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.
<July 3> “Gentlemen: I have received your communication on behalf of the citizens of , stating their unalterable determination to compel the Mormons of your to leave the ; or otherwise to abandon their own homes and evacuate the , and asking my interference and influence to assist you in procuring the removal of the Mormons.
“I have no reply whatever to make to that part of your letter which treats of the history, character, and offences of the Mormons. I deem this, however, a fit occasion to remark somewhat upon the character of the events which have just transpired. These events present reasons for my determination which must be noticed.
“When I came to your I announced the policy by which I intended to be governed. The law was to be my guide; and this you well understand. I announced this determination in numerous public addresses, and uniformly in my private conversations. I successively obtained a vote to sustain me in this course from every troop stationed at , or who was visiting there. From the detachment of your town and vicinity, who visited the day before the surrender of the Smiths, I obtained a similar pledge. I met them on the prairie, before they arrived in town, and as they must testify, stated to them at length, the reasons which ought to influence them to keep the peace and abide the operation of the laws. They gave every demonstration of satisfaction, and signified with unanimous acclamation that they would stand by me in taking a strictly legal course.
“All the other portion of the forces under my command were repeatedly and deeply pledged to sustain me in the same course. Under the firm and confident assurance of support thus obtained, I demanded the surrender of the Smiths, and promised them security. In doing so, I now acknowledge that I erred, and erred greviously, in relying with too much confidence upon men with whom I was but little acquainted. The idea that men could be treacherous under such circumstances was abhorrent to my nature, and rejected with indignation. Whatever your hatred of the Smiths might be, I was too confident you would respect your honor— the honor of your and , and the rights of defenceless prisoners. I could not believe that so much stupidity and baseness as was necessary for such an enterprise as the murder of defenceless prisoners in jail would be, could be mustered in .— What aggravates the transaction, as a matter personal to myself, [HC 7:160] is that you betrayed my honor as well as your own, and that of the ; and you selected a time to commit the deed when you believed I was in , in the power of the Mormons, and would most probably be murdered by them, by way of retaliation. Upon the whole I cannot too strongly express my indignation and abhorrence of the base and profligate act which has dis-graced the and raised suspicions in the minds of many in regard to my conduct in the matter of the most painful character to my feelings.
“I am happy, however, to learn that these denunciations apply only to a small portion of the people of and . All the most responsible inhabitants ought to be acquitted of any direct participation with [p. 250]