, “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 30
that we were about to appeal to the law for redress, they became very angry, and again commenced hostilities. The Mormons then began to prepare for self defence, but were badly armed. The citizens would collect together and by night commit depredations on the Mormons, by puttings pulling down their houses, whipping the men, &c., untill sometime about the fourth of November, 1833, a conflict took place, in which three of four persons were killed and others wounded. This took place above Blue, eight or nine miles from , and the news reach[e]d a little after dark, at which time six or eight of the Mormons were undergoing a sham trial under a pretence of law; but this news produced such confusion in the , and the people became so angry, that the court was obliged to shut up the prisioners in the court Jail to keep them from being murdered. The people continued to gather from different parts of the , and such was the wrath and determination manifested, that before light the next morning, the Mormon leaders agreed for themselves and the church, to leave the . , who lived above Blue, eight or ten miles distance, on hearing that several Mormons were in Jail without just cause, and supposing they intended to take their lives, gathered up some one hundred and fifty men [p. 30]