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 4> unstained by such a blot, I mourn for my , How <has> the soil of an independent State been crimsoned with innocent blood? I say— innocent, for the law holds every man innocent till he is proved guilty.— Were the Smiths proved guilty? No! they had no trial. Where is the plighted faith of the ?
“How is the honor of all this western country tarnished! How will the jealousies of the Eastern States be excited by this unheard of butchery. I am a native of New England, I know the prejudices of the Eastern people concerning the West and South.— They feel that a man cannot travel in safety in our region, in , in , and the [HC 7:165] surrounding states and Territories without a pistol and a bowie knife, and that we almost belong to another race of beings and when our eastern friends shall read the true and frightful tale of messrs and , well may their fears be increased, their jealousies aroused, and they led to believe that all they had anticipated was true, concerning us:— but, Mr Editor, I would undeceive them; and although not one palliating circumstance, to my knowledge, offers itself to the public mind in relation to the occurrence at , yet I would say to my friends in New England, and to all men,— the citizens of the West do not approbate such proceedings. More than nineteen twentieths of the citizens of , and, I am confident, of , reprobate with unqualified abhorrence the attrocious deed. The wise, the virtuous, the patriotic of all sects and denominations and parties, political or religious, hurl their anathemas at the barbarous deed which was transacted by a lawless mob, a few scores of desperadoes, if we can believe the most authentic intelligence from the scene of trouble. The great, great mass of the people deprecate the event as much as would the inhabitants of , , or any other State, and why not? We are their sons, their brothers, their sisters, their daughters, nursed by the same mothers, cradled by the same firesides.
“I repeat what is well known, I am no Mormon, and that they may be guilty of some things, as a Society. If they are, I do not know it,— So far as I have seen their leaders, their teachings have been moral and upright, and their publications state if they have erred in any thing, they have erred unintentionally, and they are ready to be set right by the powers above them. Why then should not the law have its course? Why should any men be condemned without a hearing? If this thing is suffered to go any further, God knows where it will end; I fear a general civil war, and I do hope that every good man in the will arise and stamp with infamy any such unlawful proceedings. If the city of erred in declaring the printing press of the Expositor a nuisance, what then? I am no lawyer, but I suppose it could be no more than a trespass,— they liable for damage only; and if they erred in judgement, it is not the first time a legislative body has erred; Congress might have done as much and not be killed for it; then why kill them? Mr Editor, is the action of the government to bring the murderers of the Gens. Smith to justice? I ask for information; Have the perpetrators been discovered? Have arrests been made? Have rewards been offered by the of ?, or has he been dilatory in his duties, as the respectable part of the community think him to be? If he does his duty I trust justice [p. 254]