Introduction to History Drafts, 1838–1842
Under
the “Drafts,
1838–1842” heading of the Histories series are three
early drafts of the history begun by
JS in 1838. The
history designated Draft 1 is a twenty-five page manuscript written in
’s handwriting in 1839.
Draft 2,
inscribed by James Mulholland and
from
1839 to about 1841, consists of the
first sixty-one pages of the manuscript history later labeled volume “A-1” of JS’s
multivolume history. Draft 3 is a 102-page document penned by
in about 1841.
The production of these history
drafts was part of an evolutionary process in
JS’s history writing. Dean C. Jessee has observed
that “although Mormon record keeping was inaugurated by the
[6 April] 1830
revelation,
details for carrying out that commandment were largely hammered out on the
anvil of experience.” By 1838, JS had in his
possession historical narratives covering the period from his birth to
early 1829 and
from 22 September 1835 to 18
January 1836, but this accumulated historical material lacked continuity
and a consistent methodology. In earlier histories, JS and his assistants tried
several different approaches. The
circa summer 1832
history, for example, included significant experiences but gave only a
brief narrative; the 1834–1836 history included genealogies, minute-like
entries, transcripts of the published installments of a serialized history, and
slightly revised copies of journal entries, all potentially significant
resources for a history but lacking in connective material. JS had also
assigned to write a church history
in 1831, but Whitmer was
excommunicated in 1838 and declined to make his
work available to the church.
It was in the context of these inadequate and unavailable records that JS and
began a new history project. On 27
April 1838, they began a “history of this Church from the earliest
perion [period] of its existance up to this date.”
No manuscript of their 1838 effort is known to
have survived, but drafts written after 1838,
including the documents presented here, incorporated the 1838 work and presumably followed its format.
Serious problems in
made it difficult to continue work on the history after
early 1838. Armed conflict
broke out between the Mormon settlers and their Missouri neighbors, and on
27 October 1838, Governor
ordered that the Saints “must be
treated as enemies and must be exterminated or driven from the state if
necessary for the public peace.”
JS and other church leaders were taken captive
within a few days, and for six months JS remained a prisoner in Missouri. By
the time he escaped his captors, the Saints had left Missouri and begun to
settle in . JS arrived in
, Illinois, on
22 April 1839, and within a few weeks again
turned his attention to the history of the church.
The history drafted in
1839 was inscribed by
, who began writing for
JS on 3 September
1838. In addition to his work on the history, Mulholland served as a
scribe for patriarchal blessing records, JS’s second letterbook, and JS’s
journals. After an interruption of his clerical work brought on by JS’s
imprisonment, Mulholland “commenced again to write for the Church” on
22 April 1839.
JS’s journal noted that JS “began to study & prepare to dictate history” on
10 June and that he dictated history while
Mulholland wrote on 11–14
June. During JS’s
15–26 June absence from
while
visiting his brothers
and
, Mulholland remained in Commerce, “writing history” on three days
and “studying for history” for part of another day. Work done by Mulholland in JS’s absence may have included
organizing sources from which to compile history, drafting the history itself
from other sources, or making a clean draft of the history, as explained in the
next section. After JS returned, he dictated history to Mulholland on three
additional days. Mulholland mentioned in his journal spending several more
days writing for the church, without specifying which project he was working
on.
Because the
history produced by
JS and
in 1838 is not extant, it is
impossible to know the exact relationship between that work and the extant
versions of JS’s history presented here. It is probable, however, that
Draft 1
represents the resumption of the historical narrative at the point where the
now-lost 1838 manuscript ended. The extant draft
picks up the narrative at the baptism of JS and
and covers the publication of the Book of Mormon, the
organization of the Church of Christ, and events later in 1830. The narrative covering
mid-April through August
1830, much of which involved
as either a participant or an eyewitness, is relatively detailed.
It was likely during work on this portion of the history that, according to
JS’s journal, JS was “assisted by Br Newel Knight.”
When
created the twenty-five-page
Draft 1, it
appears he began with an outline, identifying revelations, events, and other
pieces of information and leaving blank space between these notations to be
filled in later with connective narrative supplied by
JS,
, or other sources. Beginning on the second page,
Mulholland named particular revelation texts from the 1835 edition of the
Doctrine and
Covenants that were to be inserted into the history, but he did not copy
the full texts from the Doctrine and Covenants into this draft. The revelations
served as the initial threads around which JS wove his dictated narrative.
