Journal of Mormon History Volume 8 Issue 1 Article 1 1981 Journal of Mormon History Vol. 8, 1981 Follow this and additional works at: https://digitalcommons.usu.edu/mormonhistory Part of the Religion Commons Recommended Citation (1981) "Journal of Mormon History Vol. 8, 1981," Journal of Mormon History: Vol. 8 : Iss. 1 , Article 1. Available at: https://digitalcommons.usu.edu/mormonhistory/vol8/iss1/1 This Full Issue is brought to you for free and open access by the Journals at DigitalCommons@USU. It has been accepted for inclusion in Journal of Mormon History by an authorized administrator of DigitalCommons@USU. For more information, please contact [email protected]. Journal of Mormon History Vol. 8, 1981 Table of Contents • --Return to Carthage: Writing the History of Joseph Smith's Martyrdom Dean C. Jessee, 3 • --Heber J. Grant and the Utah Loan and Trust Company Ronald W. Walker, 21 • --Charles B. Thompson and the Issues of Slavery and Race Newell G. Bringhurst, 37 • --"Between Two Fires": Women on the "Underground" of Mormon Polygamy Kimberly Jensen James, 49 • --Some Comparative Perspectives on the Early Mormon Movement and the Church-State Question, 1830-1845 John F. Wilson, 63 • --Bearding Leone and Others in the Heartland of Mormon Historiography Mario S. De Pillis, 79 This full issue is available in Journal of Mormon History: https://digitalcommons.usu.edu/mormonhistory/vol8/iss1/1 Journal of Mormon History Editorial Staff RICHARD W. SADLER, Editor DEAN L. MAY, Associate Editor JILL MULVAY DERR, Assistant Editor GORDON IRVING, Assistant Editor Board of Editors RICHARD L. ANDERSON (1983), Brigham Young University L. MADELON BRUNSON (1982), RLDS Department of History LAWRENCE FOSTER (1983), Georgia Institute of Techology STANLEY KIMBALL (1984), Southern Illinois University RICHARD D. POLL (1982), Western Illinois University KENT POWELL (1984), Utah State Historical Society D. MICHAEL QUINN (1983), Brigham Young University JOSEPH B. ROMNEY (1982), Ricks College WILLIAM D. RUSSELL (1981), Graceland College The Journal of Mormon History is published annually by the Mormon History Association, P.O. Box 7010. University Station, Provo, Utah 84602, and distributed to members upon payment of the annual dues: Student, $5.00; Regular, $7.50; Sustaining, $20.00; Friend of Mormon History, $100.00; Mormon History Association Patron, $500.00 or more. Single copies, $5.00 Articles for publication should be addressed to Dean L. May, Department of History, University of Utah Salt Lake City, Utah 84112 The Association assumes no responsibility for statements of fact or opinion by contributors. ISSN 0094-7342 Journal of Mormon History Volume 8, 1981 Contents Return to Carthage: Writing the History of Joseph Smith's Martyrdom Dean C. Jessee 3 Heber J. Grant and the Utah Loan and Trust Company Ronald W. Wajker 21 Charles B. Thompson and the Issues of Slavery and Race Newell G. Bringhurst 37 "Between Two Fires": Women on the "Underground" of Mormon Polygamy Kimberly Jensen James 49 Some Comparative Perspectives on the Early Mormon Movement and the Church-State Question, 1830-1845 John F. Wilson 63 Bearding Leone and Others in the Heartland of Mormon Historiography Mario S. De Pillis 79 FRONT COVER: Carthage Jail from a sketch made by Frederick Piercy included in Route from Liverpool to Great Salt Lake Valley edited by James Linforth and published by Franklin D. Richards in 1855. BACK COVER: Lucy Smith sketched "from life" by Frederick Piercy and included in Route from Liverpool to Great Salt Lake Valley. Courtesy Church Archives. The Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints. Copyright e 1982 by the Mormon History Association MORMON HISTORY ASSOCIATION AWARDS FOR 1981 Documentary Editing: ANDREW KARL LARSON and KATHARINE MILES LARSON, eds., The Diary of Charles Lowell Walker (Logan, Utah: Utah State University Press, 1980). There was no book award in 1981. Article Awards: THOMAS G. ALEXANDER, "The Reconstruction of Mormon Doctrine: From Joseph Smith to Progressive Theology," Swn5fo«? 5 (July-August 1980): 24-33. GARY J. BERGERA, "The Orson Pratt-Brigham Young Controversies: Conflict within the Quorums, 1853 to 1868," Dialogue: A Journal of Mormon Thought 13 (Summer 1980): 7-49. Graduate Student Award: M. GUY BISHOP, Ph.D. candidate, Southern Illinois University Special Citations: To GLEN M. LEONARD, in recognition of his conscientious production and expert work as associate editor of the first seven volumes of the Journal of Mormon History. To MAURICE L. DRAPER, CLARE D. VLAHOS, and twenty contributors who produced an impressive collection of essays, many on Mormon history, in Restoration Studies I, Sesquicentennial Edition (Independence, Missouri: Herald House, 1981). Return to Carthage: Writing the History of Joseph Smith's Martyrdom ByDeanC.Jessee A substantial part of Joseph Smith's History of the Church consists of an account of events