Histories Initiated by Assignment of Joseph Smith, 1831–1847
From the time an April 1830 revelation declared to the fledgling Church of
Christ that “there shall be a record kept among you,” the writing of history was
never far from Joseph Smith’s mind. In addition to recording his revelations,
Joseph Smith and other church officials produced minutes, certificates, and
other documents necessary to the church’s day-to-day organization and administration.
Smith also oversaw several efforts to write a comprehensive
narrative history. He knew that the mandated “record” had to be more than a
collection of documents; a revelation of 11 November 1831 instructed the church
historian, , to write a history encompassing “all the important
things which he shall observe and know, concerning my church . . . which
shall be for the good of the church, and for the rising generations.” Joseph
Smith later outlined Whitmer’s duties to include chronicling “all things that
transpire in Zion” among the Saints, “and also there manner of life and the
faith and works.” He thereafter set in motion several efforts to create a historical
record, parts of which he was personally involved in writing or supervising
and parts for which his involvement was limited to making assignments. Some
histories remained unfinished, others were completed but were limited in
scope, and still others were completed after their authors turned away from the
church. Nevertheless, because they were written by Joseph Smith or at his direction,
all are included in the Histories series of The Joseph Smith Papers.
Together they provide essential source material for understanding the early
years of the church.
The histories closely linked to Joseph Smith himself—those he helped write
or dictate, those he supervised closely, or those for which he claimed authorial
responsibility—form the content of volume 1 of the Histories series, Joseph Smith Histories, 1832–1844. Important as these histories are, an accurate understanding
of Joseph Smith’s record-keeping enterprise requires awareness of not
only the Joseph Smith histories but also the histories written as a result of his
delegation or assignment. Four narratives fall into the category of assigned
historical writings, and they constitute the present volume. All are known to
have been undertaken at Smith’s instruction, but he did not create them himself,
nor did they come under his direct or continued supervision.
’s work spanned the entire period designated by the title of
this volume—from 1831, when Whitmer was appointed to keep the church history,
to 1847, the approximate date he terminated his work. The writers whose
histories are represented in this volume also include , , , , and , men who accepted
important church assignments and who were closely connected with
Joseph Smith and other leaders. All were at the center of much of the history
they recount, and their work provides important firsthand accounts of many
events, often giving details found nowhere else. When set beside the Joseph
Smith histories, the assigned histories form a useful complement, offering narratives
seen through different eyes, filtered through different sensibilities, and
sometimes expressing vastly different judgments and conclusions.
The tumultuous circumstances of Joseph Smith’s life ensured that his efforts
to oversee history keeping were frequently interrupted. Periods of focused
historical activity were followed by periods when little progress was made on
Latter-day Saint histories. In many cases, the assigned histories in the present
volume were being created at the same time as one or more of the Joseph Smith
histories found in the first volume of the Histories series. In 1832, for example,
he continued to provide guidance to on keeping records and
creating a church history, even while he commenced a narrative history of his
own. In 1838, Joseph Smith not only assigned and “to
write and keep the Church history” but also began work on a new church history
himself, aided by his counselor in the church presidency, . Rather than consisting of a single writing project, Smith’s history-writing endeavor
took the form of multiple concurrent creations.
The first document in this volume, titled “The Book of John Whitmer,”
originated when a revelation of 8 March 1831 and an appointment “by the voice
of ten Elders” on 9 April 1831 designated as recorder and historian for
the church. Joseph Smith thereafter gave periodic instructions to Whitmer
regarding the history, and the resulting work was for a time considered an official
church record. Whitmer’s account from 1830 to 1838 featured copies of
revelations and other documents, explained and contextualized with a connective
narrative. Following the violent expulsion of the church from , Missouri, in 1833, Whitmer’s record incorporated copies of letters that
documented injustices against the Saints as well as attempts to obtain redress.
Whitmer was excommunicated 10 March 1838 on charges of improper financial
dealings, but he kept working on the history even after his separation from the
church. Writing from after the Mormon community had regrouped
in , Whitmer in his closing chapters openly criticized the church and its
founder. He continued adding to the history until about 1847, three years after
Joseph Smith’s death.
The next document is an early summary of the church’s history, written by
. On 11 January 1833, while living in , Ohio, Smith
urged Phelps, then editor of the church’s newspaper, The Evening and the
Morning Star, in , Missouri, to “render the Star as interesting as
possable by setting forth the rise progress and faith of the church, as well as the
doctrine for if you do not render it more interesting than at present it will fall,
and the church suffer a great Loss thereby.” Phelps acknowledged this advice,
and its implied chastisement, in the March 1833 issue of the Star, promising to
publish “the particulars” of the church’s history, and the following month he
printed a short article titled “Rise and Progress of the Church of Christ.”
The last document in this volume, the eleven-part series “A History, of the
Persecution, of the Church of Jesus Christ, of Latter Day Saints in Missouri,”
resulted from a letter written by Joseph Smith on 20 March 1839 from the
at , Missouri. The letter, addressed to the church “at Illinois
and scattered abroad and to in particular,” instructed
the Saints to gather up “a knoledge of all the facts and sufferings and
abuses put upon them by the people of this state.” Edward Partridge responded
with an account that became the three opening installments of
“History, of the Persecution,” published beginning in December 1839 in the
, Illinois, Times and Seasons. Following Partridge’s death, the eight remaining
sections of the series were composed almost entirely of excerpts from
two previously published sources, ’s History of the Late Persecution
Inflicted by the State of Missouri upon the Mormons (1839) and ’s
An Appeal to the American People (1840). Taken as a whole, the “History, of the
Persecution” series includes narratives by many eyewitnesses and gives a useful
overview of contemporaneous printed accounts of the Missouri conflicts.
Three of the documents in this volume of the Histories series were published
during Joseph Smith’s lifetime, and Smith intended to have the fourth
published. The article and the series were
printed in official church newspapers. Church leaders sought ’s
history after his excommunication in order to revise and publish it, but
Whitmer did not relinquish the document. After his death, excerpts of
Whitmer’s history were published serially by the Reorganized Church of Jesus
Christ of Latter Day Saints (now the Community of Christ) in 1908, and two
publications of the entire work became available in the late twentieth century.
self-published his account in 1839; this volume of the Histories
series makes Corrill’s history widely available for the first time.