Beginning with page 9 of Draft 1, following the notation to insert the title
page of the Book of Mormon, the inscription pattern becomes much more complex.
It appears that at this point, Mulholland began to write in dates of
conferences, names of individuals baptized, and other key details, leaving
large blank spaces between. This procedure for creating the history was not
without drawbacks. When Mulholland came back and composed text or transcribed
JS’s dictation to fill in the details, the narrative sometimes exceeded the
reserved space, forcing Mulholland to squeeze extra lines of text onto the
page. At other times the inserted narrative fell short of filling in all the
blank space set aside for it. False starts are evident throughout much of the
middle portion of the draft history.
JS’s work on the history was
interrupted in early July
1839 when a malaria epidemic in
and vicinity
required JS and
to attend to the sick for an extended period.
continued to work on JS’s history until
at least 26 July. Many of the entries in
his personal journal that mention “writing for the Church” may refer to
additional work on the history. Mulholland’s tenure as a scribe was cut short
when he died on 3 November 1839, possibly
the victim of a stroke.
After
JS concluded his dictation of history on
5 July 1839,
devoted some of his time to inscribing the history compiled to
that point into a large manuscript book. He began this new draft of the history
in the back of the volume in which the
1834–1836
history had been inscribed, turning it over so the back cover became the
front cover. Serving as principal sources for this version of the history were
the manuscript that JS,
, and
had created in
in 1838, and
Draft 1.
Textual evidence that the nonextant 1838 material
was used when composing
Draft 2 is
found in the second paragraph of the latter, which situates the composition in
“the eighth year since the [1830] organization of
said Church,” and a later passage that gives the date of composition as “the Second day of May, One thousand Eight hundred and
thirty eight.”
Starting at 15 May 1829, the remainder of
the text in Mulholland’s handwriting is a copy of Draft 1. Although the first
seven pages of Draft 1 match Draft 2 quite closely, the two versions are
markedly less similar after that point. This contrast may indicate that an
intermediate draft of the history was made beginning at about page 7 of Draft 1
and that Mulholland copied the text from this intermediate draft, not directly
from Draft 1.
inscribed pages 1–59 in the large
history volume. After his death in November
1839,
served as scribe for the
history. Little is known about the circumstances surrounding Thompson’s
inscription, totaling only sixteen pages, in the large history volume. The
transcript of Draft
2 presented herein ends on page 61 of the manuscript volume, after the
first two pages of Thompson’s inscription, to correspond with the end of
Draft 3; the
other fourteen pages in his hand give a biographical sketch of
, including a brief narrative of his conversion to Mormonism.
Because the majority of the pages in Thompson’s hand deal with Rigdon’s life
before joining the church, Rigdon was likely consulted for this portion of the
narrative.
The opening statement
of the draft
in the large manuscript volume refers to defamation and persecution to which
the Latter-day Saints and
JS in particular had been subjected, and it
characterizes such maltreatment as one motivation for telling the story of the
church and its founder: “Owing to the many reports which have been put in
circulation by evil disposed and designing men,” JS proclaimed, the history was
designed to “disabuse the publick mind, and put all enquirers after truth into
possession of the facts” and set the record straight “in relation both to
myself and the Church.” This introduction was written not long after JS had
fled
,
Ohio, for
, Missouri, under threat of several lawsuits; thus, when he began the
history in summer 1838 he was
especially motivated to justify himself and the church in light of what he
considered a long history of persecution. Such an introduction may also have
been written as a more general response to the accumulated negative reports
transmitted orally and in the press beginning in JS’s youth and continuing
throughout the 1830s.
After briefly narrating
JS’s birth and early years,
Draft 2
proceeds immediately to the circumstances that culminated in his first vision
of Deity in the spring of
1820, followed closely by the visitations of an angel in
1823 and JS’s commission to retrieve a sacred
record buried nearby. JS’s religious mission is the primary focus; his personal
affairs, like his marriage to
, whom he met while employed in digging for a rumored silver mine,
are discussed only briefly and in the context of that mission.
