, “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 52
They were to labor in word and doctrine, to write for and superintend the press and to look to the welfare of the church. Notwithstanding the dissenters had left the church yet the old strife kept up and the presiding Smith and with othe[r]s complained much of the ill treatment they had received from the dissenters and others. They said they had been prosecuted from time to time with vexacious law suits; that mobs had arisen up against them time after time; that they had been harrased to death as it were for seven or eight years, and they were determined to bear it no longer; for they had rathr die than suffr such things. And it was the will of God that the saints should fight their death, rather than suffer such things. That if the chu[r]ch would be united and exercise faith in God he would protect them, though their enemies were ever so numerous. But in order to get protection and favor from God they must become one, and be perfectly united in all things, cleanse themselves from every kind of pollution and keep the whole law of God. And if they would do this God would strengthen them against their enemies his arm should be thier arm and the time was not far distant when if they purified themselves properly one should be able to chase his <thousand> and two put their ten thousand to flight.