JS, History, 1838–1856, vol. A-1, created 11 June 1839–24 Aug. 1843; handwriting of , , , and ; 553 pages, plus 16 pages of addenda; CHL. This is the first volume of a six-volume manuscript history of the church. This first volume covers the period from 23 December 1805 to 30 August 1834; the remaining five volumes, labeled B-1 through F-1, continue through 8 August 1844.
Historical Introduction
This document, “History, 1838–1856, volume A-1, [23 December 1805–30 August 1834],” is the first of the six volumes of the “Manuscript History of the Church” (in The Joseph Smith Papers it bears the editorial title “History, 1838-1856”). The completed six-volume collection covers the period from 23 December 1805–8 August 1844. Volume A-1 encompasses the period from JS’s birth in 1805 to 30 August 1834, just after the return of the Camp of Israel (later known as Zion’s Camp) from to , Ohio. For a fuller discussion of the entire six-volume work, see the general introduction to the history.
In April 1838, with the aid of his counselor , JS renewed his efforts to draft a “history”. served as scribe. JS’s journal for late April and early May 1838 notes six days on which JS, Rigdon, and Robinson were engaged in “writing history.” Though not completed and no longer extant, that draft laid the foundation for what became the six-volume manuscript eventually published as the “History of Joseph Smith,” and at least a portion of its contents are assumed to have been included in the manuscript presented here.
On 11 June 1839 in , Illinois, JS once again began dictating his “history.” now served as scribe. Apparently the narrative commenced where the earlier 1838 draft left off. When work was interrupted in July 1839, Mulholland inscribed the draft material, including at least some of ’s earlier material, into a large record book already containing the text of an incomplete history previously produced over a span of two years, 1834–1836. For the new history, Mulholland simply turned the ledger over and began at the back of the book. The volume was later labeled A-1 on its spine, identifying it as the first of multiple volumes of the manuscript history.
Prior to his untimely death on 3 November 1839, recorded the first fifty-nine pages in the volume. Subsequently, his successor, , contributed about sixteen more pages before his death in August 1841. then added a little over seventy-five pages. However, substantial progress on the history was not made until December 1842 when assumed responsibility for the compilation and was appointed JS’s “private secretary and historian.” Richards would contribute the remainder of the text inscribed in the 553-page first volume. The narrative recorded in A-1 was completed in August 1843. and subsequently added sixteen pages of “Addenda” material, which provided notes, extensive revisions, or additional text to be inserted in the original manuscript where indicated. For instance, several of the addenda expanded on the account of the Camp of Israel as initially recorded.
JS dictated or supplied information for much of A-1, and he personally corrected the first forty-two pages before his death. As planned, his historian-scribes maintained the first-person, chronological narrative format initially established in the volume. When various third-person accounts were drawn upon, they were generally converted to the first person, as if JS were directly relating the account. After JS’s death, , , , and others modified and corrected the manuscript as they reviewed material before its eventual publication.
Beginning in March 1842 the church’s Nauvoo periodical, the Times and Seasons, began publishing the narrative as the “History of Joseph Smith.” At the time of JS’s death only the history through December 1831 had been published. When the final issue of the Times and Seasons, dated 15 February 1846 appeared, the account had been carried forward through August 1834—the end of the material recorded in A-1. The “History of Joseph Smith” was also published in in the church periodical the Millennial Star beginning in June 1842. Once a press was established in Utah and the Deseret News began publication, the “History of Joseph Smith” once more appeared in print in serialized form. Beginning with the November 1851 issue, the narrative picked up where the Times and Seasons had left off over five years earlier.
Aside from the material dictated or supplied by JS prior to his death, the texts for A-1 and for the history’s subsequent volumes were drawn from a variety of primary and secondary sources including JS’s diaries and letters, minutes of meetings, the first edition of the Doctrine and Covenants, church and other periodicals, reports of JS’s discourses, and the reminiscences and recollections of church members. The narrative in A-1 provides JS’s personal account of the foundational events of his life as a prophet and the early progress of the church. It also encompasses contentions and disputations that erupted between the Latter-day Saints and their neighbors in , , , and . While it remains difficult to distinguish JS’s own contributions from composition of his historian-scribes, the narrative trenchantly captures the poignancy and intensity of his life while offering an enlightening account of the birth of the church he labored to establish.
<Note 7> Friday 30 and , went ahead into in disguise, to learn the feelings of the brethren people and procure some Powder— we passed through , our appearance excited considerable curiosity, and a great many questions were asked— the Spies that had followed us so long, pursued us very closely, changing their dress and horses several times a day. Brother Eleazer Miller with some half a dozen others joined the company with three horses, about noon, a little East of Rochester, this recruit was very seasonable, as many of our Horses were afflicted, as they very frequently are, in changing country, climate and food, many of the horses after eating the dry corn, and Prairie grass, would be seized with the colic and bloat very badly when brother would administer<ed> a dose of medicine mixed in a Quart-Stone Bottle, prepared as follows: a three penny paper of tobacco— half an ounce of Coperas, and two table spoon <full> of Cayenne Pepper, and the bottle filled with water, when he could not procure Whiskey— one half of a bottle constituted a dose, and would almost invariably cure a sick horse in a few minutes— and is worthy of remembrance— called his medicine 18 by 24. We encamped about three miles from on Spring Creek. and returned to the Camp with 2 kegs of Powder, and reported that the people were somewhat excited, more however from a curiosity to know where we were going, than from a desire to hinder us, a brother [blank] <fill in his name> came to see us with news that my brother had passed on west the day before, with a company about fifty miles north of us, saying “he has a fine company and they all look mighty pert.” I asked him to accompany us to , but he replied “I cannot” he went and staid at a Tavern over night with the Spies, who said they had followed us three hundred miles on purpose to take some advantage of us.
Saturday 31. In the morning this brother came to me and said,“I would be mighty glad to go with you, but my business is such, I cannot, will a hundred dollars do you any good?” I repllied “Yes, it will, for we are short of money.” He immediately mounted his horse and rode towards and within an hour after the had started he returned and said to me “I am mighty sorry I cannot go with you, here is a hundred dollars, and if I had had a few days notice, I could have got more.” At noon we halted for dinner, just in the Edge of a Timber when a man apparently drunk came to the camp, and said he had a large farm, 40 cows &c a little ways ahead, and if we would go there, he would give us all we wanted to eat and drink, feed our horses &c &c but I soon discovered that he was more sober than drunk, and that he was probably a spy. Near night we arrived at a small stream of Water about one mile from , where we found a paw paw bush in the road, which had been dropped as a signal for us to Camp, by , whom I had sent forward in the morning on horseback to select a camp ground and watch the movements of our enemies. Here we pitched our tents— Agreeably to my instruction, about sun set brother proclaimed aloud that there would be preaching under the Trees within the Camp at half past ten oclock on the Morrow. There was only one Stranger in the Camp to hear the appointment. had gone on to with his Pill bags to spend the night.
<Sunday> June 1. This morning at half past 10 our Trumpet, a common brass French horn, sounded in the Camp for preaching, there were some 2 or 300 of the people from and the surrounding Country, gathered under the Trees within our Camp, and a chest was brought out for the accommodation [p. 10 [addenda]]