Following
JS’s recitation of his retrieval of the ancient
record, the beginnings of his translation thereof, and the loss of the
translation manuscript,
began including the full texts of JS’s revelations, which
became a major element of the account. The revelations were integrated into the
history starting with July 1828, and they
generally appear in chronological order. Mulholland copied the revelations into
the history from the 1835 edition of the
Doctrine and
Covenants, rather than from earlier versions. Many of JS’s early
revelations underwent significant updating and expansion in order to suit
rapidly changing circumstances after the organization of the Church of Christ
in 1830, so the inclusion of the
1835 version of revelations into a narrative
covering events before 1835 introduced numerous
anachronisms. Significant instances of anachronism are identified in the
annotation of the text herein.
Additionally, the narrative itself, composed beginning in
1838, necessarily reflects the perspective of
JS and his collaborators at the time of its
production, thus inadvertently introducing terminology and concepts that were
not operative a decade earlier in the period the narrative describes. Examples
include using later priesthood nomenclature such as “Aaronic” and “Melchizedek”
and calling the church JS established “the Church of Jesus Christ of Latter Day
Saints,” a name not designated until 1838. Such
usage makes it difficult to trace the details of the unfolding of church
governance and doctrine in the faith’s dynamic early years. Readers wishing to
more fully understand these issues may consult the revelation texts and other
documents found in the Documents series of The Joseph Smith
Papers.
While much of the
narrative is anchored by documents, particularly published revelations,
JS and his associates were dependent upon
unrecorded memories for the balance of the historical account found in
Draft 2. JS
used collective memory and oral recollections of fellow participants, such as
, to reconstruct the events of early church history. Such
reminiscences formed the basis for not only factual details in the history but
likely for quotations as well, such as long portions of the report of the
1830 trial proceedings in
South
Bainbridge and
, New York.
JS evidently had to rely on his own memory and that of others to provide some
extensive quotations, such as the words of the angel Moroni during his first
appearance to JS and the remarks scholars in
made to
when he showed them characters copied from the gold plates. Lists
of persons baptized may have come from records no longer extant or possibly
from eyewitnesses consulted for the production of the history.
The manuscript itself was a dynamic
text, emended at several times by various scribes. Revisions made in the hand
of at the time of inscription or
shortly after are included in the transcript herein. Later changes in the hand
of , made beginning in
December 1842, are not incorporated into the
transcript, although substantial changes are described in annotation. Thus, the
transcript of Draft
2 presents the history in an early stage, before changes were made by
Richards and others, and it approximates the state of the history when
used it for a new history
draft in about
1841.
, a recent convert to
Mormonism from Perry, Illinois, met
JS while visiting
in
April 1840. In his autobiography, written in
the early 1880s, Coray recalled the
clerical work he undertook after meeting JS:
The
Prophet, after looking at me a little and asking
me some questions, wished to know whether it would be convenient for me to come
to
, and assist,
or rather clerk for him. As this was what I desired, I engaged at once to do
so; and, in about 2 weeks thereafter, I was busily employed in his office,
copying a huge pile of letters into a book—correspondence with the Elders as
well as other persons, that had been accumulating for some time. [. . .]
I finished the
job of copying letters. I was then requested by
bro.
Joseph to undertake, in connection with
, the compilation of the Church History. This I felt to
decline, as writing books was something, in which I had had no experience. But
bro. Joseph insisted on my undertaking it, saying, if I would do so, it would
prove a blessing to me as long as I should live. His persuasive arguments
prevailed; and accordingly in a short time, bro. Woolley and myself, were
busily engaged in compiling the church history. The Prophet was to furnish all
the materials; and our business, was not only to combine, and arrange in
cronological order, but to spread out or amplify not a little, in as good
historical style as may be. Bro. Woolley’s education, not being equal to mine,
he was to get the matter furnished him in as good shape as he could; and my
part was to go after him, and fix his up as well as I could, making such
improvement and such corrections in his grammar and style as I might deem
necessary. On seeing his work, I at once discovered, that I had no small job on
my hands, as he knew nothing whatever of grammar; however, I concluded to make
the best I could of a bad job, and thus went to work upsetting and recasting;
as well a[s] casting out not a little. Seeing how his work was handled, he
became considerably discouraged; and rather took offence at the way and manner
in which I was doing things, and consequently soon withdrew from the
business.
