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> his calling, and Joseph will want him beyond the vail: [HC 7:235] let him be careful what he does lest that thread which binds us together is cut asunder. May God bless us all. Much more was said by Prest , but not written.
“ said:— I do not rise to electioneer. I am gratified with the open, frank and plain exposition of . He has seen the relation I bear to my deceased brother; I never did conceive it gave one a precedence to go before the Twelve. I do not make exceptions to anything he has said. I believe there is no power, no officer, or means wanted to carry on the work but [HC 7:236] what is in the Twelve. I am satisfied that no man can carry on the work, but the power that is in the Twelve, as has been stated. There is one thing to secure the salvation of this people, and that is not in union alone, it is for you to know the right and be united— it has been presented to you by , and I will back him up. All I design to do is to redeem my pledge. has stood next to the Prophet Joseph, with the Twelve, and I have stood next to them, and I will stand next to them. I have been at the back of Joseph Smith, and will be at the back of the Twelve for ever, and then we will be saved. There is no need of a President, we have a head here. What is that head? The quorum of the Twelve Apostles are the head. We now see the necessity of the apostleship. I might rise up as well as any other man to ask for the Presidency, but I could not do it without endangering my salvation. This is the power that turns the key to bestow salvation through all the land, in the way that Joseph commenced it— the first one called to do the same in all the world— if Joseph Smith had any power to bear off the Kingdom of God, the Twelve have the same. I could not advocate a choosing of a President, and myself a candidate: so then you know the place I occupy is, to stand to the Twelve the same as the Twelve did to Joseph, either on one side or the other, I do not want to go before them or to fall asleep. I want to see the Kingdom roll forth by our united faith and efforts.
“ called upon to speak in his behalf as he could not speak.
“ arose and said:— With the knowledge that I have I cannot suppose but that this congregation will act aright this day. I believe enough has been said to prepare the minds of the people to act. I have known many of them for 14 years, and I have always known them to submit with deference to the authorities of the Church. I have seen the Elders of Israel and the people take their lives in their hands and go without purse or scrip in winter and in summer. I have seen them prepare for war, and ready to pour out their heart’s blood, and that is an evidence that they will walk by counsel. I am happy to see this little lake of faces, and to see the same spirit and disposition manifested here to-day, as it was the day after the bloody tragedy, when Joseph and were brought home dead, to this ; then you submitted to the law’s slow delay, and handed the matter over to God; and I see the same thing to day, [HC 7:237] you are now determined as one man, to sustain the authorities of the Church, and I am happy that the men who were on Joseph’s right and left hand submit themselves [p. 300]