1834 on pages 17–20. Pages 21–45 are blank except for page numbering. and copied Cowdery’s 1834–1835 historical articles, published serially in the Latter Day Saints’ Messenger and Advocate, onto pages 46–103. A passage that Parrish missed while copying the first installment of the Cowdery history is supplied on a slip of paper attached to page 50 with adhesive wafers. On pages 103–104, Parrish copied part of a JS letter, also published in the church newspaper. On pages 105–187, Parrish and wrote historical entries based on the entries in JS’s 1835–1836 journal. The genealogical table headings written by Oliver Cowdery, the letter headings and closings written by Williams and Parrish, and the datelines written by Parrish and Warren Cowdery are slightly larger than the ordinary script of these individuals. Parrish’s datelines also feature a vertical stress that contrasts with the oblique stress of his entry inscriptions. In their copying from the Messenger and Advocate, Frederick G. Williams and Warren Parrish often used a slightly larger script for words that appear in small caps in the printed version. Although pagination for the 1834–1836 history was inscribed up to page 241, the actual chronicle reaches only to page 187. Oliver Cowdery numbered pages 9–21, Frederick G. Williams numbered pages 22–58, Warren Parrish numbered pages 59–111, and Warren Cowdery numbered pages 112–241. Sometime later, inscribed year and month-and-year headings in black ink on pages 17–20, 46–47, 105–173, and 176–187. Various pages also bear redactions in unidentified handwriting in black and blue pencil.
In 1839, the book was repurposed for the inscription of a new history. The book was turned over so that the back cover became the front and the last leaf became the first. From this new front of the book, JS’s scribes began writing what became the first volume of JS’s multivolume manuscript history (the first 61 pages of which are transcribed as “Draft 2”). That later history filled most of the remaining leaves of the book, running well into the blank pages that were numbered for the 1834–1836 history and up to within five pages of the inscribed entries in the earlier history. However, only numbering on pages 235–241 of the 1834–1836 history were erased (by knife eraser). With the later history’s side of the book upward, the spine of the book was labeled as volume “A | 1” of the multivolume history. Archival stickers were also added at some point to the spine and the inside front cover. Two interior leaves are now missing from the initial gathering of the volume and one leaf is missing from the final gathering. The flyleaves and pastedowns were also lost or removed from the book. The volume shows moderate wear, browning, water staining, and brittleness. It has been resewn, rebound, and otherwise conserved.
While the 1834–1836 history was being created, the volume was apparently kept in the homes of JS’s scribes. In 1839, scribe converted the book into the first volume of JS’s multivolume manuscript history. In 1842, the church newspaper in , Illinois, began publishing this later history. JS maintained custody of the volume through his later life, as indicated by a note he inscribed memorializing his deceased brother , which was attached to the verso of the flyleaf preceding the later history. The volume is listed in the first extant Historian’s Office inventory, made in Nauvoo in February 1846 by clerk , and it is listed in inventories of church records made in Salt Lake City in the second half of the nineteenth century. These and later archival records, as well as archival marking on the volume, indicate continuous institutional custody.

Footnotes

  1. [1]

    See JS History, vol. A-1, microfilm, Dec. 1971, CHL. Only one leaf of the original pastedowns and flyleaves is extant. The pastedowns were replaced with undecorated paper in 1994, according to a conservation note on the verso of the extant marbled leaf archived with the volume.

    JS History, vol. A-1. Microfilm, Dec. 1971. CHL. CR 100 102, reel 1.

  2. [2]

    See JS, Journal, 29 Oct. 1835 and 25 Jan. 1836 (see also entry for 29 Oct. 1835 herein).

  3. [3]

    Jessee, “Writing of Joseph Smith’s History,” 439–441, 450–451, 464.

    Jessee, Dean C. “The Writing of Joseph Smith’s History.” BYU Studies 11 (Summer 1971): 439–473.

  4. [4]

    The serialized publication of this history began in the 15 March 1842 issue of the Times and Seasons.

    Times and Seasons. Commerce/Nauvoo, IL. Nov. 1839–Feb. 1846.

  5. [5]

    “Schedule of Church Records. Nauvoo 1846,” [1]; “Historian’s Office Catalogue 1858,” 2, Catalogs and Inventories, 1846–1904, CHL.

    Historian’s Office. Catalogs and Inventories, 1846–1904. CHL. CR 100 130.

