History of the Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-Day Saints, Volume 1

In Short

Compiled directly from original journals, primary correspondence, and dictations, this volume chronicles the foundational years of the Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints. Beginning with a sweeping historical analysis of early Christian apostasy, the narrative transitions into Joseph Smith’s personal account of discovering ancient gold plates near Manchester, New York. It details the painstaking translation of the Book of Mormon, the formal organization of the Church in 1830, and rapid missionary expansion across New York, Ohio, and Missouri. As converts gather, the text records divine revelations alongside mounting external hostility, culminating in tar-and-feather attacks and the brutal expulsion of believers from Jackson County, Missouri. Rather than presenting a smoothed, retrospective history, the work functions as an annalistic documentary record, preserving raw epistles, revelations, and council minutes. It has endured as an indispensable primary source for understanding the origins, theological evolution, and harrowing physical trials of a movement that fundamentally reshaped nineteenth-century American religious history.

The Story

The narrative opens not in nineteenth-century America, but in early Christian history, establishing a theological framework for the restoration of the gospel. The text examines the corruption of early church doctrines, tracing how post-apostolic fathers drifted into bitter rivalries, lost spiritual authority, and transformed a persecuted faith into an ambitious state religion under Constantine. This historical apostasy frames the necessity of a modern restoration, setting the stage for Joseph Smith’s emergence in Western New York.

Joseph Smith recounts his youth in a working-class family of limited financial means, marking key personal milestones such as the loss of his eldest brother, Alvin, and a brief employment digging for a rumored Spanish silver mine in Pennsylvania—an episode he explains as the origin of false rumors labeling him a money digger. His central narrative begins at a prominent hill near Manchester, New York, where an angelic messenger reveals ancient plates deposited in a stone box alongside the Urim and Thummim and a breastplate. Forbidden to remove the plates initially, Smith returns annually for four years to receive instruction before obtaining the record. Supported by scribes like Oliver Cowdery, Smith proceeds with translating the text despite financial hardship and public skepticism, eventually publishing the Book of Mormon and presenting formal testimonies from three primary witnesses and eight additional observers.

In April 1830, the Church of Christ is officially organized in Manchester under specific revelations establishing a new covenant. Early members receive divine directives regarding their personal duties, emphasizing prayer, humility, and preaching. As the faith grows, it attracts prominent figures from other religious traditions. Edward Partridge, a former hatter and follower of Alexander Campbell, investigates the new scriptures and undergoes baptism in the Seneca River. Sidney Rigdon, a well-known preacher in Ohio, reads the Book of Mormon, accepts its truth within two weeks, and leads his local congregation into the faith, expanding the Church’s footprint into Kirtland, Ohio.

The focus of the narrative quickly shifts westward toward Missouri, designated through revelation as the land of Zion. Missionaries travel two by two into the frontier, encountering both eager seekers and intense opposition from established Protestant sects, atheists, and local authorities. In Kaw Township, Missouri, believers establish the Colesville branch and hold the first conference in Zion, marked by solemn gatherings and the burial of Sister Polly Knight, the first member to die in the new land. Detailed revelations direct the Saints on how to observe the Sabbath, maintain cheerful hearts, offer sacrifices of broken hearts and contrite spirits, and manage church finances through recommendations from local bishops.

Simultaneously, the movement faces aggressive internal and external challenges. When some members critique the language and imperfections of the dictated revelations, a divine challenge invites the wisest among them to write a command equal to the least of Smith's dictations, reinforcing the divine authority behind the texts. Meanwhile, hostility from rival ministers and local citizens turns physical. In Hiram, Ohio, an armed mob attacks Smith and Rigdon at night, dragging Rigdon by his heels until he is severely injured and delirious. Smith is stripped, scarified, tarred, and feathered, while a young twin child in his household contracts a fatal cold during the raid. Undeterred, Smith preaches to his attackers the following Sabbath morning and administers baptisms later that afternoon.

The closing chapters document the tragic escalation of conflict in Jackson County, Missouri. Tensions between the growing Mormon population and long-time residents boil over as locals form a mob, sign a secret manifesto, and destroy church properties, citing the inability of civil law to address their concerns. Church leaders, including Edward Partridge and John Whitmer, offer themselves as a ransom to protect the Saints, but the mob rejects the offer. Violence erupts along the Big Blue River, and dozens of families are brutally driven from their homes. Aged veterans, including an elderly soldier who served as a bodyguard to George Washington, have their homes wrecked and are forced into the winter cold.

Refugees flee across the Missouri River into Clay and Van Buren counties, establishing temporary camps along the riverbanks. Church leaders in Kirtland send letters of encouragement, urging the Saints to remain meek, avoid bitter disputes, and seek legal redress through state authorities. The volume concludes with extensive correspondence between church representatives and Missouri Governor Daniel Dunklin, as the displaced believers request military protection, seek the return of their confiscated arms, and prepare to re-establish their homes on the American frontier.

