, “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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untill the summer of 1838. <(Paragraph> And now I return to with my story. After finishing the so far as to have it ready for the solem assembly, the church found itself something like fifteen or twenty thousand dollars in debt, as near as I can reccollect. As the had been built by faith, as they termed it, they must now continue their faith and contrive some means to pay the debt. Notwithstanding they were deeply in debt, they had so managed as to keep up their credit, so they concluded to try the Mercantile business. Accordingly, they ran in debt in and elsewhere, some thirty thousand dollars for goods, and shortly after some fifty or sixty thousand more, as I was informed; but they did not fully understand the mercantile business, and withal they suffered pride to arise in their hearts, and became desirous of fine houses, and fine clothes, and indulged to much in these things, supposing for a few months that they were very rich. They also spent some thousands of dollars in building a steam mill which never profited them any thing. They also bought many farms at extravagant prices and made part payments which they afterwards lost by not being able to meet the remaining payments. They also got up a Bank, for which they could get no charter, so they issued their paper without a [p. 46]