History, 1838–1856, volume F-1 [1 May 1844–8 August 1844]
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Source Note
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.
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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 22 company of men about fifteen in number. Both parties then took the road towards the Big Mound; a part of the men were mounted, and a part were on foot; the mounted men were forward, and after passing my house, they wheeled and rode back to the footmen who were some little distance behind, and said to them, ‘there are some fellows on the Mound, you had better hurry on and we will take those fellows and carry them to ’; they used profane language. I watched them until they got near the Mound, and saw the guard on the Mound turn and run towards . After that the company went on to the Mound, and halted near the spot where the guard had run from. On the same evening about sundown there was a man by the name of Milton Hamilton came into my house, and told me he had come to tell me to arm and equip myself according to law, and stand in readiness; that the had demanded Joseph Smith according to law, and that he would not come it (meaning that Joseph Smith would not surrender); that the General issued orders for the Militia to be in readiness to take said Smith. I asked him what General, and he observed that he believed it was . I asked him if it was done by orders of the , and he said that was the understanding. He told me he acted under the orders of Capt. Mc. Auley; and further saith not.
James Olive.
“Subscribed and sworn to this 22nd day of June, 1844, before me,
L. S.
, J. P. [HC 6:529]
Phebe Levett states that she saw , , , and ’Squire McAuley in the company who fired on the guard on the road.
George G. Johnstone made the following affidavit:—
“State of Illinois,)
Hancock County)
City of .)
“June 22nd, 1844.
Personally appeared before me, , a Justice of the Peace in and for the County of , George G. Johnstone, living on Spring Creek in , who being first duly sworn deposeth and saith, that yesterday Napoleon Hardin came to your deponent, and said that the had sent orders for the Militia to be called out for to-day at four o’clock P. M., and to start on 22nd to, there to wait until all were ready from the different counties in the , and then they should march out to the Prairie, they should stop on the Prairie, and send in a flag of truce to , and demand the body of General Joseph Smith; if the people of refused to give him up, then they should exterminate the whole of them.
Geo. G. Johnstone.
“Subscribed and sworn to this 22nd day of June, 1844, before me.
L. S
, J. P.”
Gideon Gibbs made the following affidavit:—
“State of Illinois,)
City of .)
On the 22nd June, 1844, came before me, , Clerk of the Mayor’s Court for said , Gideon Gibbs, and after being duly sworn deposeth and saith, that on the afternoon of the 21st ins’t, about a half mile south east of the big mound on the road, a party of about eight or ten men in a warlike attitude, in company with two teams, passed your said affiant, and one of them said he fired at two men near the big mound— thought he killed them both, and your deponent saith no further.
Gideon Gibbs.
“Subscribed and sworn to before me this 22nd day of June, 1844.
, Clerk, M. C.” [HC 6:530] [p. 138]
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