, “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.
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appointed to gather donations. They traveled among the churches and collected a considerable amount, but not sufficient; so that in the end, they found themselves thirteen or fourteen thousand dollars in debt. This was eighty feet by sixty, and fifty seven feet high to the top of the wall. It was divided into two stories, each twenty two feet high and arched over head. Ten feet was cut of[f] by from the front end by a petition<partition> and used as an entrance, and <it> also it contained the stair cases <stairs.> This left the main room fifty five feet by sixty five feet in the clear, bothe below and above. In each of these rooms were built two pulpits, one in each end. Each pulpit consisted of four different apartments, the first fourth standing on a platform raised a suitable height above the floor, the second <third> stood directly behind and elevated a little above the first <fourth>, the third <second> in rear of and elevated above the second <third,> and so the was the fourth <first> above the third <second>. Each of these apartments was just large enough and rightly calculated to receive three persons, and the breast work <in front> of each of these three last mentioned, was constituted of three semicircles joining each other, and finished in good style. The first <fourth,> a lower one was straight in front, and had a table leaf attached to it, that could be raised at pleasure, for the convenience of admin [p. 34]