Immediately after
left, I succeeded in obtaining the services of Dr.
Miller, who had written for the press, and was considerably
accustomed to this kind of business. Now I got on much better. I continued
until we used up all the historical matter furnished us by the
Prophet. And, as peculiar circumstances prevented
his giving attention to his part of the business we of necessity discontinued
our labors, and never resumed this kind of business again.
Although
’s copying work in
JS’s 1838–1843
letterbook and
other records has long been noted, no manuscript evidence of
his work on JS’s history was located until 2005,
when two manuscripts in Coray’s hand were identified among documents in the
possession of the First Presidency of The Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day
Saints. These two manuscripts consisted of a new draft (here designated
Draft 3) of
the material
and
had written in the first sixty-one
pages in JS’s large history volume, and a
fair copy that
incorporated the revisions Coray made in his earlier draft.
However,
’s autobiographical recollection of his work on
JS’s history does not seem to match the two
manuscripts identified in 2005. Whereas the
autobiography refers to “writing books” and to assembling in chronological
order a “compilation” of “materials” furnished by JS, the two extant Coray
manuscripts are lightly edited copies of work already drafted by
and
in a single original
source. Furthermore, the existing manuscripts do not contain the handwriting of
. In producing
Draft 3, Coray
made some editorial changes to the history, but his work could not be described
as “writing books” and certainly not as a “compilation.” Coray’s
autobiographical account of his work more likely refers to a different,
probably earlier assignment for which no related document has been located.
Perhaps the assignment given to Coray, Woolley, and “Dr.
Miller” was to create rough draft notes comparable to the outline
prepared by Mulholland in
Draft 1 and
those later prepared by
and successors as work on the
multivolume manuscript history continued. Coray indicated that work began on
the compilation task in about December 1840 and
terminated when they exhausted their supply of documents from JS.
In 1869
signed a statement that was later attached to the
paper wrapper that enclosed his two drafts: “These hundred pages of History
were written by me, under
Joseph the Prophet’s dictation. Dr
Miller helped me a little in writing the same. (Historians office,
1869).” If by “dictation” Coray meant that he transcribed as JS
spoke, it seems more likely to be a description of JS’s involvement in the
history draft presented here than of the role JS played in the compilation
project Coray described in his autobiography. In the latter project, according
to Coray, JS only supplied materials and gave general instructions. If the
statement was accurate in that sense, it suggests that JS read aloud from
Draft 2 in the
large manuscript volume, directing editorial changes as he read. Several
passages of Draft
3 contain evidence of dictation, but the history itself includes no
indication of who was dictating the text.
’s history draft includes
departures from the earlier drafts which, though minor, show an intention to
refine the story by imposing certain editorial preferences. Coray deleted
passages that seemed to be defensive, to plead the cause of the Saints, or to
play on the reader’s sympathies—a list of grievances, for example, or
complaints against individuals. The draft often softened wording about the
persecution of
JS, as can be seen in the omission of the first
paragraph of Draft
2. Also, whereas the latter specifies that Methodists and Presbyterians
treated JS and other Saints without respect, Coray’s draft avoided naming the
denominations. Additionally,
Draft 3
employs more moderate language in describing opposition to JS in
,
avoiding the word “mob” and glossing over accounts of violence. Many times
narrative details that added verisimilitude to previous versions were deleted.
For example, when Coray copied the section recounting
’s carrying a sample of Book of Mormon characters to
, he omitted
details such as Harris placing the certificate of authenticity from
in his pocket, then retrieving it at Anthon’s request.
The document presented in this
volume is the first of two manuscripts
completed. This
earlier draft
shows the original creation as well as revisions Coray made before inscribing
the second, cleaner
copy. A four-page partial copy, corresponding to text on pages 13–16 of
the draft and the fair copy, is also extant. The Coray manuscripts exhibit notable variations in
handwriting style. A careful comparison of the style shifts, spelling
idiosyncrasies, and letter formations, however, reveal that both the earlier
draft and fair copy are entirely in Coray’s handwriting. His work is clearly
based on Draft
2; Coray’s versions could not have been written before Draft 2 because he
incorporated emendations made in the latter. The
fair copy of
Coray’s work
includes few changes other than those Coray marked in his rough draft, and none
are of a substantive nature.
