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 16 “To precinct, Messrs. , , and .
“Rocky Run precinct, Messrs. Anson Call, E. Horner, Nicholas Boscow, and David Evans.
“ precinct, Messrs. Lewis Robinson [Robison], and .
“ precinct, Messrs. Wm. Allen, Elam Luddington, and Charles Warner.
“ and Pilot Grove, Messrs. , and .
“Spilman’s Landing and Appanoose, Messrs. Elijah R. Swackhammer, and
“St. Marys and Chili, Messrs. Philander Colton, and .
“ and Macedonia, Messrs. Moses Clare, and Andrew H. Perkins.
“ and , Messrs. , , and John McIllwrick.
“On motion meeting adjourned sine die.
, President.”
“, Secretary [HC 6:483]
And I issued the following:—
“Proclamation.
“Mayor’s Office, , June 16th, 1844.
“As there are a number of statements in circulation which have for their object the injury of the ‘Latter Day Saints’, all of which are false and prompted by black-hearted villains: I therefore deem it my duty to disabuse the public mind in regard to them, and to give a plain statement of facts which have taken place in the within a few days past, and, which has brought upon us the displeasure of the unprincipled and the uninformed, and seems to afford an opportunity to our enemies, to unite and arouse themselves to mob; and already they have commenced their hellish operations by driving a few defenceless Mormons from their houses and homes in the vicinity of and .
A short time since a press was started in this which had for its object the destruction of the institutions of the , both civil and religious: its proprietors are a set of unprincipled scoundrels who attempted in every possible way to defame the character of the most virtuous of our community, and change our peaceful and prosperous into a place as evil and polluted as their own black hearts. To rid the of a paper so filthy and pestilential as this, became the duty of every good citizen, who loves good order and morality; a complaint was made before the City Council, and after a full and impartial investigation it was voted— without one dissenting voice, a public nuisance, and to be immediately destroyed; the peace and happiness of the place demanded it, the virtue of our wives and daughters demanded it and our consciences demanded it at our hands as conservators of the public peace. That we acted right in this matter we have the assurance of one of the ablest expounders of the laws of , viz: Blackstone— the constitution of the State of , and our own chartered rights. If then our charter gives us the power to decide what shall be a nuisance and cause it to be removed, where is the offence? What law is violated? If then no law has been violated, why this ridiculous excitement and bandying with lawless ruffians to destroy the happiness of a people whose religious motto is ‘peace and good will toward all men’? [p. 108]
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