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 10> were shot by a mob at . We are incredulous in regard to the truth of this rumor. We cannot think under the circumstances of the case, the excitement against these men among the anti-mormons, would have received them as prisoners, to be tried under our laws, had pledged himself for their protection, and then placed them in a situation where they would be murdered. The rumor is too preposterous for belief. We wait with much anxiety to hear the truth on this subject; and this feeling is general in this community.”
From the Republican:—
“The murders at .— A letter from the editor, one from G. L. M. Davis, Esq., and a proclamation from , give all the information which we have been able to collect from the seat of civil commotion and murder in . They were issued in an extra from <form> yesterday morning, and are transferred to our columns to day for the benefit of our numerous readers abroad. All our information tends to fix upon the people concerned in the death of the Smiths, the odium of perfidious, blackhearted cowardly murder— so wanton, as to be without any justification— so inhuman and treacherous, as to find no parallel in savage life under any circumstances. declares his intention to seek out the murderers, and he owes it to his own honor and to that of the , whose faith was most grossly violated, never to cease his exertions for this purpose. The Mormons, it will be seen, were quiet, and not disposed to commit any acts of aggression: their enemies, on the other hand, were evidently disposed to push them to extremities, and to force them <from> the . This feeling may be checked by the alacrity with which ’s orders were being executed, but it will be sometime before peace and order can be restored— the disgrace of past acts cannot be wiped out.”
The following extract of a letter from a highly respectable gentleman to his friend in , we copy from the Nauvoo Neighbor:—
“ (Ct.) July 10. 1844.
“I have by the papers, within a day or two, been informed of the [HC 7:180] murder of Joseph and . This is an event which will be deeply lamented by all Mormons, and will appear probably to those who are not Mormons, as the final overthrow of their religious tenets.— I will, however, make the prediction that this diabolical butchery, makes more Mormons than the friendship of half the inhabitants in could have done by their most devoted exertions. The blood of Saints is the seed of the Church. It will be considered by an extensive portion of the world, that the Smiths have suffered martyrdom for their religion, and their profoundest sympathies will be aroused in favor of those believeing the same creed. The inflammatory appeals to the blood-thirsty passions of the anti-mormon populace will be universally condemned by the reflecting and moral part of every community, and thousands will now examine your tenets, who never thought of such a thing before. and will be denounced by the honorable; and the indelible disgrace with which they now stand covered, will cause them to be avoided by every person who has any regard to his personal safety. It is now known here, that the lazy speculators of , and the still lazier <office> drones at , cared nothing for Joe Smith personally, or for his tenets either; but the prosperity of increasing as it did, beyond any former parallel, even in the western world, excited in their [p. 264]