Introduction to History Drafts, 1844–1856
As noted in the
“Introduction to
History, 1838–1856 (Manuscript History of the Church),” in
early 1838
JS initiated his most successful attempt to
assemble a history. However, after initial efforts in 1838–1839, it was only with
’s appointment as church historian
in December 1842 that substantial progress on
this project was realized. At the time of JS’s death in
June 1844, Richards had added over 600 pages in
his own hand to volumes
A-1 and
B-1 of the
manuscript. In January 1845, with JS no longer
available to the compilers of the history, Richards adopted a new approach for
moving the project forward in earnest.
The draft notes, reproduced on the Joseph Smith Papers website, were begun soon after JS was
killed. At that time, the account in the second volume (B-1) of the manuscript
history had reached page 812 with the entry for
5 August 1838. Starting with the 6 August 1838 entry,
began composing a set of working notes for the history rather than writing directly
in the volumes. As in the past, he collected and organized relevant material with
the aid of clerks and associates. He then either wrote or dictated a roughed-out
draft (the drafts compiled here) that included references to specific documents to
be copied into the text. Richards’s primary assistant, , a former clerk of JS’s who began work in November 1843, took Richards’s notes and revisions and drafted the final
version, incorporating where indicated the texts of the specified documents into the
manuscript. Bullock’s inscription began where Richards left off on page 812 with the
entry for 6 August 1838. Beginning in April 1845, amid (ultimately unrealized) plans to
publish the history in book form, a fair copy of the manuscript was begun by other
clerks in a separate set of manuscript volumes designated A-2, B-2,
and so forth.
This collaborative practice continued until the Saints departed
for the West in 1846.
This
arrangement appears to have been an altogether new approach; there is no extant
evidence of
previously using a rough draft or outline,
either in Richards’s journals or in other accounts. With Richards drafting and
correcting the history and
transcribing those draft notes and copying in
the referenced documents, the pace of work on the history picked up
considerably.
During this
productive period
eventually made one other adjustment in
his and ’s collaboration. By
late 1845, after the death of
Richards’s wife,
, his own health had declined to the point
that he began dictating his draft to Bullock rather than penning it himself.
Both Richards’s personal journals and the historian’s office journals attest to
his continued direct involvement, even though it was now Bullock’s handwriting
on the rough draft. For example, Richards’s 3
January 1846 journal entry states, “This morning I dictated history—lay
down an hour or two when I again arose and dictated history.”
Bullock’s entry in the office journal reads, “Saturday 3. Dr. dictating history
being much better—TB writing same, and also history in book D,” a reference to
volume D-1 in
the manuscript history.
By the time the history project was suspended in
February 1846 and the manuscript packed up for
transport west, Richards and Bullock had reached the entry for
28 February 1843, on page 1486 in
volume D-1. Progress on drafting and compiling the history was
interrupted for several years by the Saints’ exodus from
and the initial challenge of
settling the Great Salt Lake Valley. Consequently,
Richards was not able to return to the draft notes and manuscript history until
late 1853, and then only
briefly before falling very ill. In the margin of page 1485 in
volume D-1, Thomas Bullock recorded, “Decr. 1 1853
Dr. Willard Richards wrote one line of
History—being sick at the time—and was never able to do more.” Richards died
three months later.
At a church
conference in 1854,
was sustained as the new church
historian. He took up his work on the history where
had been forced to set it aside. Two years
later, in an 1856 report to the Quorum of the
Twelve Apostles as
JS’s history neared completion, George A. Smith
acknowledged Richards’s influence on his own efforts. He noted, “I assisted Dr.
Richards during about 70 days in revising and collecting matter for the History
while in
, which made me acquainted
with his plan of compilation, which I have pursued as near as possible.” This included continuing or extending Richards’s history drafts. Smith
went on to describe the process in considerable detail:
On the
10th April 1854,
I commenced to perform the duties of Historian by taking up the History of
Joseph
Smith where Dr.
had left it when driven from
on the
4th day of February
1846. . . .
acted with me as chief clerk, being a clerk in the History office
previously to, and at the time of
Prest.
Smith’s death, and has continued in it ever since. His pen wrote the
principal part of the rough manuscript from my dictation, and his acquaintance
with all the papers was of great assistance to me—
Jonathan
Grimshaw sorted and filed the papers, and carefully amalgamated the
principal part of the discourses of
President Smith and others from the various
reports mentioned above, and put them into shape to be filled up by me. He also
assisted in writing the manuscript of the History from my dictation, compiled
indices, and performed other duties incident to the office—
assisted to file papers, copied correspondence, and wrote the final copy of the
History in Books C2 and D2 after revision; besides attending to office
business generally—
Robert L.
Campbell copied the rough manuscript of the History into books D1 and
E1 which were revised by the Presidency and Council. . . .
