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> death sooner than I would have a wicked doctor to help me off. I would go without sueing all the days of my life before I would go to a lawyer to sue. I will not say anything about the merchants because you all know them.
“Prest. again arose and said:— There is more business than can be done this afternoon, but we can accomplish all we want to have done without calling this convention of the whole church. I am going to present to you the leading items. I do not ask you to take my counsel or advice alone, but every one of you act for yourselves; but if is the person you want to lead you, vote for him, but not unless you intend to follow him and support him as you did Joseph, do not say so without you mean to take his counsel hereafter. And I would say the same for the Twelve, don’t make a covenant to support them unless you intend to abide by their counsel, and if they do not counsel you as you please, don’t turn round and oppose them. I want every man before he enters into a covenant, to know what he is going to do; but we want to know if this people will support the priesthood, in the name of Israel’s God. If you say you will— do so. We want men appointed to take charge of the business that did lay on the shoulders of Joseph— Let me say to you that this Kingdom will spread more than ever. The Twelve have the power now, the Seventies, the Elders and all of you can have power to go and build up the Kingdom in the name of Israel’s God. will not hold all the people that will come into the Kingdom. We want to build the so as to get our endowment, and if we do our best, and Satan will not let us build it, we will go into the wilderness and we will receive the Endowment, for we will receive an endowment anyhow. [HC 7:239] Will you abide our Counsel? I again say, my soul for any man’s, if they will abide our Counsel, that they will go right into heaven. We have all the signs and tokens to give to the porter at the door, and he will let us in. I will ask you as quorums, do you want to stand forward as your leader, your guide, your spokesman. wants me to bring up the other question first, and that is, Does the Church want, and is it their only desire to sustain the Twelve as the First Presidency of this people? Here are the Apostles, the Bible, the Book of Mormon, the Doctrine and Covenants— they are written on the tablet of my heart. If the Church want the Twelve to stand as the head, the First Presidency of the Church, and at the head of this Kingdom in all the world, stand next to Joseph, walk up into their calling, and hold the keys of this Kingdom; every man, every woman, every quorum is now put in order, and you are now the sole controllers of it. All that are in favor of this in all the congregation of the Saints, manifest it by holding up the right hand (there was a universal vote.) If there are any of the contrary mind,— every man and every woman who does not want the Twelve to preside lift up your hands in like manner (no hands up.) This supersedes the other question, and trying it by quorums.
“We feel as though we could take in our bosom along with us; we want such men as , he has been sent away by Brother Joseph to build up a Kingdom; let him keep the instructions [p. 302]