History, 1838–1856, volume D-1 [1 August 1842–1 July 1843]
History, 1838–1856, volume D-1 [1 August 1842–1 July 1843]
Source Note
Source Note
JS, History, 1838–1856, vol. D-1, created 4 July 1845–4 Feb. 1846 and 1 July 1854–2 May 1855; handwriting of , Robert L. Campbell, and ; 275 pages, plus 6 pages of addenda; CHL. This is the fourth volume of a six-volume manuscript history of the church. This fourth volume covers the period from 1 Aug. 1842 to 1 July 1843; the remaining five volumes, labeled A-1, B-1, C-1, E-1 and F-1, continue through 8 Aug. 1844.
Historical Introduction
Historical Introduction
History, 1838–1856, volume D-1, constitutes the fourth 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 August 1842 to 1 July 1843, and it was compiled after JS’s death.
The material recorded in volume D-1 was initially compiled under the direction of church historian , with the assistance of . After Richards’s death in 1854, continued work on the volume as the new church historian with Bullock’s continued help. The process adopted by Richards and Bullock involved Richards creating a set of rough draft notes and Bullock transcribing the notes into the volume along with the text of designated documents (such as letters and meeting minutes). George A. Smith followed a similar pattern, though he dictated the draft notes to Bullock and other scribes.
According to the Church Historian’s Office journal, finished the third volume of the series, volume C-1, on Thursday, 3 July 1845, in , Illinois. He began work on the fourth volume, D-1, the next day, beginning on page 1362 with the entry for 1 August 1842. (The pages in volumes A-1–E-1 were numbered consecutively.) Bullock continued work on the record, drawing upon ’s draft notes, until 3 February 1846—the day before D-1 and the other volumes were packed up in preparation for the Latter-day Saints’ exodus from Nauvoo. At that point he had reached page 1485 with the entry for 28 February 1843. Subsequently, apparently after the collection had arrived in Utah, Bullock added a brief comment beneath that entry: “end of W. Richard’s compiling[.] the books packed Feby. 4— 1846 in Nauvoo[.] Miles Romney— present. The records carried by T Bullock from Winter Quarters to G S L [Great Salt Lake] City in 1848.”
A notation at the top of page 1486 reports that “the books were unpacked in G. S. L. City by and . June 7. 1853. J[onathan] Grimshaw & Miles Romney present.” Vertically, in the margin, is a poignant epitaph: “Decr. 1 1853 Dr. Willard Richards wrote one line of History—being sick at the time—and was never able to do any more.” With Richards’s death on 11 March 1854, JS’s cousin was called to the office of church historian. The notation on the top of page 1486 acknowledges this change in officers, noting, “commencement of George A. Smith’s compiling as Historian. April 13. 1854[.] [C]ommenced copying July 1. 1854.” From mid-April to the end of June 1854, George A. Smith, in collaboration with Thomas Bullock, worked on the draft notes for the history before a new scribe, , resumed writing in D-1 on 1 July 1854, beginning with the entry for 1 March 1843.
continued transcribing intermittently into the late fall of 1854, when he was assigned other duties in the Historian’s Office. He had reached page 1546 with the entry for 5 May 1843. Work resumed in February 1855 in the hand of Robert L. Campbell, recently returned from a mission. He concluded volume D-1 on the morning of 2 May 1855 and began writing in E-1 that afternoon.
The 274 pages of volume D-1 contain a record of much that is significant in the life of JS and the development of the church he founded. Among these events are
• JS’s 6 August 1842 prophecy that the Saints would become a mighty people in the midst of the Rocky Mountains.
•JS’s 8 August 1842 arrest on a warrant for being “an accessory before the fact” to an attack on former governor .
• ’s 17 August 1842 letter to governor , pleading for the humane treatment of her husband and family.
•JS’s 1 and 6 September 1842 instructions regarding the proper procedures for performing baptisms for the dead.
• JS’s 15 November 1842 “Valedictory” as he stepped down as editor of the Times and Seasons.
• The 26 December 1842 arrest of JS on a “proclamation” by former governor , and subsequent hearing in , Illinois.
• The 7 February 1843 recovery of a volume of patriarchal blessings given by , which had been stolen in , Missouri.
• JS’s 21 February 1843 remarks regarding the and .
• JS’s 2 April 1843 instruction at , Illinois, on the nature of God and other subjects.
• JS’s 16 May 1843 remarks at , Illinois, on the everlasting covenant and eternal marriage.
• The account of JS’s 23 June 1843 arrest and his hearing the following week at .
Footnotes
<May 18>phecy in the name of the Lord God of Israel that unless the redress the wrongs committed upon the Saints in the State of , and punish the crimes committed by her officers, that in a few years the Government will be utterly overthrown and wasted, and there will not be so much as a Postsherd left, for their wickedness in permitting the murder of men, women, and children, and the wholesale plunder and extermination of thousands of her citizens to go unpunished; thereby perpetrating a foul and corroding blot upon the fair fame of this great Republic, the very thought of which would have caused the high minded and patriotic framers of the Constitution of the to hide their faces with shame. you will aspire to the Presidency of the , and if ever you turn your hand against me or the you will feel the weight of the hand of the Almighty upon you; and you will live to see and know that I have testified the truth to you, for the conversation of this day will stick to you through life.
He appears very friendly, and acknowledged the truth and propriety of President Smith’s remarks”
We then rode home where we arrived about 5½ P.M. and found my family all well.
Mr. who professed to be a Catholic Priest, was at my house awaiting my arrival.
At 6 P.M. I called in my for ’s letter.
<19> I borrowed of $5000 which I paid to Mr. Erie Rhodes which he is either to repay or let me have lumber:
I rode out with in the afternoon
Told a dream, that the history must go a head, before any thing else.
writes [HC 5:394]
“One year since I visited a settlement of Norweigians in La Salle County , where, after laboring some time among them I succeeded <and> baptized five, and ordained one Elder, when I left them for about one month; and then returned and organized the branch, and called it the La Salle branch of the church of Jesus Christ of Latter day Saints; and ordained brother Goodman Hongus, Elder, a man of a strong mind, and well skilled in the Scriptures, he can preach in Norway Sweden and Denmark, having an understanding of their languages. From thence I returned to , where I found the whole country deluged with falsehood, from the pen of , and I immediately returned to La Salle, but the people there looked upon him as a wicked designing man, his lies continued but a short time [p. 1553]
Source Note
Source Note
Document Transcript
Document Information
Document Information
Footnotes
Footnotes
- [664]
See 19 May 1843 entry in History Draft.
- [665]
Clayton, Journal, 19 May 1843.
Clayton, William. Journals, 1842–1845. CHL.
- [666]
JS, Journal, 19 May 1843, in JSP, J3:18–19.
- [667]
George P. Dykes, Nauvoo, IL, 19 May 1843, Letter to the Editor, Times and Seasons, 15 May 1843, 4:195.
Times and Seasons. Commerce/Nauvoo, IL. Nov. 1839–Feb. 1846.
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