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> and calling; let him raise up a mighty kingdom in , and we will lift up his hands to Almighty God. I think we may have a printing office and a gathering there. If the devil still tries to kill us he will have enough to do.
“The next is ; our feelings are to let him stand as President of the Stake, as heretofore. We can build the &c.
“You did not know who you had amongst you. Joseph so loved this people that he gave his life for them, loved his brother and this people unto death. Joseph and have given their lives for the Church; but very few knew Joseph’s character, he loved you unto death— you did not know it until after his death: he has now sealed his testimony with his blood. If the Twelve had been here we would not have seen him given up— he should not have been given up. He was in your midst, but you did not know him; he has been taken away for the people are not worthy of him. The world is wide, I can preach in , Ireland, Scotland, France, Germany &c. I can preach in all the world, and the devils cannot find us. Ill swear to you I will not be given up. There is much to be done, you have men among you who sleep with one eye open. The foundation is laid by our prophet, and we [HC 7:240] will build thereon; no other foundation can be laid but that which is laid, and we will have our endowment if the Lord will.
“As the authorities do not want us to do military duty, don’t do it. If it is necessary my neck is ready for the knife; as for myself I am determined to build up the Kingdom of God; and by the bye there will be a gleaning of grapes, and it may be said, ‘to your tents O. Israel’. We can build on the foundation that was laid by the Prophet. Joseph has finished his work, and all the devils in hell, and all the mobbers on earth could not take his life until he had accomplished his work. God said, I will put a veil over his eyes and lead him up to the slaughter like a sheep, to be killed, for the people are not worthy of him, though God loves this people.
“Let no man suppose that the kingdom is rent from you, that it is not organized; if all the Quorums of the Church were slain except the High Priests, they would rise up with the keys of the Kingdom, and have the powers of the Priesthood upon them, and build up the Kingdom, and the devil cannot help himself.
“You can go to a healthy country, buy the land and don’t let a cursed scoundrel get in your midst. Let there be good men, good women, and whenever a man comes with a wheelbarrow full of goods, don’t sell him land, don’t let him a house, nor buy of him. Suppose we had ten thousand such places and increasing in greatness, perfectly free from these poor devils, we should feel better than we now do <now>. Let us all be humble and get our endowments, all be humble, industrious and prudent, what sort of a kingdom would it be: the foundation is laid for more than we can think or talk about to day.
“Is it the will of this congregation that they will be tithed until the [p. 303]