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 19> to the place where the writ was first issued, and nothing less than that would satisfy the people.
,
David Evans,
.
“Sworn and subscribed to this 19th day of June, 1844.
, J. P.—” [HC 6:506]
From the best information they could learn, there were two hundred armed men at Rocky Run precinct, two hundred at , two hundred in , and the whole receiving constant additions.
<20> Thursday 20 At day break I went with my staff and , to the prairie, to view the situation of the ground, and to devise plans for the defence of the , and select the proper locations to meet the mob, and made arrangements for provisions for the , instructing my agents to pledge my farms for the purpose
At 10 A. M., Mr <Dr> Southwick from Louisiana arrived and reported that there was not much excitement in — that a cannon had arrived at from , and that it had been reported to him that there was great excitement in Upper .
At 11, I reviewed the Legion facing the , and went to parade on the banks of the .
I insert the affidavit of Carlos W. Lyon:—
“State of Illinois,)
City of .)
On the 20th day of June, 1844, came before me, , Recorder of the aforesaid, Carlos W. Lyon, and after being duly sworn deposeth and saith, that while at , Mo., on Monday the 17th inst., it was a common topic that they were furnishing arms and ammunition to be sent by steam boat to , Illinois, and said if the people of need five hundred men to give notice by the Steamer ‘Boreas’, and the men should be sent from to , and that your said affiant also saw a cannon landed from the Steamer ‘Mermaid’ at , and further he saith not.
Carlos W. Lyon.
“Subscribed and sworn to before me this 20th day of June, 1844.
,
Recorder of the City of .” [HC 6:507]
Wrote to , President of the as follows:—
“City of , Ill., June 20th, 1844.
“Sir:—
I have just enclosed to the of the State of copies of the enclosed affidavits and extra. I am sorry to say that the State of , not contented with robbing, driving, and murdering many of the Latter Day Saints, are now joining the mob of this for the purpose of the ‘utter extermination’ of the Mormons, as they have resolved. And now, sir, as President of the , will you render that protection which the Constitution guarantees in case of ‘insurrection and rebellion’, and save the innocent and oppressed from such horrid persecution?