Historical Introduction

JS’s 1834–1836 history is a composite historical record consisting of genealogical tables, journal-like entries, and transcripts of newspaper articles. It shifts abruptly in format from one unfinished section to the next. The order of handwriting in the history roughly matches that found in the 1835–1836 journal, and like the journal, the history passed from to to to . Finally, it returned to Parrish. The purpose for which the record was created is unclear, as is the rationale for its differing formats. At the beginning, the 1834–1836 history may have had as much to do with Oliver Cowdery, its first scribe, as with JS. Cowdery was serving at the time as scribe for JS’s first journal. He had transformed that journal into a jointly authored document by writing in the first person plural, making both himself and JS the protagonists. Cowdery made his final entry in the first Ohio journal 5 December 1834, the day he was ordained an assistant president to JS in the general church presidency and placed ahead of JS’s other assistants. He may have begun the 1834–1836 history in response to his new appointment.
The new record was begun in a massive blank book. left the first twelve pages blank, possibly for a title page and other introductory material to be written later. He then inscribed columns and headings on the next eight pages to reserve them for the genealogies of the four members of the new church presidency. On the following page, he began an entry dated 5 December 1834, the same date as his last entry in JS’s first journal.
Just as converted JS’s first journal into a JS-Cowdery journal, he may have conceived of the 1834–1836 history as a record for all four members of the church presidency. Cowdery’s entry for 5 December 1834 provided a lengthier and more formal account of his elevation to the church presidency than did JS’s first Ohio journal. Regardless of its purpose, however, the daily log was discontinued after two entries.
The next section of the history, begun months later, is a transcript of ’s series of eight letters on church history published in the Latter Day Saints’ Messenger and Advocate between October 1834 and October 1835. , who began the transcription, may have begun working under Cowdery’s direction, but by 29 October 1835 JS had assumed effective control of the document. JS’s journal entry of that date, which notes his employment of as his scribe, also records that Parrish “commenced writing in my journal a history of my life, concluding President Cowdery 2d letter to , which president Williams had begun.”
The final section of JS’s history, transcribed by and , is a revised version of JS’s daily journal entries from late September 1835 to late January 1836. Warren Cowdery explained that the intention was to provide a “faithful narration of every important item in his every-day-occurrences.” The revised entries continue to 18 January 1836. Warren Parrish, the final scribe to write in JS’s 1834–1836 history, may have ceased his work in order to embark on a proselytizing mission. However, the reasons for JS’s discontinuing the history entirely are not known.
Further information about the different sections of the 1834–1836 history may be found in intratextual notes preceding each section.
As noted above, the first section of the history includes initial work to compile genealogical data for each member of the church presidency. In an 1832 letter to church leaders in , JS outlined the contents of the church history to be kept by . In addition to an account of “all things that transpire in Zion,” JS instructed that the record include the names of those who had formally consecrated their property and received church land. At the second coming of Jesus Christ, he wrote, this record would be used to reward “the Saints whose names are found and the names of their fathers and of their children enroled in the Book of the Law of God.” apparently followed this model when he began this new historical record in early December 1834. He reserved the pages at the beginning of the history to record family information for JS, himself, , and , the four members of the general church presidency as designated on 5 December 1834. Inscribing headings to eight pages, Cowdery intended to prepare two genealogical tables for each of the four presidents, one to identify wife and children and the second to identify parents and siblings. The left column lists births and marriages; the column on the right was reserved for deaths. That Cowdery did not create or even leave room for similar tables for the two assistant presidents appointed on 6 December 1834 suggests that he inscribed both the tables and the entry for 5 December between the 5 and 6 December meetings.

Footnotes

  1. [1]

    JS, Journal, 29 Oct. 1835; see also entry for 29 Oct. 1835 herein. In this case, “my journal” refers to JS’s 1834–1836 history, which JS also called his “large journal.”

  2. [2]

    JS, Journal, 1835–1836.

  3. [3]

    JS History, 1834–1836, 105.

    JS History, 1834–1836 / Smith, Joseph, et al. History, 1834–1836. In Joseph Smith et al., History, 1838–1856, vol. A-1, back of book (earliest numbering), 9–20, 46–187. Historian's Office, History of the Church, 1839–ca. 1882. CHL. CR 100 102, box 1, vol. 1.

