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 26> hundred and fifty, William G. Sterrett, who being first duly sworn deposeth and saith, that on the twenty seventh day of June one thousand eight hundred and forty four, in the City of , County of Hancock, and State of Illinois, I heard , Governor of , address an assembly of several thousand citizens, gathered around the frame of a building situated at the corner of Water and Main Streets; he reproached the people in severe terms for the course they had taken in resisting the posse commitatus, and among other things said, ‘the retribution thereof will be terrible and you must make up your minds for it, I hope you will not make any more trouble, but be a law abiding people, for if I have to come again, it will be worse for you’.
“And your deponent further saith that about half past five in the afternoon, the said Governor and his guard visited the and the workshops on the Temple Block. Mr , one of the Building Committee of the sent me to watch them in and about the . I was close to the when one of his men called him to look at one of the oxen of the Font in the basement of the , that had part of one horn broken off; the stepped up to it, and laying his hand on it remarked, ‘this is the cow with the crumply horn, that we read of,’ one of the staff continued ‘that tossed the maiden all forlorn’ and they all had a laugh about it. Several of the horns were broken off the oxen by the ’s attendants; a man who stood behind me said ‘I’ll be damned, but I would like to take one of those horns home with me, to show as a curiosity, but it is a pity to break them off.’ [HC 6:589] After they had passed round the fort <font> one of them remarked, ‘This is a curious piece of workmanship, and it was a damned shame that they did not let Joe Smith finish it, so that we could have seen what sort of a finish he would have put on it, for it is altogether a different style of architecture from any building I have <ever> seen or read about’; another said ‘but he is dead by this time and he will never see this again.’ I replied ‘they cannot kill him, until he has finished his work’; the thereupon gave a very significant grin, when one of his suite who stood next to me, said ‘whether he has finished his work or not, by God he’ll not see this place again, for he’s finished before this time’. Another of his suite pulled out his watch and said ‘, it’s time we were off, we have been here too long already, whether you go or not. I’m going to leave, and that damned quick.’ The said ‘Yes it’s time for us to be going;’ they then all left the stone shop, mounted their horses, which were hitched near the , and went out of the towards , by way of Mullholland Street, taking with them one of the horns that the Company had knocked off. And further this deponent saith not
Wm G. Sterrett
“Sworn to and subscribed before me, the day and year first above written
G. S. L. County Recorder”
While Joseph was writing at the ’s desk William Wall stepped up, wanting to deliver a verbal message to him from his uncle, . He turned round to speak to Wall, but the guard refused to allow them any communication.