History, 1838–1856, volume F-1 [1 May 1844–8 August 1844]
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Source Note
JS, History, 1838–1856, vol. F-1, created 9 Apr.–7 June 1856 and 20 Aug. 1856–6 Nov. 1856; handwriting of and Jonathan Grimshaw; 304 pages, plus 10 pages of addenda; CHL. This is the final volume of a six-volume manuscript history of the church. This sixth volume covers the period from 1 May to 8 Aug. 1844; the remaining five volumes, labeled A-1 through E-1, go through 30 Apr. 1844.
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Historical Introduction
History, 1838-1856, volume F-1, constitutes the last of six volumes documenting the life of Joseph Smith and the early years of the Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints. The series is also known as the Manuscript History of the Church and was originally published serially from 1842 to 1846 and 1851 to 1858 as the “History of Joseph Smith” in the Times and Seasons and Deseret News. This volume contains JS’s history from 1 May 1844 to the events following his 27 June 1844 death, and it was compiled in Utah Territory in 1856.The material recorded in volume F-1 was initially compiled under the direction of church historian , who was JS’s cousin, and also assistant church historian . Smith collaborated with in collecting material for the volume and creating a set of draft notes, which Smith dictated to Bullock and other clerks. Woodruff gathered additional material concerning the death of Joseph Smith as a supplement to George A. Smith’s work recording that event. Jonathan Grimshaw and , members of the Historian’s Office staff, transcribed the draft notes into the volume along with the text of designated documents.According to the Historian’s Office journal, Jonathan Grimshaw initiated work on the text of volume F-1 on 9 April 1856, soon after Robert L. Campbell had completed work on volume E-1. (Historian’s Office, Journal, 5 and 9 Apr. 1856.) Grimshaw’s scribal work begins with an entry for 1 May 1844. Unlike previous volumes in which the numbering had run consecutively to page 2028, Grimshaw began anew with page 1. He transcribed 150 pages by June 1856, and his last entry was for 23 June 1844. Though more of his writing does not appear in the volume, he continued to work in the office until 2 August, before leaving for the East that same month. (Historian’s Office, Journal, 2 and 10 Aug. 1856.)assumed the role of scribe on 20 August 1856. (Historian’s Office, Journal, 20 Aug. 1856.) He incorporated ’s draft notes for the period 24–29 June 1844 on pages 151–189, providing an account of JS’s death and its immediate aftermath. He next transcribed a related extract from ’s 1854 History of Illinois on pages 190–204. Pages 205–227 were left blank.provided the notes for the final portion of the text. This account begins with an entry for 22 June 1844 and continues the record through 8 August 1844, ending on page 304. (The volume also included ten pages of addenda.) The last specific entry in the Historian’s Office journal that captures at work on the history is for 6 November 1856. A 2 February 1857 Wilford Woodruff letter to indicates that on 30 January 1857, the “presidency sat and heard the history read up to the organization of the church in , 8th. day of August 1844.” (Historian’s Office, Journal, 6 Nov. 1856; Wilford Woodruff, Great Salt Lake City, Utah Territory, to George A. Smith, 2 Feb. 1857, Historian’s Office, Letterpress Copybooks, vol. 1, p. 410; see also Wilford Woodruff, Great Salt Lake City, Utah Territory, to Amasa Lyman and Charles C. Rich, 28 Feb. 1857, Historian’s Office, Letterpress Copybooks, vol. 1, pp. 430–431.)The pages of volume F-1 contain a record of the final weeks of JS’s life and the events of the ensuing days. The narrative commences with and arriving at , Illinois, on 1 May 1844 from their lumber-harvesting mission in the “” of Wisconsin Territory. As the late spring and summer of 1844 unfold, events intensify, especially those surrounding the suppression of the Nauvoo Expositor in mid-June. Legal action over the Expositor leads to a charge of riot, and subsequently JS is charged with treason and is incarcerated at the jail in , Illinois. The narrative of volume F-1 concludes with an account of the special church conference convened on 8 August 1844 to consider who should assume the leadership of the church.
June 22 Saturday 22. I wrote the following letter:—
“, Saturday morning, June 22nd, 1844.
“To His Excellency , Governor;
Dear Sir, I this morning forward you the remainder of the affidavits which are ready to present to you, by the hands of a gentleman who is fully competent to give you information on the whole subject which has been the cause of the origin of our present difficulties. I would respectfully recommend the bearer, , as one of my aides, and a man whose testimony can be relied upon.
“I presume you are already convinced that it would be altogether unsafe for me or any of the City Council to come to on account of the vast excitement which has been got up by false report and libelous publications. Nothing would afford me a greater pleasure than a privilege of investigating the whole subject before your in person, for I have ever held myself in readiness to comply with your orders, and answer for my proceedings before any legal tribunal in the .
“I would hereby respectfully pray your to come to , if congenial with your feelings, and give us a privilege of laying the [HC 6:525] whole matter before you in its true colors, and where abundance of testimony can be forthcoming to prove every point by disinterested persons, men of character, and of worth and notoriety— strangers— who were here all the time. But I am satisfied your does not wish men to expose the lives of the Citizens of this place by requiring them to put themselves into the power of an infuriated bloodthirsty mob, a part of whom have already several times fired upon our people without the least shadow of cause or provocation.
“I am informed this morning that some gentleman has made affidavit that he had a private conversation with me in which I stated that I had secret correspondence with you &c. If any person has been wicked enough to do this he is a perjured villain, for in the first place I do not suffer myself to hold private conversation with any stranger, and in the second place, I have never even intimated any thing of the kind as having secret correspondence with your .
“Our troubles are invariably brought upon us by falsehoods and misrepresentations by designing men; we have ever held ourselves amenable to the law, and for myself, sir, I am ever ready to conform to and support the laws and constitution even at the expense of my life. I have never in the least offered any resistance to law, or lawful process, which is a well known fact to the public; all of which circumstances make us the more anxious to have you come to , and investigate the whole matter.
“Now sir, is it not an easy matter to distinguish between those who have pledged themselves to exterminate innocent men, women and children, and those who have only stood in their own defence, and in defence of their innocent families, and that too in accordance with the Constitution and laws of the Country as required by their oaths and as good and law abiding citizens?
“In regard to the destruction of the press the truth only need to be presented before your to satisfy you of the justice of the proceedings. The press was established by a set of men who had already set themselves at defiance of the laws and authorities of the , and had threatened the lives of some of its principal officers, and who also made it no private matter that the press was established for the express purpose of destroying the , as will be shown by the affidavit of , and as they stated to me in their threats.
“ informs me that reports are in circulation that we have taken [p. 136]
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