How It Unfolds

The historical apostasy The narrative begins by examining the spiritual decline of early Christianity following the deaths of the original Apostles. Ecclesiastical writers trace how false doctrines, bitter internal rivalries, and worldly ambitions corrupted the church hierarchy over centuries. This detailed historical overview establishes why a modern restoration of the gospel is necessary to restore divine authority to the earth.

The hill in Manchester Joseph Smith describes locating an ancient record buried inside a stone box on a prominent hill near Manchester, New York. An angelic messenger instructs him to return to the location annually for four years before allowing him to retrieve the gold plates. During these annual interviews, Smith receives detailed instructions regarding the governance of God's kingdom in the last days.

Translating the record Work on translating the Book of Mormon proceeds despite severe financial strain, family tragedy, and persistent public harassment. Oliver Cowdery acts as primary scribe and seeks divine permission to translate, receiving revelations regarding spiritual gifts and faith. Eight additional witnesses sign a formal declaration confirming they have seen and handled the physical plates.

Establishing the new covenant In April 1830, the Church is officially organized in Manchester, New York, under divine revelation establishing a new covenant. Specific commandments are dictated to early members, outlining individual duties, calls to preach, and the strict requirement of re-baptism for new believers. The young church immediately begins holding regular conferences, confounding religious opponents, and administering baptisms in local rivers.

Gathering to the West Missionaries travel two by two into western frontiers to preach and establish new branches of believers. Prominent conversions, including those of preacher Sidney Rigdon and hatter Edward Partridge, establish a major church center in Kirtland, Ohio. The leadership directs further missionary efforts toward Missouri, identifying it as the ultimate gathering place for the Saints.

A vision of Zion Church leaders gather in Kaw Township, Jackson County, Missouri, to dedicate the land and hold the first conference in Zion. Revelations establish strict spiritual and practical laws for the community, including Sabbath observance, humble prayer, and financial stewardship under bishop oversight. The first death among the Saints in Zion occurs during this period with the passing of Sister Polly Knight.

Violence in Hiram Religious opponents and apostates organize a violent mob in Hiram, Ohio, attacking Joseph Smith and Sidney Rigdon in their home. Rigdon is dragged by his heels across frozen ground and left delirious, while Smith is severely beaten, scarified, tarred, and feathered. Despite his severe physical injuries, Smith preaches to a congregation that includes his mobbers the very next morning and administers baptisms.

Revelations and prophecies Smith dictates pivotal revelations outlining church doctrine, including detailed descriptions of celestial, terrestrial, and telestial glories in the afterlife. A notable Christmas prophecy foretells future international warfare beginning with the division between Northern and Southern states over slavery. Meanwhile, church leaders establish the School of the Prophets in Kirtland to educate ministers for future missions.

The Jackson County expulsion Hostility in Jackson County explodes into open violence as local citizens publish a manifesto demanding the complete removal of all Mormons. Mobs tar and feather members, destroy printing operations, and violently drive over a hundred families from their homes into the wilderness. Church leaders offer themselves as ransoms to spare their people, but mob violence continues unchecked.

Appealing for justice Displaced Saints establish temporary camps along the Missouri River in Clay County while suffering under harsh winter conditions without shelter. Church leaders draft detailed petitions to Missouri Governor Daniel Dunklin, seeking state militia protection and the restoration of confiscated property. The narrative closes with ongoing legal appeals as believers organize their ranks and request the return of their arms.

The People

Joseph Smith seeks to fulfill a divine mandate by translating ancient scriptures, organizing Christ's restored church, and establishing a unified sanctuary for believers called Zion. He faces constant public ridicule, financial hardship, accusations of being a money digger, and physical violence from organized mobs. Through intense persecution, including being tarred and feathered in Hiram, Smith remains steadfast, transforming from an unlearned young laborer into an unyielding prophetic leader who routinely dictates complex revelations and leads a growing movement.

Oliver Cowdery desires to actively participate in the restoration, acting as Smith's primary scribe during translation and seeking the spiritual power to translate ancient records himself. He is confronted by his own doubts, fears, and the overwhelming administrative burden of a rapidly expanding church. As he travels on missions to the western borders and reports on conditions in Missouri, Cowdery grows into a key church leader and articulate defender of the faith against vocal opposition from surrounding religious sects.

Sidney Rigdon wants to find and teach the true, uncorrupted gospel of Jesus Christ, having previously served as a Campbellite preacher searching for primitive Christianity. His conversion brings severe hardship, including physical persecution when a mob drags him by his heels across frozen ground, leaving him temporarily delirious. Despite these brutal setbacks, Rigdon becomes a powerful orator, counselor in the First Presidency, and co-preacher alongside Smith, defending the movement against published apostate attacks.

