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 12> or some other Justice of the Peace to answer the premises, and further to be dealt with according to law. [HC 6:453]
“Given under my hand and seal at in the aforesaid this eleventh day of June, A. D. 1844.
, J. P. seal"
After the got through reading the writ, I referred him to this clause in the writ, “before me or some other justic[e] of the peace of said ”, saying, we are ready to go to trial before , or any Justice in , according to the requirements of the writ; but swore he would be dam’d but he would carry them to before who issued the writ, and seemed very wrathy. I asked him if he intended to break the law, for he knew the privilege of the prisoners, and they should have it. I called upon all present to witness that I then offered myself ( did the same) to go forthwith before the nearest Justice of the peace; and also called upon them to witness whether the broke the law <or not.>
I felt so indignant at his abuse in depriving me of the privilege of the statute of in going before “some other Justice” that I determined to take out a writ of Habeas Corpus, and signed the following petition:—
“State of Illinois,)
City of .)
To the Honorable Municipal Court in and for the said City of :—
“Your Petitioner, Joseph Smith, respectfully represents that he is now under arrest in the said City of .
“That he is in the custody of one , a constable in and for the said County of , who holds your Petitioner as he says by virtue of a warrant issued by one an acting Justice of the Peace in and for the said County of , and State of , which warrant was issued upon the affidavit of one , charging your Petitioner with being guilty of a riot, or of having committed a riot within the aforesaid.
“Your Petitioner further represents that the warrant of arrest by virtue of which the said has made this arrest, does not disclose sufficiently clear and explicit, the charge they have preferred.
“Your Petitioner further avers that this proceeding against him has [HC 6:454] been instituted through malice, private pique, and corruption.
“Your Petitioner further avers that the design and intention of the said in commencing this prosecution is to commit and carry out more easily a conspiracy against the life of your Petitioner; that the said has publicly declared that it was his determination to do every thing in his power to throw your Petitioner into the hands of his enemies, and that there is a determination upon the part of the said and his unhallowed coadjutors to commit an unlawful act and to set the rights and privileges of your Petitioners at defiance, and bring down upon his head this corrupt and unhallowed prosecution.
“Your Petitioner further avers that he is not guilty of the charge preferred against him that he seeks an investigation before an impartial tribunal, and fears not the result.
“Your Petitioner would therefore ask your honorable body to grant him the benefit of the writ of Habeas Corpus that this matter may be investigated upon legal principles, and that the legal and constitutional rights of your Petitioner may be [p. 88]
JS, Petition for Writ of Habeas Corpus, 12 June 1844, State of Illinois v. JS et al. on Habeas Corpus [Nauvoo Mun. Ct. 1844], copy, JS Collection, CHL.
Smith, Joseph. Collection, 1827–1846. CHL. MS 155.