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.
<June 10> Mayor made a statement of what said before the City Council under oath, that he was a friend to the Mayor &c., and asked if there were any present who recollected his statement; when scores responded, yes!
“ continued— was president of this Council during the passage of many ordinances, and referred to the Records; and were members of the Council, and has never objected to any ordinance while in the Council; but has been more like a cipher, and is now become Editor of a libellous paper, and is trying to destroy our charter and ordinances. He then read from the Constitution of the on the freedom of the press, and said, ‘we are willing they should publish the truth’; but it is unlawful to publish libels; the ‘Expositor’ is a nuisance, and stinks in the nose of every honest man.
“Mayor read from constitution. Article 8, Section 22, touching the responsibility of the press for its constitutional liberty.
“ said a nuisance was any thing that disturbs the peace of a community, and read Blackstone on private wrongs, Vol. 2, page 4, and the whole community has to rest under the stigma of these falsehoods— referring to the ‘Expositor’, and if we can prevent the issuing of any more slanderous communications, he would go in for it; it is right for this community to show a proper resentment, and he would go in for suppressing all further publications of the kind.
“Councilor believed the best way was to smash the press, and ‘pi’ the type.
“ concurred with the councilors who had spoken.
“ referred to the statement of the ‘Expositor’ concerning the Municipal Court in the case of as a libel, and considered the paper a public nuisance.
considered his a peculiar situation, as he did not belong to any church or any party; though it might be considered rather harsh for the council to declare the paper a nuisance, and proposed giving a few days’ limitation and assessing a fine of $3,000 for every libel, and if they would not cease publishing libels to declare it a nuisance, and said the statutes made provisions for a fine of $500.
“Mayor replied that they threatened to shoot him when at , and the women and others dare not go to to prosecute; and [HC 6:445] read a libel from the ‘Expositor’ concerning the imprisonment of .
“Councilor spoke of the Warsaw Signal, and disapprobated its libellous course.
“Mayor remarked he was sorry to have one dissenting voice in declaring the ‘Expositor’ a nuisance.
“ did not mean to be understood to go against the proposition; but would not be in haste in declaring it a nuisance.
“Councilor referred to the mortgages and property of the proprietors of the Expositor, and thought there would be little chance of collecting damages for libels.
“Alderman considered there was but one course to pursue, that the proprietors were out of the reach of the law; that our course was to put an end to the thing at once; believed by what he had heard that if the city council did not do it, others would.
“ believed it to be a nuisance; referred to the opinion of on habeas corpus, and spoke in favor of the charter &c; asked before the jury if he was not the man he saw at Joseph’s house making professions of friendship; [p. 83]