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.
<July 3> it is a part of my policy that you remain quiet, and if you please, watchful, but strictly on the defensive; and I now announce to you that I will not be thwarted in this policy with impunity.
I am most respectfully
Your obedient servant
”
Messrs. John B. Kimball, of , and , of , reported that John Patrick Wells and W. Voorhees were wounded in the affray at .
Elders and spent the day together in the city of , and in the evening visited the museum.
<4> Thursday 4 Elder received a letter from , introducing Mr William M. Daniels.
Mr Daniels made the following affidavit:—
“State of Illinois)
SS
)
On the 4th day of July 1844 came William M. Daniels before me , a Justice of the Peace within and for said , and after being duly sworn deposeth and saith, that on Saturday the 22nd day of June 1844 he came to the town of in said county of and continued there until the Thursday following, the 27 day of June; that on that Morning your affiant joined the rifle company commanded by ; [HC 7:162] that the Lieutenant and [blank] Chittenden Esq. said that as the would be absent from that day; that they would send ten men from each of the two companies to join the Carthage Greys and kill the two Gens. Smith, and if the opposed to kill him too: that among those twenty men were Mr Houck, a tailor, and Mr Stephens, a cooper; the rest of the <two> companies marched towards Golden’s Point to the railroad crossing when they were met by the ’s order to disband all the troops, and disbanded them. That then the Captains called them to order, saying they had no command over them, and <but> wished them to form in line, which they did; that then , the Editor of the Signal, urged by a speech the necessity of killing the two Smiths, and a vote was then called, who would go and do it. and about twenty men went home, the residue, eighty-four men went to , having six runners ahead to stop the twenty men who had before started for . Soon after they started one of the Carthage Greys met them with a letter, saying it was a most delightful time, the had gone, they could now kill Joseph and , and must do it quick before the returned; that they then turned to the left between the and roads, and were not seen again by your affiant till they arrived at the Jail in : that among the names of those who committed the murder at the jail in , Hancock County aforesaid, on the 27th day of June 1844 at about 5 o’clock and 20 minutes, was Col , of Green Plains precinct, Capt. [Alexander] Wires, [blank] Chittenden Esq. of , [blank] Lockwood, of , [blank] Houck, the Tailor, Capt. Grovener, three brothers by the name of Stephens, coopers, — Allen, a cooper, all of , and a man by the name of Mills <who> was wounded in the right arm. [p. 252]