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 9> “The bodies of the murdered men were removed to on the 28th, and were buried on the 29th. This event has caused the deepest mourning among the Saints, but they have not attempted to avenge the outrage.
“The has promised that the whole treacherous proceedings shall be investigated according to law, and the Saints have agreed to leave it with him, and with God to avenge their wrongs in this matter: there has been considerable excitement in the surrounding country, which is now in a great measure allayed. The action of the Saints has been of the most pacific kind, remembering that God has said ‘Vengeance is mine I will repay.’
“For further particulars we refer you to the statements of Messrs and , and other statements in the ‘Nauvoo Neighbor’ which we send you with this; and now, beloved brethren, we say to you all , as we say to the Saints here, be still and know that God reigns. This is one of those fiery trials that is to try the Saints in the last days. These servants of God have gone to heaven by fire— the fire of an ungodly mob.— Like the prophets of ancient days they lived as long as the world would receive them; and this is one furnace in which the Saints were to be tried, to have their leaders cut off from their midst and not be permitted to avenge their blood. [HC 7:173] God has said, Vengeance is mine, I have not called mine elders to fight their battles; I will fight their battles for them; and we know assuredly that he will do it in his own time, and we have only to wait in patience and pray for the fulfillment of the promise.
“This event is one of the most foul and damnable that ever disgraced the earth, having no parallel in time. Innocent men imprisoned without law, without justice, and murdered in cold blood in the enlightened ninteenth century, in an enlightened country in open daylight. It will call down the width and indignation of all nations upon the perpetrators of the horrid deed, and will prove the truth of the saying, ‘the blood of the martyrs is the seed of the Church.’ They died for the word of God and the testimony of Jesus Christ.
“God has not left his Church without witnesses; as in former days, so shall it be in the latter days, when one falls another will arise to occupy a similar station. Our Heavenly Father always has had a leader to his people— always will have, and the gates of hell can never prevail against the chosen of heaven.
“The murder of Joseph will not stop the work; it will not stop the ; it will not stop the gathering; it will not stop the honest in heart from believing the truth and obeying it, but it is a proof of the revelations we have received from heaven through him. He has sealed his testimony with his blood, he was willing to die, and desired only to live for the sake of the brethren.
“Two better men than Joseph and never lived. Two better men God never made. The memorial of their Godly lives is embalmed, printed with indelible ink in the memory of every honest heart, who knew their upright walk and conversation: but they are taken away by the hands of assassins, and of the foolish things of the earth God will raise up others to comfort and lead his people, and not one item of his word can fail. Jerusalem [p. 259]