JS, History, 1838–1856, vol. B-1, created 1 Oct. 1843–24 Feb. 1845; handwriting of and ; 297 pages, plus 10 pages of addenda; CHL. This is the second volume of a six-volume manuscript history of the church. This second volume covers the period from 1 Sept. 1834 to 2 Nov. 1838; the subsequent four volumes, labeled C-1 through F-1, continue through 8 Aug. 1844.
Historical Introduction
This document, volume B-1, is the second of the six volumes of the “Manuscript History of the Church.” The collection was compiled over the span of seventeen years, 1838 to 1856. The narrative in volume B-1 begins with the entry for 1 September 1834, just after the conclusion of the Camp of Israel (later called Zion’s Camp), and continues to 2 November 1838, when JS was interned as a prisoner of war at , Missouri. For a fuller discussion of the entire six-volume work, see the general introduction to the history.
, serving as JS’s “private secretary and historian,” completed the account of JS’s history contained in volume A-1 in August 1843. It covered the period from JS’s birth in 1805 through the aftermath of the Camp of Israel in August 1834. When work resumed on the history on 1 October 1843, Richards started a new volume, eventually designated B-1.
At the time of JS’s death in June 1844, the account had been advanced to 5 August 1838, on page 812 of volume B-1. ’s poor health led to the curtailment of work on B-1 for several months, until 11 December 1844. On that date, Richards and , assisted by , resumed gathering the records and reports needed to draft the history. Richards then composed and drafted roughed-out notes while Thomas Bullock compiled the text of the history and inscribed it in B-1. They completed their work on the volume on or about 24 February 1845. Richards, , and Jonathan Grimshaw later added ten pages of “Addenda,” which provided notes, extensive revisions, or additional text to be inserted in the original manuscript where indicated.
Though JS did not dictate or revise any of the text recorded in B-1, and chose to maintain the first-person, chronological narrative format established in A-1 as if JS were the author. They drew 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. As was the case with A-1, 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.” It was also published in England 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.
The narrative recorded in B-1 continued the story of JS’s life as the prophet and president of the church he labored to establish. The account encompasses significant developments in the church’s two centers at that time—, Ohio, and northwest —during a four-year-span. Critical events included the organization of the Quorums of the Twelve Apostles and the Seventy, the dedication of the House of the Lord in Kirtland, Ohio, the establishment of the Kirtland Safety Society, dissension and apostasy in Kirtland and Missouri, the first mission to England, JS’s flight from Kirtland to Missouri in the winter of 1838, the Saints’ exodus from Kirtland later that year, the disciplining of the Missouri presidency, and the outbreak of the Missouri War and arrest of JS. Thus, B-1 provides substantial detail regarding a significant period of church expansion and transition as well as travail.
<October 10th.> but instead of receiving any aid or even sympathy, from his Excellency, we were told that “the quarrel was between the Mormons and the Mob,” and that “we might fight it out” About this time a mob commanded by Hiram Standly took ’s goods out of his house, <Mob at > and said Standly set fire to ’s house and burned it before his eyes. and ordered him to leave <the place> forthwith, which he did by fleeing from to . The mob had sent to and got a cannon, powder and balls, and bodies of armed men had gathered in to aid them from , Saline, Howard, , Clinton, , Platt and other parts of the State, and a man by the name of Jackson from Howard County was appointed their leader— The Saints were forbid to go out of the City <Town> under pain of death, and were shot at when they attempted to go out to get food of— which they were destitute. As fast as their Cattle, horses or other property got where the Mob could get hold [HC 3:157] of it, it was taken as spoil. By these outrages the brethren were obliged, most of them to live in waggons or tents, application had been made to the judge of the circuit court for protection, who ordered out two companies of Militia one commanded by , a Methodist priest and Mobocrat of the deepest die, the whole under the command of , another Mobber, if his letters speak his feelings. and his actions did not belie him, for he never made the first attempt to disperse the Mob, and when asked the reason of his conduct, he always replied that and his Company were mutinous and mobocratic, that he dare not attempt a dispersion of the Mob. Two other principal men of the mob were Major Ashby Member of the Legislature and a Presbyterian Clergyman. informed us that a greater part of his men under had mutinied, and that he should be obliged to draw them off from the place, for fear they would join the Mob: consequently he could offer us no assistance. We had now no hopes whatever, of successfully resisting the Mob, who kept constantly increasing: our provisions were entirely exhausted and we being wearied out, by continually standing on guard, and watching the movements of our enemies; who during the time I was there, fired at us a great many times. Some of the brethren died for the common necessaries of life, and perished from starvation; and for once in my life, I had the pain of beholding some of my fellow creatures fall victims to the Spirit of persecution, which did then, and has since prevailed to such an extent in — men too, who were virtuous, and against whom, no legal process, could for one moment, be sustained; but who, in consequence of their love to God— attachment to his cause— and their determination to [HC 3:158] keep the faith, were thus brought to an untimely grave— In the mean time and , who had been the sole cause of the Settlement being made, solicited the Saints to leave the place. Thomas said he had assurances from the Mob that if they would leave the place they would not be hurt; and that they would be paid for all losses which they had sustained, and that they had come as mediators to accomplish this object; and that persons should be appointed to set value on the property which they had to leave, and that they should be paid for it. They finally, through necessity, had to comply and leave the place. Accordingly the committee was appointed— Judge Erickson was one of the Committee, and Major Flory, of Rutsville another— the names of <x> the others not recollected. They appraised the Real Estate, that was all. When the people came to start, their horses, oxen and cows were gone, many of them, and could not be found— it was known at the time, and the Mob boasted of it, that they had killed the oxen and lived on them. A great number of Cows Oxen and Horses have never been seen since, which doubtless the mob took and kept— and that was all the brethren ever received of the promised pay for all their losses at — Many houses belonging to my brethren were burned, their cattle driven away, and a [p. 835]