surrounding the murder of the Mormon leader and his brother Hyrum at Carthage, Illinois, on June 27, 1844.1 Compared with the contemporary news reports of the Carthage tragedy, the pages of the History are lavish in particulars, giving actions and conversations of those involved with precise, hour-by-hour exactness. Considering the mid-1850s context in which this part of the History was written, the question arises, how was such a compre- hensive picture reconstructed and how accurate is it? The answer to these questions is a revealing chapter in nineteenth century Mormon historiography. Announcement of the killings of Joseph and Hyrum Smith appeared in the Nauvoo Neighbor on June 30, 1844, and was reported the next day in the Times and Seasons under the title, "Awful Assassination." Bearing the signatures of Willard Richards, John Taylor, and Samuel H. Smith, the announcement deplored the tragedy and briefly outlined the events that led to it. The papers also contained two statements written "at the request of the friends of Joseph and Hyrum Smith" by their attorneys, James W. Woods and Hugh T. Reid. The lawyers briefly reviewed the Carthage scene as they wit- nessed it — Woods after his arrival at Nauvoo from his Burlington, Iowa, law Dean C. Jessee is an associate professor of history and church history and senior research historian, Joseph Fielding Smith Institute for Church History, Brigham Young University. 'The period between June 10, 1844, when the Nauvoo City Council ordered the marshal to destroy the Nauvoo Expositor press, and June 27 when Joseph and Hyrum Smith were killed, is covered in the Joseph Smith History of the Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints, ed. B. H. Roberts, 6 vols. (Salt Lake City: Deseret Press, 1948), 6:432-622. Unless otherwise indicated, all sources are located in the LDS Church Archives, Salt Lake City, Utah. 4 Journal of Mormon History office on June 21, and Reid after arriving in Carthage from Fort Madison, Iowa, three days later. In addition to these statements, a July 15 Times and Seasons editorial gave tribute to the dead Mormon leaders but added little to the already-reported happenings at Carthage. Later in July, the Nauvoo Neighbor published Willard Richards's account of the last "two minutes" in the jail in which he described the killing of the Smiths and the wounding of John Taylor. The information contained in these contemporary announcements essen- tially reviewed the sequence of events during the last four days of Joseph Smith's life, beginning with his departure for Carthage on June 24 on a charge of riot growing out of the destruction of the Nauvoo Expositor press. With the exception of the statement attributed to Joseph, "I am going like a lamb to the slaughter, but I am calm as a summer's morning," etc.,2 these sources contained little of the personal dialogue and precise detail that later filled the pages of the History. How did it happen that a moment-by-moment narrative such as we find in the Carthage chapters of the History could be reconstructed from the meager sources available in 1844? The impression is almost one of history in reverse — the further we proceed from the event the more exact and abundant the information. At Joseph Smith's death, the History of the Church had been completed to August 5, 1838. Willard Richards, under whose direction the work continued thereafter, was able to bring the narrative to March 1843 before the exodus from Nauvoo disrupted his work. Eight years later, when writing on the History resumed, time and distance had imposed serious complications. Particularly frustrating was the 1854 death of Willard Richards, whose talented pen had been a guiding force behind the History, and whose close association with Joseph Smith had furnished the project with its most able mind.3 When George A. Smith was named historian in the place of the deceased Richards in April 1854, he found that delay in writing the History due to the migration across the plains had taken its toll of the source material. Many records are nearly obliterated by time damp and dirt. Others lost, some half worked into mouse nests, & many important events were never written except in the hearts of those who were concerned. Joseph said it would be impossible for any man ever to write his history. I am doing the best I can towards it.4 As George A. surveyed events of the last days of the Prophet's life, he found extensive gaps in the record. In addition to the news reports published at the time of the murders, there was on file a three-page journal by Jonathan Hale outlining the movements of the Nauvoo Legion between June 18 and July 7, 1844, and a few other documents. One of these was an affidavit, dated July 4, 1844, by William M. Daniels, 2Times and Seasons, July 15, 1844, p. 585. 3On the writing of Joseph Smith's History see Brigham Young University Studies 11 (Summer 1971):439—73.