Conclusion
Although the identification of
handwriting—that of
, for example, in
Draft 3—tends
to link a document firmly to one or more particular scribes, the documents that
have survived are only a part of what once existed. It is not possible to know
the clerical or creative work that may lie behind a document in Coray’s hand,
or in the hand of any other scribe. Thus some individuals who contributed to
the history necessarily remain uncredited. Likewise, the relationship of author
and scribe was conflated, making it difficult to distinguish between
JS’s contribution and that of his scribes. For
example, in Draft
1, it is ultimately unclear how much influence
had with respect to the composition of the historical
narrative; he may have directed the initial outline of the history with JS
filling in the details later, or JS may have dictated the framework to
Mulholland himself. The full extent of the contribution by scribes is
impossible to determine, but understanding the composition of JS’s history
requires in turn an understanding that scribes and others shared with JS some
authorial responsibility for the various drafts.
The three documents presented here
show an early trajectory of the history, when
JS was more involved in its production than at
later phases. The early history drafts—all created as a first-person record in
JS’s voice, arranged chronologically—helped establish a methodology followed by
those who worked on the official history over the next two decades. For
whatever reason, JS ultimately preferred the draft found in the large history
volume to the version
produced, and the “History of Joseph Smith,”
published in the Times and Seasons beginning
15 March 1842, followed
Draft 2, not
Coray’s work. Thus bypassed, Coray’s history work is an artifact demonstrating
a course JS considered following for his history but then abandoned. Instead,
and later scribes continued
inscribing and revising the history in the
large manuscript
volume, and that version, eventually comprising six manuscript volumes
and a fair copy in a second set of volumes, served as the source for subsequent
publications.
Work on this history continued after JS’s death and after the Latter-day Saint
migration to the intermountain West, finally concluding in
1856. See the chart “Filial
Relationships among Manuscript and Published Versions of Joseph Smith’s
1838–1856 History.”
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1
Jessee, “Reliability of Joseph Smith’s History,” 27; see also Revelation, 6 Apr. 1830, in Doctrine and Covenants 46:1, 1835 ed. [D&C 21:1].
Jessee, Dean C. “The Reliability of Joseph Smith’s History,” Journal of Mormon History 3 (1976): 23–46.
Doctrine and Covenants of the Church of the Latter Day Saints: Carefully Selected from the Revelations of God. Compiled by Joseph Smith, Oliver Cowdery, Sidney Rigdon, and Frederick G. Williams. Kirtland, OH: F. G. Williams, 1835. Also available in Robin Scott Jensen, Richard E. Turley Jr., Riley M. Lorimer, eds., Revelations and Translations, Volume 2: Published Revelations. Vol. 2 of the Revelations and Translations series of The Joseph Smith Papers, edited by Dean C. Jessee, Ronald K. Esplin, and Richard Lyman Bushman (Salt Lake City: Church Historian’s Press, 2011).
-
2
See Historical Introduction to Whitmer, History.
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3
JS, Journal, 27 Apr. 1838.
-
4
Lilburn W. Boggs, Jefferson City, MO, to John B. Clark, Fayette, MO, 27 Oct. 1838, Mormon War Papers, MSA.
Mormon War Papers, 1838–1841. MSA.
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5
JS, Journal, 16 Apr. and 10–14 June 1839.
-
6
Mulholland, Journal, 22 Apr. 1839.
Mulholland, James. Journal, Apr.–Oct. 1839. In Joseph Smith, Journal, Sept.–Oct. 1838. Joseph Smith Collection. CHL. MS 155, box 1, fd. 4.
-
7
JS, Journal, 10, 11, and 12–14 June 1839; see also Mulholland, Journal, 10–15 June 1839.
Mulholland, James. Journal, Apr.–Oct. 1839. In Joseph Smith, Journal, Sept.–Oct. 1838. Joseph Smith Collection. CHL. MS 155, box 1, fd. 4.
