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 18 trodden underfoot by lawless marauders, without at least a noble effort on our part to sustain our liberties. Will you all stand by me to the death, and sustain at the peril of your lives the laws of our , and the liberties and privileges which our fathers have transmitted unto us, sealed with their sacred blood? (Aye, shouted thousands.) He then said “it is well; if you had not done it, I would have gone out there (pointing to the west), and would have raised up a mightier people. I call upon all men from to the , and from to British America, whose hearts thrill with horror to behold the rights of free men trampled under foot, to come to the deliverance of this people from the cruel hand of oppression, cruelty, anarchy, and misrule, to which they have been long made subject. Come all ye lovers of liberty, break the oppressors rod, loose the iron grasp of mobocracy, and bring to condign punishment all those who trample under foot the principles of our glorious Constitution, and the peoples rights. (Drawing his sword and presenting it to Heaven he said) I call God and Angels to witness, that I have unsheathed my sword with a firm and unalterable determination, that this people shall have their legal rights, and be protected from mob violence, or my blood shall be spilt upon the ground like water, and my body consigned to the silent tomb. While I live I will never tamely submit to the dominion of cursed mobocracy; I would welcome death rather than submit to this oppression, and it would be sweet,— oh sweet to rest in the grave rather than submit to this oppression, agitation, annoyance, confusion, and alarm upon alarm, any longer. I call upon all friends of truth and liberty to come to our assistance; and may the thunders of the Almighty, and the forked lightnings of heaven, and pestilence, and war, and bloodshed, come down on those ungodly [HC 6:499] men who seek to destroy my life, and the lives of this innocent people. I do not regard my own life— I am ready to be offered a sacrifice for this people; for what can our enemies do? only kill the body, and their power is then at an end. Stand firm my friends— never flinch— do not seek to save your lives; for he that is afraid to die for this truth will lose eternal life. Hold out to the end, and we shall be resurrected, and become like Gods, and reign in Celestial Kingdoms, principalities, and eternal dominions, while this cursed mob will sink to hell, the portion of all those who shed innocent blood. God has tried you— you are a good people, therefore I love you with all my heart; greater love hath no man than that he shall lay down his life for his friends. You have stood by me in the hour of trouble, and I am willing to sacrifice my life for your preservation. May the Lord God of Israel bless you for ever and ever, I say it in the name of Jesus of Nazareth, and in the authority of the Holy Priesthood which he hath conferred upon me.” The people said, Amen.
said that the statement of in the Signal, that he () had threatened to take his life was false as Hell, and there was not a syllable of truth in it.
About 3¼ P. M, I took the command, and with my staff rode in front of the Legion, marched up Main Street, and returned to our former parade ground. The number on parade was very large considering the number of Elders who had been sent on missions. After dismissing the Legion to their several commands, I returned home and gave orders to the several commanders, only to receive official communications through my aides-de-camp, the proper official channel. I appointed one of my aides-de-camp.
made the following affidavit:—
“State of Illinois,)
City of )
June 18th. 1844, Personally appeared, , before me, , Recorder of the City of , and after being duly sworn deposeth and saith, that on or about the first day of June 1842, while passing up the Ohio River on Steamboat ‘Massachusets’, [HC 6:500] deponent overheard two men, one a resident of , [p. 119]
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