, “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.
<Arrival of . Number of his troops. Prisoners selected. Marched to . Investigation. Prisioners retained. Charges against them. Conduct of the soldiers. Prisoner killed. Property taken by Citizens. Appropriation. Petition of Mormons>
On Sunday Saturday evening or Sunday morning arrived with fourteen hundred mounted men and said there were six thousand more within a days march, but they were turned back. Previous to the arrival of the Mormons were gathered together and about five hundred made to sign a deed of trust in which five commissioners were appointed to whom they deeded all their property in trust for the use of all the creditors of the church and also to pay all the damages done by the Danites, and, <the> overplus, <if any> was to be returned refunded. <ratified what had done and> kept the town well guarded and permitted none to go out except now and then one to see the their families and then return again. However in a day or two he gathered up all the Mormons prisoners and selected forty or fifty, such as he thought from the best information he could get ought to be punished, and put them in a store and had them guarded over night. He then withdrew the guard from town and let the remainder go free, but the next day marched with the [p. [79]]