, “Brief History,” Manuscript, ca. 6 April 1838– ca. 26 January 1839; handwriting of and an unidentified scribe; seventy pages numbered 20–90, plus three unnumbered pages; John Fletcher Darby Papers, Missouri History Museum Archives, St. Louis.
, a careful observer, had enjoyed a close association with Mormon leaders, and consequently his account provides valuable insights into the development and structure of the early church. He summarized many of the doctrines taught by JS and provided a detailed description of the conflict between the Latter-day Saints and other settlers. But his chronicle also related the story of a personal spiritual journey into and then out of the church as came to disapprove of the church’s course in 1838 in Missouri. Yet despite his estrangement from the church and his excommunication in 1839, he retained a degree of sympathy for the Saints and maintained some contact.
apparently began compiling portions of his account while serving as an officially appointed church historian in . He probably completed his narrative by 11 February 1839, when he secured a copyright with the district federal copyright office. He arranged for Thomas Watson & Son of to print A Brief History. The entire print run may have included up to twelve hundred copies.
The document presented here, ’s circa 1838–1839 rough draft of his history, is incomplete. It includes the title page, copyright notice, and preface but is missing twenty-one pages, including the nineteen pages that constitute chapters 1 through 6. The manuscript is almost entirely in Corrill’s handwriting, though some of the chapter summaries (added after he drafted the narrative) were written in a different hand, possibly that of the printer.
’s published version of A Brief History receives comprehensive treatment in volume 2 of the Histories series of The Joseph Smith Papers and is available on this website as part of the history series.
<Reflections. Terms of peace. Surrender of Smith and others. Arms surrendered. Place guarded. Prisoners and arms taken to .>
<This order greatly agitated my mind. I expected we should be exterminated without fail. There lay three thousand> men highly excited and full of revenge veangance and in as mutch as the officers could do todo to keep them off from us any how, and they now had authority from the to exterminate with orders to cut of[f] our retreat, and the word Mormons I thought included innocent as well as guilty. so of cours there was no escape for any. Theese were my first reflections on hearing the order. But soon said that they would be more mild than the order required; that if we would give up the heads of the church to be punished; surrendr our arms; give up all our property, (those who had taken up arms,) to pay the debts of the whole church and the damages done in and elsewhere, and then all except leave the state forthwith except those retained to be punished, they would spare our lives and protect us out of the . The sun was then about two hours high and he gave us till sunset to make up our minds and deliver the prisoners. A man gentleman of note told me that if these men was suffered to escape, Or if they could not be found nothing could save the place from destruction and the people from extermination. We knew that had no authority and his requirements were illegal for he was out of the bounds of his Division and the s order was to and not to him: but there was no other way for the Mormons but to submit. We immediately went into town and collected Joseph Smith Junr , , [p. 77]