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.
“Mayor said certain women came to complain to his , that they had caught with the girl on the floor at ’s in the night.
“Councilor proceeded to show the falsehood of in the ‘Expositor’ in relation to the revelation referred to.
“Mayor said he had never preached the revelation in private as <but> he had in public; had not taught it to the anointed in the church in private, which statement many present confirmed; that on enquiring concerning the passages in the resurrection concerning ‘they neither marry nor are given in marriage’ &c; he received for answer, men in this life must marry in view of eternity, otherwise they must remain as angels, or be single in heaven, which was the doctrine of the revelation referred to; and the Mayor spoke at considerable length in explanation of this principle; and was willing for one to subscribe his name, to declare the ‘Expositor’ and whole establishment a nuisance.
“Two o’clock P. M, <> the Clerk of the Council bore testimony of the good character and high standing of Mr. Smith and his family, whose daughter was seduced by , as stated by the last witness before the morning Council, that Mrs. Smith died near the mouth of the , and the father and eldest daughter died soon after their arrival in this place, and that the seduction of such a youthful, fatherless, and innocent creature by such a man in high standing as the of the Nauvoo Legion, was one of the darkest, damndest, and foulest deeds on record. [HC 6:442]
“Councilor concurred in the remarks made by the concerning the excellent character of Mr. Smith and his family.
“Mayor said the constitution did not authorize the press to publish libels, and proposed that the Council make some provision for putting down the ‘Nauvoo Expositor’.
“Councilor called for a prospectus of the ‘Expositor’.
“ read article 8, section 1, Constitution of .
“Mayor called for the charter.
“The read the prospectus of the ‘Nauvoo Expositor’ as follows:—
‘Prospectus of the Nauvoo Expositor.
‘The “Nauvoo Expositor” will be issued on Friday of each week, on an imperial sheet, with a new press and materials of the best quality, and rendered worthy of <the> patronage of a discerning and an enlightened public.
‘The Expositor will be devoted to a general diffusion of useful knowledge, and its columns open for the admission of all courteous communications of a Religious, Moral, Social, Literary, or Political character, without taking a decided stand in favor of either of the great political parties of the country. A part of its columns will be devoted to a few primary objects, which the Publishers deem of vital importance to the public welfare. Their particular locality gives them a knowledge of the many gross abuses exercised under the “pretended authorities of the Charter of the City of , by the Legislative authorities of said ; and the insupportableoppressionsof theministerialpowers, in carrying out the Unjust, Illegal, and Unconstitutional Ordinances of the same. The Publishers, therefore, deem it a sacred duty they owe to their and their fellow citizens, to advocate, through the columns of the Expositor, the Unconditional Repeal of the City Charter— to restrain and correct the abuses of the Unit Power— to ward off the Irod [Iron] Rod which is held over the devoted heads of the citizens of and the surrounding country— to advocate unmitigated Disobedience to Political Revelations, and to censure and decry gross moral imperfections wherever found, either in the Plebian, [p. 81]