Footnotes
The page numbers on pages 19–71, 86–90, and 122–125 are in the handwriting of Willard Richards; on pages 72–85, 91–121, 126–167, and 171–477, in the handwriting of William Clayton; and on pages 168–170, in the handwriting of Erastus Derby. There are two pages numbered 453. Pages 476–477 constitute the last leaf of lined paper. The headers generally consist of a year or a month and year. The headers inscribed on pages 26–27, 29–71, 88–95, 119, and 121–126 are in the handwriting of Richards; the headers inscribed on pages 28, 72–87, 96–118, 120, 127–167, and 172–215 are in the handwriting of Clayton; pages 168–171, which were inscribed by Derby, have no headers. A few other pages are missing headers.
For example, page 135 points the reader to page 164, which begins by noting the continuation from page 135.
This serialized history drew on the journals herein, beginning with the 4 July 1855 issue of the Deseret News and with the 3 January 1857 issue of the LDS Millennial Star.
Most of these now-erased graphite inscriptions are recoverable with bright white light and magnification. Pages 209–215, which were not erased, represent the state of the journal entries generally when they were used for drafting the “History of Joseph Smith.”
Tithing and Donation Record, 1844–1846, CHL; Trustee-in-trust, Index and Accounts, 1841–1847, CHL.
Trustee-in-Trust. Index and Accounts, 1841–1847. CHL.
Historian’s Office, “Inventory. Historian’s Office. 4th April 1855,” [1]; Historian’s Office, “Inventory. Historians Office. G. S. L. City April 1.1857,” [1]; Historian’s Office, “Historian’s Office Inventory G. S. L. City March 19. 1858,” [1]; Historian’s Office, “Historian’s Office Catalogue Book March 1858,” [11], Historian’s Office, Catalogs and Inventories, 1846–1904, CHL.
Historian’s Office. Catalogs and Inventories, 1846–1904. CHL. CR 100 130.
Emmeline B. Wells, “Salt Lake Stake Relief Society Conference,” Women’s Exponent, 1 July 1880, 9:22.
Woman’s Exponent. Salt Lake City. 1872–1914.
“Inventory of President Joseph Fielding Smith’s Safe,” 23 May 1970, First Presidency, General Administration Files, CHL.
“Inventory of President Joseph Fielding Smith’s Safe,” 23 May 1970. First Presidency, General Administration Files, 1921–1972. CHL.
Letter of transfer, Salt Lake City, UT, 8 Jan. 2010, CHL.
Letter of Transfer, Salt Lake City, UT, 8 Jan. 2010. CHL.
| Date | Manuscript Page | Page in JSP, J2 |
| December 1841 | 26, 31, 33, 36, 39, 43–44 | 10–21 |
| Dec. 1841 | 36 | 16 |
| 11–13 Dec. 1841 | 33 | 14–15 |
| 13 Dec. 1841 | 26, 33 | 10–11, 15–16 |
| 14 Dec. 1841 | 26 | 11 |
| 15–16 Dec. 1841 | 31 | 13–14 |
| 17 Dec. 1841 | 26 | 11 |
| 22 Dec. 1841 | 36 | 16–17 |
| 24–28 Dec. 1841 | 39 | 17–19 |
| 29–31 Dec. 1841 | 43–44 | 19–21 |
| January 1842 | 31, 43–44, 48, 56–60, 66–67 | 14, 21–32, 36–38 |
| 1 Jan. 1842 | 44 | 21 |
| 4 Jan. 1842 | 48 | 23–24 |
| 5 Jan. 1842 | 31, 44 | 14, 21 |
| 6 Jan. 1842 | 57 | 25–26 |
| 12–16 Jan. 1842 | 48 | 24 |
| 15 Jan. 1842 | 58 | 26–27 |
| 16 Jan. 1842 | 48, 58 | 24, 27 |
| 17 Jan. 1842 | 43, 56, 58 | 20–21, 24–25, 27 |
| 18–22 Jan. 1842 | 58 | 27–30 |
| 23 Jan. 1842 | 59, 66 | 30, 36–37 |
| 24 Jan. 1842 | 59 | 30 |
| 25 Jan. 1842 | 59, 66 | 30, 37 |
| 26–27 Jan. 1842 | 59 | 30–31 |
| 28 Jan. 1842 | 59, 67 | 31, 38 |
| 29–31 Jan. 1842 | 60 | 31–32 |
| February–July 1842 | 60–61, 88–95, 122–128 | 32–36, 38–80 |
| August 1842 | 128–135, 164–167, 179–184 | 80–99, 115–124 |
| 3–15 Aug. 1842 | 128–135 | 80–92 |
| 16 Aug. 1842 | 135, 164–165 | 93–96 |
| 17–21 Aug. 1842 | 165–167 | 96–99 |
| Copied Correspondence | 168–178 | 100–114 |
| 23–31 Aug. 1842 | 179–184 | 115–124 |
| September–December 1842 | 184–215 | 124–183 |
Footnotes
One of Richards’s entries records that he was ill “& did not take notes.” Other entries, such as those dictated by JS to William Clayton while in hiding, are clearly copies of previously inscribed notes. (JS, Journal, 17 June 1842; 16 and 23 Aug. 1842.)