The plan of
compiling the history of
Joseph
Smith from the Journals kept by his Clerks . . . was commenced by
himself, extracting items of necessary information in regard to general and
particular movements from the Times and Seasons, Millennial Star, Wasp,
Neighbor and other publications, extracts from city councils, Municipal Courts,
and Mayor’s dockets and Legion Records, which were all kept under his
direction; also the movements of the church as found in Conference Minutes,
High Council records, and the records of the several quorums, together with
letters and copies preserved on file; also noted remarkable occurrences
throughout the world, and compiled them under date of transaction, according to
the above plan which he [JS] while in prison
just previous to his murder requested Elder
to continue.
At the time of
his report,
was leaving
Salt
Lake City for
to champion the cause
of Utah statehood. As he departed, he observed: “The
History has been compiled to the day of his [JS’s] death and the principal part of it
has been revised by the Council of the First Presidency almost without any
alteration. A few vacancies remain to be filled up from the statements of
persons who are now absent.”
Even as
reported on the progress of the history,
it fell to
as assistant church historian to
gather up additional details and accounts regarding
JS’s murder and the aftermath of that event.
Woodruff’s work resulted in the drafting of
notes for a
second narrative of the murder that also continued the history down to the
sustaining of
and the Twelve in August 1845. Some
months later, Woodruff wrote George A. Smith and reported, “On the 30th.
[January] the Presidency sat and heard the
history read up to the organization of the church in
, 8th. day of August 1844.” The project was now essentially finished; all
that remained was the completion of its publication, which had begun in the
Times and Seasons in Nauvoo.
Among the
additional accounts
had pursued was that of
, who was away in the East.
Taylor’s
account of the death of
JS and
was drafted with the persistent help of
. However, Taylor’s draft was not
recorded in the manuscript history and was first published separately by the
famed British explorer Richard F. Burton, who included it
without editing in an
appendix
to his 1862 volume The City of the Saints, and Across the Rocky
Mountains to California.
On the Joseph
Smith Papers website, the draft notes for
JS’s manuscript history of the church are divided
into nineteen items. Compilations by
and
are included, along with
material prepared under the direction of
. Richards’s material is contained
in the first six “Drafts, 1844–1856” entries (6 August 1838 to 3 March
1843). As noted, Smith followed the practice of dictating his outline to
or another clerk so his own handwriting does not appear in the
drafts compiled under his direction (entries
1 March 1843 to
21 June
1844; George A. Smith Martyrdom Account; and
George A. Smith
Martyrdom Account, Draft). All the clerks involved in inscribing the
manuscript history from the rough draft notes closely followed the sketched-out
text and the placement of documents indicated in the notes.
Four sets of
draft notes contain material that informed the account of
JS’s death:
History Draft [21
June–8 August 1844], under the direction of
;
George A. Smith
Martyrdom Account;
George A. Smith
Martyrdom Account, Draft; and
John Taylor
Martyrdom Account. The collection also includes a number of addenda and
notes written by several contributors, including
. These were prepared as additions or corrections to the material
previously drafted for the manuscript history volumes. Hyperlinks in the
documents connect corresponding material in the manuscript history and source
material such as the draft notes.
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1
Searle, “Early Mormon Historiography,” 229–234, 241; Historian’s Office, Journal, 3 Apr. 1845. Howard Searle’s dissertation provides an extensive and fairly reliable account of the preparation of Joseph Smith’s history, including the rough draft notes.
Searle, Howard C. “Early Mormon Historiography: Writing the History of the Mormons, 1830–1858.” PhD diss., University of California, Los Angeles, 1979.
Historian’s Office. Journal, 1844–1997. CHL. CR 100 1.
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2
Richards, Journal, 3 Jan. 1846.
Richards, Willard. Journals, 1836–1853. Willard Richards, Papers, 1821–1854. CHL. MS 1490, boxes 1–2.
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3
Historian’s Office, Journal, 3 Jan. 1846.
Historian’s Office. Journal, 1844–1997. CHL. CR 100 1.
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4
See Searle, “Early Mormon Historiography,” 245–247.
Searle, Howard C. “Early Mormon Historiography: Writing the History of the Mormons, 1830–1858.” PhD diss., University of California, Los Angeles, 1979.
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5
George A. Smith, Great Salt Lake City, Utah Territory, to Wilford Woodruff, 21 Apr. 1856, Historian’s Office, Historical Record Book, 218–219.
Historian’s Office. Historical Record Book, 1843–1874. CHL. MS 3434.
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6
Wilford Woodruff, Great Salt Lake City, Utah Territory, to George A. Smith, 2 Feb. 1857, Historian’s Office, Letterpress Copybook 1, 410.
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7
Wilford Woodruff, Great Salt Lake City, Utah Territory, to John Taylor, 30 June 1856, Historian’s Office, Letterpress Copybook 1, 315–320.
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8
John Taylor, Statement, 23 Aug. 1856, in Burton, City of the Saints, 517–544.
Burton, Richard F. The City of the Saints, and Across the Rocky Mountains to California. New York: Harper and Brothers, 1862.