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.
Messrs:— In reply to your communication to the City Council of the City of , on behalf of His Excellency , I have been instructed by the Council to communicate the foregoing resolutions which I respectfully solicit for your consideration, and at the same time would inform you that a public meeting of our citizens will take place at the , east of the , at 4 P. M., and solicit your attendance.
Most respectfully, Your ob’t serv’t,
”
“Public Meeting
“At a meeting of a large portion of the citizens of , convened at the , in the afternoon of July 1. 1844, after hearing the above instructions, and resolutions of the City Council read, and being addressed by A. Jonas Esq., and others, the meeting responded to the same with a hearty Amen! The citizens then passed a vote of thanks to the ’s agents [HC 7:151] for their kindly interference in favor of peace among the citizens of and elsewhere around us. They also passed a vote of thanks to Messrs and , the counsel for the Gens. Smith for their great exertions to have even-handed justice meted to the Latter Day Saints; and they also passed a vote of thanks to Messrs. Chambers and Field, the former, one of the editors of the ‘ Republican,’ and the latter, one of the editors of the ‘Reveille’, of , for their honorable course of coming to for facts, instead of spreading rumors concerning the Latter Day Saints. Mr Chambers made a very appropriate speech, containing inuendoes for the benefit of our citizens, that appeared as the wise man said, ‘like apples of gold in pictures of silver.’ They also passed a vote of thanks to Messrs. Wood and Conyers, Mayor, and Ex-Mayor of , for their friendly disposition in establishing peace in this region, and we are happy to say that all appears to be peace at ”
“To the Church of Jesus Christ of Latter Day Saints.
“Deeply impressed for the welfare of all, while mourning the great loss of President Joseph Smith our ‘prophet and seer’, and President , our ‘patriarch,’ we have considered the occasion demanded of us a word of consolation. As has been the case in all ages, these saints have fallen martyrs for the truth’s sake, and their escape from the persecution of a wicked world, in blood to bliss, only strengthens our faith, and confirms our religion, as pure and holy. We, therefore, as servants of the Most High God, having the Bible, Book of Mormon and the Book of Doctrine and Covenants, together with thousands of witnesses, for Jesus Christ; would beseech the Latter Day Saints, in and elsewhere, to hold fast to the faith that has been delievered to them in the last days, abiding in the perfect law of the gospel. Be peaceable, quiet citizens, doing the works of righteousness, and as soon as the Twelve and other authorities can assemble, or a majority of them, the onward course to the great gathering of Israel, and the final consummation of the dispensation of the fulness of times will be pointed out; so that the murder of Abel; the assassination of [p. 244]