Clayton, History of the Nauvoo Temple, 16; Brigham Young et al., “Baptism for the Dead,” Times and Seasons, 15 Dec. 1841, 3:626.
Clayton, William. History of the Nauvoo Temple, ca. 1845. CHL. MS 3365.
Times and Seasons. Commerce/Nauvoo, IL. Nov. 1839–Feb. 1846.
Clayton, History of the Nauvoo Temple, 18; Clayton, Journal, 10 Feb. 1843.
Clayton, William. History of the Nauvoo Temple, ca. 1845. CHL. MS 3365.
Clayton, William. Journals, 1842–1845. CHL.
JS, Kirtland, OH, to William W. Phelps, [Independence, MO], 27 Nov. 1832, in JS Letterbook 1, pp. 1–2 [D&C 85:1–2, 5]; 2 Chronicles 17:9; 34:14; Nehemiah 9:3.
JS Letterbook 1 / Smith, Joseph. “Letter Book A,” 1832–1835. Joseph Smith Collection. CHL. MS 155, box 2, fd. 1.
See also the entry for 29 June 1842, in which Richards transferred “this Journal” to his assistant William Clayton.
Pages 207–209, for example, contain such inscriptions. Willard Richards’s entry for 10 March 1842 also indicates contemporaneous inscription.
JS, Journal, 29 June 1842.
Brigham Young et al., “Baptism for the Dead,” Times and Seasons, 15 Dec. 1841, 3:626.
Times and Seasons. Commerce/Nauvoo, IL. Nov. 1839–Feb. 1846.
JS, Journal, 8 Aug. 1842; see also Appendix 1.
JS, Journal, 21 Dec. 1842.
Probably William Moore Allred, who married Orissa Bates, sister of Sarah Bates Pratt, on 9 January 1842, with Mayor John C. Bennett officiating. (Allred, Reminiscences and Diary, 8–9.)
Allred, William Moore. Reminiscences and Diary, 1885–1887. Private possession. Photocopy at CHL. MS 1871.
Sometime prior to 20 September 1841, David and Edward Kilbourne appeared before John C. Bennett in the mayor’s court on a charge of conspiring to unlawfully procure an indictment. The charge was based on a complaint by Lorenzo Wasson and Orrin Porter Rockwell after the Kilbournes attempted to catch a group of alleged thieves, including Rockwell, in the act of robbing the Kilbournes’ store in Montrose, Iowa Territory. According to the Kilbournes, the charge was “unsustained by a shadow of proof,” and they were discharged by Bennett at Nauvoo. (David Kilbourne and Edward Kilbourne, “Latter-Day-ism, No. 1,” Hawk-Eye and Iowa Patriot [Burlington, IA], 30 Sept. 1841, [1]; see also Bennett, History of the Saints, 93.)
Hawk-Eye and Iowa Patriot. Burlington, IA. 1839–1851.
Bennett, John C. The History of the Saints; or, an Exposé of Joe Smith and Mormonism. Boston: Leland and Whiting, 1842.
The Kilbournes wrote three letters attacking the church and JS. On 14 May 1842, David Kilbourne wrote to Missouri governor Thomas Reynolds accusing JS of complicity in the Lilburn W. Boggs assassination attempt and urging his arrest. On 24 June, JS wrote to Illinois governor Thomas Carlin expressing concern about information from Galena, about 160 miles upriver from Nauvoo, that the Kilbournes and Bennett had posted handbills there asking for volunteers to drive out the Mormons and to assist in kidnapping JS. (David Kilbourne and Edward Kilbourne, “Latter-Day-ism, No. 1,” Hawk-Eye and Iowa Patriot [Burlington, IA], 30 Sept. 1841, [1]; David Kilbourne and Edward Kilbourne, “Latter- Day-ism, No. 2,” Hawk-Eye and Iowa Patriot [Burlington, IA], 7 Oct. 1841, [2]; David Kilbourne and Edward Kilbourne, “Latter Day-ism No. 3,” Hawk-Eye and Iowa Patriot [Burlington, IA], 14 Oct. 1841, [3]; David Kilbourne, Montrose, Iowa Territory, to Thomas Reynolds, Jefferson City, MO, 14 May 1842, Thomas Reynolds, Office of Governor, MSA; JS, Nauvoo, IL, to Thomas Carlin, [Quincy, IL], 24 June 1842, in JS Letterbook 2, pp. 233–235.)