  4. [4]

    JS, Kirtland, OH, to William W. Phelps, [Independence, MO], 27 Nov. 1832, in JS Letterbook 1, pp. 1, 3.

    JS Letterbook 1 / Smith, Joseph. “Letter Book A,” 1832–1835. Joseph Smith Collection. CHL. MS 155, box 2, fd. 1.

Asterisk (*) denotes a "featured" version, which includes an introduction and annotation. *Letter and Revelation to Harvey Whitlock, 16 November 1835

Page 126

the spirit of the Lord is here, and I am satisfied with all the [brethren present] and I need not say to you that you have my utmost confidence, and that I intend to uphold you to the uttermost, for I am well aware that you have to sustain my character against the vile calumnies and reproaches of this ungodly generation, and that you delight in so doing. Darkness prevails; it is in a great degree now as it was when Christ was about to be crucified. The powers of darkness strove to obscure the glorious sun of righteousness, that then began to dawn upon the world, and was soon to burst in great blessings upon the heads of the faithful; and let me tell you, brethren, That great blessings await is us at this time, and will soon be poured out upon us if we are faithful in all things: for we are even entitled to greater blessings than they were, because they had the person of Christ with them to instruct them in the great plan of salvation. His personal presence we have not, therefore we need the greater faith on account of our peculiar circumstances. I am determined to do all I can to uphold you. Although I may do many things inadvertantly that are not right in the sight of God. You want to know many things that are before you, that you may know how to prepare yourselves for the great things that God is about to bring to pass. But there is one great deficiency or obstruction in the way, that deprives us of the greater blessings, and in order to make the foundation of this church complete, and permanent, we must remove this obstruction, which is to attend to certain duties to which we have not attended. I supposed I had established this church on a permanent foundation when I went to . and indeed I did so, for if I had been taken away it would have been enough. But as I yet live, therefore, God requires more at my hands. The item to which I wish the more particularly to cite your minds this night is the ordinance of washing of feet, This we have not done as yet, but it is as necessary now as it was in the days of the Saviour, and we must have a place prepared that we may attend to this ordinance, aside from the world, We have not desired much from the hand of the Lord. with that faith and obedience that we ought. Yet we have enjoyed great blessings, but we are not so sensible of them as we should be [p. 126]
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Document Information

Related Case Documents
Editorial Title
History, 1834–1836
ID #
6548
Total Pages
191
Print Volume Location
JSP, H1:23–185
Handwriting on This Page
  • Warren A. Cowdery

Footnotes

  1. [251]

    Omitted words supplied from the corresponding journal entry.

  2. [252]

    Before leaving on the 1834 military expedition to Missouri, JS established a “high council” for governance over the stake in Kirtland. While in Missouri in July, he similarly organized a high council. In Missouri he also appointed David Whitmer, William W. Phelps, and John Whitmer as a local presidency to preside over the high council, as well as designating David Whitmer as a potential successor in the office of general church president. JS remarked on that occasion that “if he should now be taken away that he had accomplished the great work which the Lord had laid before him.” (Minute Book 2, 3 and 7 July 1834; 15 Mar. 1838.)

    Minute Book 2 / “The Conference Minutes and Record Book of Christ’s Church of Latter Day Saints,” 1838, 1842, 1844. CHL. Also available at josephsmithpapers.org.

  3. [253]

    See John 13:4–17; compare New Testament Revision 2, p. 117 (second numbering) [Joseph Smith Translation, John 13:10].

  4. [254]

    Though JS instituted the washing of feet in the 1833 School of the Prophets, he now prepared to introduce the practice in connection with the House of the Lord. (See Revelation, 27–28 Dec. 1832 and 3 Jan. 1833, in Doctrine and Covenants 7:44–46, 1835 ed. [D&C 88:137–141].)

    Doctrine and Covenants of the Church of the Latter Day Saints: Carefully Selected from the Revelations of God. Compiled by Joseph Smith, Oliver Cowdery, Sidney Rigdon, and Frederick G. Williams. Kirtland, OH: F. G. Williams, 1835. Also available in Robin Scott Jensen, Richard E. Turley Jr., Riley M. Lorimer, eds., Revelations and Translations, Volume 2: Published Revelations. Vol. 2 of the Revelations and Translations series of The Joseph Smith Papers, edited by Dean C. Jessee, Ronald K. Esplin, and Richard Lyman Bushman (Salt Lake City: Church Historian’s Press, 2011).

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