Historian’s Office, Martyrdom Account, Draft
-
Source Note
Historian’s Office, martyrdom account, draft; handwriting of Jonathan Grimshaw, , and ; 57 pages plus several inserted pages; CHL.For more information on the History Drafts, see Introduction to History Drafts, 1844–1856.
-
Historical Introduction
The “Historian’s Office, Martyrdom Account, Draft,” and the “Historian’s Office, Martyrdom Account” are the two complete, extant iterations of efforts by later church historians to record the murder of JS and , including the events leading up to their deaths and the immediate aftermath. As stated at the beginning of both accounts, the information was compiled from a number of different sources, including other journals, letters, and various other documents. It was put into a cohesive narrative during the 1850s by Church Historian’s Office clerks , Jonathan Grimshaw, and , presumably under the direction of the church historian, .was the initial scribe for approximately the first half of “Historian’s Office, Martyrdom Account, Draft,” and Grimshaw was the primary scribe for the remainder. Sometimes slips of paper were attached to pages of the draft with additional or alternative text to be included with a specific page. Page 12 of the draft has a notation by Grimshaw indicating that previously drafted text was to be added to the draft; instead of copying the text, he simply inserted a whole leaf into the draft. This leaf, in ’s handwriting, contains various numbered vignettes. It appears to be part of a larger collection of vignettes, as it is paginated “5” and “6,” and is likely the surviving portion of an earlier iteration of the martyrdom account by Thomas Bullock. The remainder of Bullock’s effort is not extant.“Historian’s Office, Martyrdom Account,” which is a more final copy written primarily by Grimshaw in the mid-1850s, similarly has slips of papers attached. It also includes several leaves that were physically removed from “Martyrdom Account, Draft”; these leaves were renumbered to match the pagination of the copy: pages 7–10 in the draft became pages 11–14 in the more final copy; pages 13–14 became 19–20; most extensively, pages 19–52 became 27–60; and finally, page 57, the last page of the draft, became page 73 in the new version. Although these leaves are cataloged with the more final copy, this website presents the pages both in the draft, as originally paginated, and in the more final copy, with the new pagination. Two additional items were added at the end of the more final copy. A bifolium paginated as “75” and “2” and written on the back of a printed Utah Territory legal form gives an account of the arrival of the bodies of JS and Hyrum Smith in Nauvoo as well as the funeral and burial. It was written by Grimshaw and edited by from information given by . On the final leaf, which is torn and is paginated “76,” Bullock drafted an introduction to a passage from ’s History of Illinois, with instructions to include the passage from Ford’s history in the martyrdom account.Both the draft and the more final copy were edited by , Grimshaw, and . It is not clear when the edits were made. The more final copy of the account appears to be what was used in 1856 when the final version was copied into the last volume of the Joseph Smith’s multivolume manuscript history (JS History, vol. F-1, 147, 151–204).
to the writ, but for fear of his life if he went to , he had preferred to go before Esq. , a gentleman of high legal attainments who is in no way connected with the Mormon Church. go on prairie to Appenoose [blank] that he had sent frequent expresses and letters to the ; that Dr. , Dr. & Mr also had written letters to the ; that he had written another letter to the which was sent on the 15th June, by . that he had written again on the 16th June enclosing affidavits and sent them by Messrs. & John Bills. He also read ’s certificate of the proceedings of the mob at also his Proclamation, his orders as Lieutenant General to , the proceedings of the City Council of , and copies of communications forwarded to . * * Also his letter of the 21 June which was sent by & Mr , and his letter of the 22nd which was sent by and .
Marshal explained [blank] about giving passes to persons going in and out of the city [blank] and denied that any arrests had been made. Marshalled the [blank] had no power any thing further [blank] brought here . [blank] acted on the State of the , and referred to the trial before , which did not satisfy the feeling of the people in & about . The admitted that sufficient time had not been allowed by the posse for the Defendants to get ready or to gather their witnesses, and it can be very safely admitted that your statements are true [blank], and was satisfied now that the people of had acted according to the best of their judgement it was very evident from the excitement created by Mr. Smith’s enemies
said that it would have been unsafe for him to come to , for under such circumstances he could not have had an impartial trial. The said he came here to enforce the laws on all the people whether Mormons or not and [p. 24]
View entire transcript |
Cite this page
Cite this page
-
Document Information
-
Footnotes
-
All insertions on this page are in the handwriting of Jonathan Grimshaw.
-
19
TEXT: This asterisk is keyed to a second asterisk in the left margin, indicating that the text written sideways in the margin should be included here.
-
