, “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 50
presidency came to and began to move things to their own notion; many of the church had settled in and to all appearance lived as peacably with their neighbors as people generally do. But not long after Smith and arrived in they went to and pitched upon a place to build a town, was already on the ground with his family. They laid out a town and began to settle it pretty rapidly. Smith gave it the name of which he said was formely given to a certain val[l]ey where Adam previous to his d[e]ath called his children together and blessed them. The interpretation in english is the Valey of God in which Adam blessed his children. Many of the church became elated with the idea of settling in and round about the new town, especially those who had come from , as it was designed more paticularly for them. This stired up the people of in some degree. They saw that if this town built up rapidly it would injure their seat, and also that the Mormons would soon overrun and rule the and they did not like to live [p. 50]