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 12.> still my heart is large enough for all men, and my sensibilities keen enough to have compassion for every case when justice, mercy, virtue, or humanity, requires it; be pleased to accept my thanks for your very kind letter; study the bible, and as many of our books as you can get; pray to the Father in the name of Jesus Christ, have faith in the promises made to the fathers, and your mind will be guided to the truth. An Elder shall be sent as soon as the ‘Twelve’ can make the necessary arrangements.
“In the gospel of our Lord Jesus Christ,
“I am your obedient Servant,
Joseph Smith.”
“Washington Tucker,)
Eldorado, Arkansas)
The of the Neighbor writes [HC 6:459]
“Retributive Justice.
“A Knot of base men, to further their wicked and malicious designs towards the Church of Jesus Christ of Latter Day Saints, and to bolster up the intents of black-legs and bogus makers, and advocate the characters of murderers, established a press in this last week, and issued a paper entitled the “Nauvoo Expositor.” The prospectus showed an intention to destroy the Charter, and the paper was filled with libels and slanderous articles upon the citizens and city council from one end to the other.
“‘A burnt child dreads the fire’; the church as a body and individually has suffered till ‘forbearance has ceased to be a virtue’; the cries and pleadings of men, women and children, with the authorities were, ‘will you suffer that servile, murderous paper to go on, and vilify and slander the innocent inhabitants of this , and raise another mob to drive and plunder us again as they did in ?’ Under these pressing cries and supplications of afflicted innocence, and in the character, dignity, and honor of the corporate powers of the charter, as granted to the City of , and made and provided as a part of our charter for legislative purposes, viz: ‘to declare what shall be a nuisance, and to prevent and remove the same’, the City Council of on Monday the 10th inst., declared the establishment and Expositor a nuisance; and the city at the head of the police in the evening took the press, materials, and paper into the street and burnt them.
“And in the name of Freemen, and in the name of God, we beseech all men who have the spirit of honor in them, to cease from persecuting us, collectively or individually. Let us enjoy our religion, rights, and peace, like the rest of mankind. Why start presses to destroy rights and privileges, and bring upon us mobs to plunder and murder? We ask no more than what belongs to us— the rights of Americans.”
I copy from the Gazette:—
“The of .
“Ascending an acclivity somewhat abrupt, and turning to the right, you are at the site of the . The foundation is entirely of stone, constructed in the most massive manner and the same superstructure is to be of the same material and construction. The dimensions are perhaps 130 feet by 90, and the edifice is to have three stories of some 20 feet each in altitude. The spire is to be about one hundred feet higher than the walls, or 160 feet from the ground. The appearance presented by this edifice in the diagram model, which was shewn me by the prophet, is grand and imposing.
“The tower, the casements, the doors, and all the prominent parts of the edifice are to be richly ornamented, both within and without, but in a style of architecture, which no Greek, nor Goth, nor Frank, ever dreamed, I will be bound to affirm; indeed, as I learned from the lips of the Prophet himself, the style of architecture is exclusively his [p. 92]