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 22> “I tell you plainly, that if no such submission is made as I have indicated, I will be obliged to call out the Militia, and if a few thousands will not be sufficient, many thousands will be.
“I sincerely hope that your people may do nothing which will make such a proceeding necessary. I hope also that they will be well disposed to co-operate with me in allaying the excitement of the public mind. Immediately discharge such persons as you have under martial law; let them go without molestation. Abstain from all injury to private property; let people go where they please without swearing them first to take no part against you; all such proceedings tend only to inflame the public mind, and raise up ten men disposed to fight you for every one thus foolishly disabled.
“Your committee assures me that you are sincerely desirous of preserving the peace, and if so I hope you will co-operate with me in every thing necessary to allay the excitement in the minds of the people.
“The following named persons are reported to me as being detained against their will by martial law: , , A. J. Higbee, , P. J Rolf, , & T. J. Rolf. It will tend greatly to allay excitement if they shall be immediately discharged and suffered to go without molestation.
“It is also reported here and generally believed— but whether truly or not I have not yet learned— that there are many foraging parties abroad from , committing depredations upon the cattle and property in the vicinity. These acts if correctly reported must absolutely cease immediately, if you expect any person here to have the power to preserve the peace.
“In case the persons accused should make no resistance to an arrest it will be against orders to be accompanied by others. If it should become necessary to have witnesses <on the trials, I will see that such persons shall be duly summoned, and I will also guarantee the safety of all such persons as may thus be brought to this place from either for trial or as witnesses> for the accused.
“If the individuals accused cannot be found when required by the , it will be considered by me as equivalent to a refusal to be arrested, and the Militia will be ordered accordingly.
“I am Gentlemen, With great respect,
Your obedient Servant,
, Governor and Commander in Chief.”
To which I wrote the following answer:— [HC 6:537]
“, June 22nd, 1844. 12 o’clock P. M.
“To His Excellency ,
Sir:— Yours of this date is received by Messrs. and ; a part of the same delegation, , who was detained yesterday, started for at 12 noon this date, whom we perceive had not arrived at your last date; some documents conveyed by him would tend to counteract some of the views expressed in your ’s communication, and we feel confident if all the facts could be before your , you would have come to different conclusions. Our ‘insisting to be accountable only before our own Municipal court’ is totally incorrect. We plead a Habeas Corpus as a last resort to save us from being thrown into the power of the Mobocrats, who were then threatening us with death, and it was with great reluctance we went before the Municipal Court on account of the prejudice which might arise in the minds of the unbiased, and we did not petition for a Habeas Corpus until we had told the that on our lives we dare not go to for trial, and plead with him to go before any county magistrate he pleased in our vicinity, (which occurence is common in legal proceedings) and not a member of our society, so that our lives might be saved from the threats thus already issued against us. [p. 143]