Hawk-Eye and Iowa Patriot. Burlington, IA. 1839–1851.
Reynolds, Thomas. Office of the Governor, 1840–1844. MSA.
JS Letterbook 2 / Smith, Joseph. “Copies of Letters, &c. &c.,” 1839–1843. Joseph Smith Collection, 1827–1846. CHL. MS 155, box 2, fd. 2.
In spite of this report, two days later Brigham Young wrote in a letter to Orson’s brother Parley P. Pratt: “Br Orson Pratt is in trubble in consequence of his wife, his feelings are so rought up that he dos not know whether his wife is wrong, or whether Josephs testmony and others are wrong and due Ly and he decived for 12 years, or not; he is all but crazy about matters.” (Brigham Young, Nauvoo, IL, to Parley P. Pratt, Liverpool, England, 17 July 1842, CHL.)
Young, Brigham. Letter, Nauvoo, IL, to Parley P. Pratt, Liverpool, England, 17 July 1842. CHL. MS 14291.
Probably Daniel or Samuel Russell, who came with their families to Nauvoo around this time from Newstead Township, Erie County, which borders Genesee County, New York. (1840 U.S. Census, Newstead, Erie Co., NY, 378; “Record of the Names of the Members,” [30]; Hancock Co., IL, Deed Records, 27 July 1842, vol. L, pp. 119–120, microfilm 954,599, U.S. and Canada Record Collection, FHL.)
Census (U.S.) / U.S. Bureau of the Census. Population Schedules. Microfilm. FHL.
Sloan, James, and Willard Richards. “A Record of the Names of the Members of the Church of Jesus Christ of Latter Day Saints, Who Have Handed In Certificates, with the Names of the Persons, and Their Office, Who Gave Same, Also the Branch from Which They Came, and Date of Certificate.” Oct. 1841–Jan. 1846. In Far West and Nauvoo Elders’ Certificates, 1837–1838, 1840–1846, 1862. CHL.
U.S. and Canada Record Collection. FHL.
Kearns arrived in Nauvoo in early July and purchased a home and farm comprising the north half of the northwest quarter of Section 9—property bordering JS’s farm, on the Carthage road—on 14 July 1842. (Henry Kearns, Nauvoo, IL, to Leonard Pickel, Bart, PA, 7 Dec. 1842, Leonard Pickel, Mormon Letters, 1841–1844, Western Americana Collection, Beinecke Rare Book and Manuscript Library, Yale University, New Haven, CT; Trustees Land Book B, 14 July 1842, 13.)
Pickel, Leonard. Mormon Letters, 1841–1844. Western Americana Collection, Beinecke Rare Book and Manuscript Library, Yale University, New Haven, CT.
Trustees Land Books / Trustee-in-Trust, Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints. Land Books, 1839–1845. 2 vols. CHL. MS 3437.
The meeting was called “to obtain an expression of the public mind” with respect to the efforts of Bennett to defame JS’s character. Wilson Law presented a resolution upholding JS’s integrity and moral character. The vote by the citizens of Nauvoo, numbering “about a thousand men,” was nearly unanimous, but Pratt arose and spoke at length to explain his negative vote, whereupon JS publicly asked Pratt, “Have you personally a knowledge of any immoral act in me toward the female sex, or in any other way?” Pratt replied, “Personally, toward the female sex, I have not.”a This issue continued until Pratt was excommunicated on 20 August 1842 by the available members of the Quorum of the Twelve Apostles. The same day, Amasa Lyman was ordained in Pratt’s stead as an apostle by Brigham Young, Heber C. Kimball, and George A. Smith.b In January 1843, Pratt “confessed his sins, and manifested deep repentance” and was rebaptized and reinstated as a member of the Twelve.c
(aMinutes, Times and Seasons, 1 Aug. 1842, 3:869. bHistorian’s Office, Brigham Young History Drafts, 64; Woodruff, Journal, 10 Aug.–18 Sept. 1842. cHistorian’s Office, Brigham Young History Drafts, 66–67; JS, Journal, 20 Jan. 1843.)Times and Seasons. Commerce/Nauvoo, IL. Nov. 1839–Feb. 1846.
