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.
<June 10> said he was not; (Hundreds know this statement to be false); he also asked if he did not state before hundreds of people that he believed Joseph to be a prophet; ‘no’, said . They were under oath when they said it. (Many hundreds of people are witness to this perjury.)
“Alderman accorded with the views expressed that the ‘Nauvoo Expositor’ is a nuisance; did not consider it wise to give them time to trumpet a thousand lies; their property could not pay for it; if we pass only a fine or imprisonment, have we any confidence that they will desist? none at all! we have found these men covenant breakers with God! with their wives!! &c, have we any hope of their doing better? their characters have gone before them, shall they be suffered to go on, and bring a mob upon us; and murder our women and children, and burn our beautiful city? No! I had rather my blood would be spilled at once, and would like to have the press removed as soon as the ordinance would allow; and wish the matter might be put into the hands of the Mayor, and every body stand by him in the execution of his duties, and hush every murmer.
“Councilor said he had felt deeply on this subject, and concurred fully in the view General Smith had expressed of it this day; thought it unnecessary to repeat what the Council perfectly understood; considered private interest as nothing in comparison with the public good; every time a line was formed in he was there, for what? to defend it against just such scoundrels and influ[HC 6:446]ence as the Nauvoo Expositor and its supporters; were directly calculated to bring against us again. Considered the doings of the council this day of immense moment, not to this alone, but to the whole world; would go in to put a stop to the thing at once; let it be thrown out of this , and the responsibility of countenancing such a press be taken off our shoulders and fall on the , if corrupt enough to sustain it.
“Councilor said that he had not forgotten the transactions at , and that he recollected that his son George Spencer then lay in the well referred to on the day previous, without a winding sheet, shroud, or coffin; he said he could not sit still when he saw the same spirit raging in this place; he considered the publication of the Expositor as much murderous at heart as David was before the death of Uriah; was for making a short work of it; was prepared to take his stand by the Mayor, and whatever he proposes; would stand by him to the last. The quicker it is stopped the better.
“ had investigated the Constitution, charter, and laws; the power to declare that office a nuisance is granted to us in the charter, and a resolution declaring it a nuisance is all that is required.
“John Birney sworn— said and declared they had commenced their operations, and would carry them out, law or no law.
“ sworn— said that said the interest of this is done the moment a hand is laid on their press.
“ continued, and referred to in destroying the character of a child— an orphan child, who had the charge of another child.
“Warren Smith sworn— said came to him, and proposed to have him go in as a partner in making bogus money. said he would not work for a living; that witness might go in with him if he would advance fifty dollars, and shewed him (witness) a half dollar which he said was made in his dies.
“ continued and said he felt deeper this day than ever he felt before, and wanted to know, by yes, if there was any present who wanted to avenge the blood [p. 84]