, “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.
Page 83
I will now state some things which have taken place in the church but not mentioned before. Shortly after the church was first established Smith translated the Bible the Old and New testaments which differs a lit[t]le in some places from the old translation. This has not been published though they contemplated doing it. In the summer of 1835 they purchased three or four Egyptian Mummies with an antent [ancient] egyptian record written on Papirus, a part of which Smith professed to translate making it out to be the writing of Abraham.
The High Priests Elders and priests have from the commencement of the church labored indefatigueably to proclaim the gospel and gain disciples, and they have generally been successful though strongly opposed. On the sixth day of April 1830 there were but six members in the church, but now their members are differently estimated from ten to forty thousand, though in my opinion there are from twelve to twenty thousand. Much exertion has been used to confute and put down their doctrine and belief, but as foolish as it is they their elders have generally been able to compete with and baffle their opponents. Several publications have appeared against thiers as well as News paper prints, but the misfortune generally has been that they contained so much misrepresentation that it has destroyed the confidence of the public in the truth they did contain. Men of influence had in the church have at different times turned against it [p. 83]