-
8
Mulholland, Journal, 17–20 June 1839.
Mulholland, James. Journal, Apr.–Oct. 1839. In Joseph Smith, Journal, Sept.–Oct. 1838. Joseph Smith Collection. CHL. MS 155, box 1, fd. 4.
-
9
JS, Journal, 3 and 4–5 July 1839; Mulholland, Journal, 3–6 July 1839.
Mulholland, James. Journal, Apr.–Oct. 1839. In Joseph Smith, Journal, Sept.–Oct. 1838. Joseph Smith Collection. CHL. MS 155, box 1, fd. 4.
-
10
See Mulholland’s journal entries from July to October 1839.
Mulholland, James. Journal, Apr.–Oct. 1839. In Joseph Smith, Journal, Sept.–Oct. 1838. Joseph Smith Collection. CHL. MS 155, box 1, fd. 4.
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11
JS, Journal, 4–5 July 1839.
-
12
See JS, Journal, 8 July–28 Sept. 1839.
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13
Emma Smith, Nauvoo, IL, to JS, Washington DC, 6 Dec. 1839, Charles Aldrich Autograph Collection, State Historical Society of Iowa, Des Moines.
Aldrich, Charles. Autograph Collection. State Historical Society of Iowa, Des Moines.
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14
JS History / Smith, Joseph, et al. History, 1838–1856. Vols. A-1–F-1 (original), A-2–E-2 (fair copy). Historian’s Office, History of the Church, 1839–ca. 1882. CHL. CR 100 102, boxes 1–7. The history for the period after 5 Aug. 1838 was composed after the death of Joseph Smith.
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15
Although the history was begun in 1838, it is possible that the preamble in the first paragraph was added in 1839 when James Mulholland wrote Draft 2. If so, the concern with negative publicity may also have been a reaction to the widespread news of the Mormon conflict in Missouri in fall 1838 andJS’s imprisonment, or to the growing number of publications critical of JS and the church since 1838. See, for example, Origen Bacheler, Mormonism Exposed, Internally and Externally (New York, 1838), and La Roy Sunderland’s eight-part series published in the Methodist Zion’s Watchman from 13 January to 3 March 1838 and republished in pamphlet form as Mormonism Exposed and Refuted (New York: Piercy & Reid, 1838).
-
16
Coray, Reminiscences, 17, 19–20.
Coray, Howard. Reminiscences, ca. 1883. BYU.
-
17
See Jessee, “Writing of Joseph Smith’s History,” 452–453, 463.
Jessee, Dean C. “The Writing of Joseph Smith’s History.” BYU Studies 11 (Summer 1971): 439–473.
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18
Coray, Reminiscences, 19. In Coray’s account, he was assigned to the history after he completed an assignment to copy correspondence. The last two items in Coray’s handwriting found in JS’s letterbook were a 19 October 1840 letter and an undated letter most likely written in early December 1840. (JS Letterbook 2, pp. 188–196.)
Coray, Howard. Reminiscences, ca. 1883. BYU.
JS Letterbook 2 / Smith, Joseph. “Copies of Letters, &c. &c.,” 1839–1843. Joseph Smith Collection, 1827–1846. CHL. MS 155, box 2, fd. 2.
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19
The identity of “Dr. Miller,” mentioned in this note and in Coray’s autobiography, is unknown. It is possible Coray misidentified the “doctor” who assisted in writing the history. (Coray, Reminiscences, 19.)
Coray, Howard. Reminiscences, ca. 1883. BYU.
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20
See Revelation, July 1828, in Revelations Collection, CHL [D&C 3]. The four-page fragment implements corrections made to both the draft and fair copies, but the punctuation more closely matches the latter. Unlike page endings in the fair copy, the page endings in the fragment do not match those of the draft copy.
Revelations Collection, 1831–ca. 1844, 1847, 1861, ca. 1876. CHL. MS 4583.
-
21
Examples of emendations made in the large history volume that also appear in Coray’s adaptation include revisions regarding JS’s marriage to Emma Hale; Martin Harris’s explanation to Anthon that the plates were sealed and that he was forbidden to bring them, and Mulholland’s loose note, later pinned into the large history volume, giving JS’s description of the hill where the gold plates were obtained.
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