Historian’s Office. Brigham Young History Drafts, 1856–1858. CHL. CR 100 475, box 1, fd. 5.
Woodruff, Wilford. Journals, 1833–1898. Wilford Woodruff, Journals and Papers, 1828–1898. CHL. MS 1352.
Rumors published as early as 21 May 1842 charged JS with complicity in the attempt to assassinate Lilburn W. Boggs, former governor of Missouri.a Bennett made the same accusation in his 2 July letter, published in the 15 July Sangamo Journal.b In St. Louis, the 14 July 1842 issue of the Bulletin published another letter and affidavit from Bennett connecting JS and Orrin Porter Rockwell with the attempted assassination.c Soon after, on 20 July, Boggs made a sworn statement that JS “was accessary before the fact” in the assassination attempt and requested that JS be extradited to Missouri.d The petition of the Nauvoo citizens urged Illinois governor Thomas Carlin “not to issue a Writ for him [JS] to be given up to the Authorities of Missouri,” but to try him in Illinois if Carlin thought JS had broken the law. The petition was drawn up by a committee of the city council, consisting of John Taylor, William Law, and Brigham Young, who were assisted by recorder James Sloan. The petition was “signed by about eight hundred, or upwards” of the citizens of Nauvoo.e Carlin received the petition on 26 July but honored the request of governor Thomas Reynolds and issued a writ on 2 August for JS’s arrest.f
(a“Assassination of Ex-Governor Boggs of Missouri,” Quincy (IL) Whig, 21 May 1842, [3]. b“Further Mormon Developments!! 2d Letter from Gen. Bennett,” Sangamo Journal (Springfield, IL), 15 July 1842, [2]. cJohn C. Bennett, St. Louis, MO, 13 July 1842, Letter to the editor, Bulletin (St. Louis), 14 July 1842, [2]. dLilburn W. Boggs, Affidavit, 20 July 1842. eNauvoo City Council Minute Book, 22 July 1842, 95–97. fThomas Carlin to JS, 27 July 1842; Thomas Reynolds, Requisition, 22 July 1842; Thomas Carlin, Writ, 2 Aug. 1842, Ex Parte JS for Accessory to Boggs Assault [C.C.D. Ill. 1843], copy, Nauvoo, IL, Records, CHL; JS, Journal, 8 Aug. 1842.)Quincy Whig. Quincy, IL. 1838–1856.
Sangamo Journal. Springfield, IL. 1831–1847.
Bulletin. St. Louis. 1842–1843.
Nauvoo City Council Minute Book / Nauvoo City Council. “A Record of the Proceedings of the City Council of the City of Nauvoo Handcock County, State of Illinois, Commencing A.D. 1841,” ca. 1841–1845. CHL. MS 3435.
Nauvoo, IL. Records, 1841–1845. CHL. MS 16800.
Miller and Erastus Derby left Nauvoo twelve days earlier to confer with governors Thomas Carlin of Illinois and Thomas Reynolds of Missouri about rumors concerning an attempt to extradite JS to Missouri. Miller and Derby were told that Bennett’s efforts would be ineffectual in reviving the Missouri charges against JS based on the 1838 Mormon War. However, following an affidavit sworn by Lilburn W. Boggs on 20 July implicating JS in the assassination attempt on his life, Reynolds, two days before Miller’s arrival in Nauvoo, issued a requisition to Carlin for JS’s arrest and extradition. (JS, Journal, 12 July 1842; George Miller, St. James, MI, to “Dear Brother,” 26 June 1855, Northern Islander, 16 Aug. 1855, [3]–[4]; Calvin A. Warren, Quincy, IL, to JS, Nauvoo, IL, 13 July 1842, JS Collection, CHL; Lilburn W. Boggs, Affidavit, 20 July 1842; Thomas Reynolds, Requisition, 22 July 1842.)
Northern Islander. St. James, MI. 1850–1856.
Smith, Joseph. Collection, 1827–1846. CHL. MS 155.
Nominations for the new county officers were made in Nauvoo two months earlier, and the election was held in August. (JS, Journal, 1 June 1842; “Public Meeting,” The Wasp, 4 June 1842, [3].)
The Wasp. Nauvoo, IL. Apr. 1842–Apr. 1843.
Joseph Smith III later recalled a “Colonel Brower,” who was one of the drill officers engaged. Brower had lost his lower left arm but “was an excellent horseman and a skillful swordsman and fencer.” (Mary Audentia Smith Anderson, “The Memoirs of President Joseph Smith,” Saints’ Herald, 1 Jan. 1935, 15.)
Saints’ Herald. Independence, MO. 1860–.