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 20> fight or die. All the horrors of ’s murders are crowding thick upon us, and the citizens of this declare in mass meetings, ‘no peace till the Mormons are utterly exterminated from the earth.’ And for what? A band of thieves, counterfeiters, bogus makers, gamblers, debauchers, murderers, and all that’s vile, established a printing press in this for the purpose of carrying on all their hellish plans, and overthrowing every principle of righteousness; and after publishing one number called the ‘Nauvoo Expositor’, filled on every column with lies and libel the most dark and damnable it were possible for men or demons to invent on the earth or in the shades of Gehenna, calculated to destroy every chartered right to our peaceful , and constitutional principles to our nation, being destitute of every vestige of truth, and without one redeeming quality either in the paper or the characters of its publishers. The City Council on the 10th ins’t, ordered the press and fixtures to be abated as a nuisance, which order was executed by the proper authorities without delay, without noise, tumult, or confusion. The proprietors immediately evacuated their houses and the , and the night following fired one or more of their buildings, just as they did in , thinking to raise the hue and cry that Mormons had done it, and by that means bring a mob on us without a moment’s delay; but our vigilant police discovered the fire and abated that also. Chagrined at their disappointment, and drunk with madness, they next went to , the seat and head quarters of Mobocracy, and swore that Joseph and about seventeen others had committed a riot, and sent a warrant for their apprehension. They offered to go before any magistrate in the vicinity and answer to the charge; the would not consent, but would take them to ; they had threatened their lives at , and did not consider it safe to go thither, and prayed out a writ of Habeas Corpus from the Municipal Court, and were set free. This only enraged the mob the more, and another writ was issued by a magistrate in the vicinity, not a Mormon, before whom they were brought, and every exertion made to convict them, but the magistrate discharged them. This does not satisfy them; they are determined to have ‘Jo Smith’ brought before themselves for trial at the Head Quarters of Mobocracy, swearing that all they want is to get him out of the , and they will shoot the ‘damned rascal’. Cannon, ammunition, and men are passing over the from to , and the mob is collected by hundreds at different points in the swearing everlasting vengeance, and when their oaths and writs will end, God knows. [HC 6:517] We have sent messengers to the , but had no returns, and shall dispatch messages to the of the next boat. If the virtuous part of <the> community, the , the , will come to the rescue of innocence, and the rights our fathers bled to purchase, that our peace and happiness may be secured to us in common with others, it is all we ask; but if they will not, and the mob goes on, we say a dishonorable life is worse than an honorable death, and we are ready for the onset; and we call upon all patriots far and near to lend a helping hand to put down the mob and restore peace. If this is not done immediately, and the mob attempts to execute their threats, you may soon have the opportunity of beholding that glorious ‘vision in the west’ you have so sublimely contemplated in your letter. I write you at this time at the request of the prophet, and I invite you to come to our assistance with as many volunteers as you can bring, and if the mob cannot be dispersed, and the government will not espouse our righteous cause, you may soon— very soon, behold the second birth of our nation’s freedom; for to live without the free exercise of thought, and the privilege of worshipping God according to the dictates of our consciences, we will not! We will die rather, and go where the wicked cease to trouble; but we firmly believe there are [p. 129]