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.
<July 10.> assistance in their power in this awful hour of murder and woe at .”
Elders and went from to Lowell.
Elders , and proceeded by Railway from to .
The Neighbor has the following notice:—
“The Prophet
“A well disposed newspaper, called ‘The Prophet’, was started in , in the month of May last. The ruptures of our neighbors, and the murder of our best friends, have prevented us from giving our readers timely notice. It is published by a society for the promotion of truth, and we must say that in a city so large as , if the people have virtue, holiness, and the kindred spirits which have ever won the affections of humanity, they will sustain the Prophet liberally. Nor should the country be less magnanimous: by comparing opinions, and proving contrarieties, truth manifests itself.”
We copy from the Evening Gazette:—
“Public Opinion
“Of the press on the assassination of Joseph and by a mob in the jail at , while under the sacred pledge of the for the protection of their lives.
“With reference to the recent bloody affair at , the O. S. Democrat says:—
“’From all the facts now before us, we regard these homicides as [HC 7:177] nothing else than murder in cold blood— murder against the plighted faith of the of — murder of a character so atrocious and so unjustifiable as to leave the blackest stain on all its perpetrators— their aiders, abettors, and defenders.’
“The Republican pronounces the deed ‘unprovoked murder’
“The Reporter says:— ‘The conduct of the mob at cannot be justified’
“The Reveille says:— ‘Joe Smith has been “Lynched” while under the protection of the “Laws”’
“The New Era says:— ‘It was cruel and cowardly to murder the unarmed prisoners when they had surrendered themselves, and were in custody of the laws.’
“In fact, the Press of denounces this bloody deed without a dissenting voice.”
“From the (Iowa) Democrat.
“We also endorse the whole of the sentiments of the Presses, and say it was a premeditiated murder, and that the offenders ought to be ferreted out and dealt with according to the strict sense of the law”
“From the State Register:—
“Joseph Smith the Mormon Prophet and his brother murdered in Prison.
“The following particulars of the most disgraceful and cold blooded murder ever committed in a Christian land is copied from an extra from the office of the Herald. Rumors of the bloody deed reached this city several days [p. 262]