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.
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.
<August 8> had been living it would have been his right and privilege, but he is dead,— he is gone to Joseph and ; he is out of the reach of bullets and spears, and he can waft himself with his brothers, his friends and the Saints. Do you want a Patriarch? Here is left, here is Uncle , uncle to the Prophet Joseph left, it is their right; the right of the patriarchal blessings belongs to Joseph’s family. Do you want a Trustee in Trust? Has there been a Bishop who has stood in his lot yet? What is his business? To take charge of the temporal affairs, so that the Twelve and the elders may go on their business. Joseph condescended to do their business for them. Joseph condescended to offer himself for President of the , and it was a great condescention. Do you want a spokesman? Here are , Bro (whom Joseph expected to take as a Counselor) and . Do you want the Church properly organized, or do you want a spokesman to be chief cook and bottle washer? claims to be spokesman to the prophet. Very well, he was, but can he now act in that office? If he wants now to be a spokesman to the prophet, he must go the other side of the vail, for the prophet is there, but is here. Why will be a fool? Who knows anything of the priesthood, or of the organization of the Kingdom of God? I am plain— [HC 7:234] Does this Church want it as God organized it? or do you want to clip the power of the priesthood, and let those who have the keys of the priesthood go and build up the Kingdom in all the world wherever the people will hear them? If there is a spokesman, if he is a king and priest let him go and build up a kingdom unto himself, that is his right, and it is the right of many here, but the Twelve are at the head of it.
“I want to live on the earth and spread truth through all the world. You Saints of Latter Days want things right. If 10,000 men rise up and say they have the Prophet Joseph Smith’s shoes, I know they are impostors. In the priesthood you have a right to build up a kingdom, if you know how the Church is organized. Now if you want or to lead you, or any body else, you are welcome to them, but I tell you, in the name of the Lord, that no man can put another between the Twelve and the prophet Joseph. Why? Because Joseph was their file leader, and he has committed into their hands the Keys of the Kingdom in this last dispensation, for all the world: don’t put a thread between the priesthood and God. I will ask, who <has> stood next to Joseph and ? I have, and I will stand next to him. We have a head, and that head is the apostleship, the spirit and power of Joseph, and we can now begin to see the necessity of that Apostleship.
“ was at his side— not above. No man has a right to counsel the Twelve but Joseph Smith. Think of these things. You cannot appoint a Prophet, but if you let the Twelve remain and act in their place, the Keys of the Kingdom are with them, and they can manage the affairs of the Church and direct all things aright. Now all this does not lessen the character of ; let him magnify [p. 299]