Edward Partridge seeks spiritual truth and an authentic Christian church, having rejected traditional sectarian dogmas in favor of Universal Restoration before investigating Mormonism. After traveling to New York to be baptized by Smith, he is appointed as the first Bishop of the Church, taking on the daunting responsibility of managing lands, certificates, and temporal welfare in Missouri. Partridge faces intense mob violence in Jackson County, offering himself as a ransom to protect his community before being forced into exile in Clay County.

Governor Daniel Dunklin wants to maintain public order and uphold the state constitution in Missouri without provoking wider civil conflict or overstepping executive authority. He is trapped between his personal sympathy for the constitutional rights of the displaced Saints and the lawless, unyielding hostility of Jackson County citizens. Though he admits the deficiencies of existing laws and advises the Saints to maintain public moral sympathy, Dunklin remains cautious, offering legal advice while leaving the Saints to navigate their immediate survival along the riverbanks.

In Its Own Voice

Addressing the structural limitations of using raw manuscript entries rather than traditional historical narrative, the church editors explicitly acknowledge the disadvantages of their annalistic approach:

The editors of the work are not oblivious to the fact that to proceed in the manner followed in these volumes has its disadvantages; that it renders it impossible to correlate the facts, and give unity to the work; that it makes the body of the work more of the nature of annals than of history; with the accompanying result that the conclusion of an event, or even a series of events, is frequently postponed indefinitely, and each reader is left to be his own "philosopher of history" while perusing these pages; that is, to form his own conclusions upon the data here presented to him.

Reflecting upon the intense spiritual vision granted to Moses on an exceedingly high mountain, a recorded revelation describes the overwhelming physical impact of beholding the divine presence:

And as he was left unto himself, he fell unto the earth; and it came to pass that it was for the space of many hours before Moses did again receive his natural strength like unto man; and he said unto himself: Now, for this cause I know that man is nothing, which thing I never had supposed.

In the aftermath of a brutal night attack in Hiram, Ohio, Joseph Smith records his immediate return to preaching and baptizing despite his extensive injuries:

With my flesh all scarified and defaced, I preached to the congregation as usual, and in the afternoon of the same day baptized three individuals.

What It's Really About

Beneath its detailed chronological records and administrative minutes, this book is fundamentally an exploration of divine authority, spiritual restoration, and the endurance of faith under severe tribulation. It addresses the premise that modern Christianity has fallen into systemic apostasy, arguing that God actively intervenes in human history through living prophets, restored priesthood keys, and direct revelation. The text constantly contrasts heavenly order against earthly corruption, framing every temporal event within a cosmic struggle between divine truth and widespread opposition.

The narrative also wrestles with the practical reality of building a holy community, or Zion, on a chaotic American frontier. It poses fundamental questions about sacrifice, obedience, and legal rights: How do believers maintain religious integrity when democratic institutions and local laws fail to protect them? The text insists that suffering is an essential crucible for spiritual purification, viewing physical exile, poverty, and mob violence not as defeat, but as testaments of divine favor. Ultimately, the work asserts that revelation is not a closed historical artifact, but an ongoing, living voice capable of guiding believers through profound social, political, and physical hostility.

Why Read It Today

This volume will deeply absorb historians of American religion, students of nineteenth-century culture, and readers interested in primary documentary texts. It offers an unvarnished, first-hand window into the birth of a distinctly American religious movement. Rather than reading a polished modern summary, the reader experiences history as it was logged day by day—through dictated revelations, personal diary entries, frantic missionary letters, and official government petitions.

Reading the text feels like stepping directly into an expansive nineteenth-century archive. The language is rich with biblical phrasing, formal period syntax, and unmediated emotion. Readers witness the raw mechanics of a young church as it wrestles with internal disagreements over the wording of revelations, manages basic agricultural needs in frontier Missouri, and organizes its administrative hierarchy from the ground up. The sheer immediacy of the journal entries creates a compelling rhythm, blending lofty theological visions seamlessly with mundane logbook details about weather, health, and travel.

However, readers should be prepared for notable stylistic and structural challenges. Because the book maintains a strict annalistic structure, narrative arcs are frequently interrupted by lengthy canonized revelations, legal affidavits, and financial notes. The text does not smooth over period attitudes, showing stark theological polemics against traditional Protestant denominations and containing nineteenth-century terminology regarding Native American tribes and regional politics. Furthermore, the sheer length and disjointed nature of the records demand patience, as the editors explicitly leave the reader to synthesize events without intrusive commentary.

What lingers long after finishing the volume is the sheer conviction and resilience of its central figures. Despite suffering physical beatings, mob violence, and total loss of property, the writers maintain an unshakable belief in their divine purpose. The haunting images of displaced families camping along the freezing banks of the Missouri River, contrasted with Smith's relentless dictation of cosmic visions, leave a lasting impression of how faith can endure under extreme adversity.