A Study of the LDS Church Historian's Office, 1830-1900

Utah Historical Quarterly

Vol. 40, 1972, No, 4

A Study of the LDS Church Historian's Office, 1830-1900

BY CHARLES P. ADAMS AND GUSTIVE O. LARSON

THE HISTORICAL DEPARTMENT of the Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints in Salt Lake City has the most extensive collection of source materials extant on Utah and the Mormons as well as much of value on the American West. The history of the growth of this repository of manuscript and printed source materials from a poorly defined and inefficiently managed nucleus into a giant storehouse filled with a wealth of information is an important one. The reorganization and renaming of the Historian's Office early in 1972 heightens interest in the workings of this 142-year-old official depository of Mormon records. The present study looks at the formative years of the department in the nineteenth century — at the men who served as historian and recorder, at their progress in compiling a church history, and at the materials they gathered. Countless scholars have availed themselves of that collection for research in the history of Utah and the Mormons.

The manuscript collection of the Historical Department has been broken down by Leonard J. Arrington into six classifications or divisions:

The forty-seven-volume "History of Brigham Young," covering the years from 1847 to 1877, comprises the first division. This work was compiled by clerks under the direction of President Young and contains information on church and territorial affairs.

The second classification of source materials, "Journal History of the Church," which consists of a huge collection — begun in the 1890s — of excerpts from letters, journals, and newspapers, depicts the daily affairs of the church from 1830 to the present.

In the third classification, journal histories of the stakes and missions of the church are arranged chronologically and contain valuable information on the settlement of specific localities and ecclesiastical particulars relating to the areas. In essence they are much like the "Journal History of the Church."

The fourth division contains original journals, account books, and other sources which record colonizing, business, and ecclesiastical ventures initiated by the Mormons.

Another category is that of diaries; hundreds are on file. They provide some of the most valuable information available to researchers.

The last division is a miscellaneous collection of letters, papers, documents, and Mormon and anti-Mormon literature.

Actually, these materials are the by-products of the Mormon zeal for record keeping. Most of the items contained within the Historical Department originated because of the historian's role as recorder of the life and works of the Mormon Church. Primary among his duties is the writing of a "history, and a General Church Record of all things that transpire in Zion."

This history, a part of which has been published in the Millennial Star, Deseret News, and other church publications, is referred to throughout source materials interchangeably as the "general history," "sacred history," "sacred record," or, simply, "the history." That part edited for publication (1902-32) by B. H. Roberts is commonly known as the Documentary History of the Church. Since "the history" has proven so important to the Mormon Church that many of the prophets have insisted upon having it read to them and approved before its adoption by the church, it is an excellent thread by which to trace the activities of the department known until 1972 as the Church Historian's Office.

The office itself accepts April 6, 1830, as the date of its formation. On that date at Fayette, New York, in the same meeting in which the church was organized, Joseph Smith announced a revelation marking the creation of the Historian's Office: "Behold, there shall be a record kept among you."

At that time Oliver Cowdery was appointed church recorder. Previously he had acted as scribe to the Mormon prophet during the translation of the Book of Mormon. Cowdery held the office of church recorder for less than a year.

On March 8, 1831, John Whitmer was called to "keep the church record and history continually" and to assist the prophet in transcribing. 6 Whitmer was sent to Missouri in the winter of 1831-32, and since the headquarters of the church was located at Kirtland, Ohio, it was impossible for him to fulfill his duties as historian in an effective manner.

After three years in which incomplete records were kept, Joseph Smith registered his "deep sorrow" over the condition of affairs in the Historian's Office. He stated that many important items of doctrine had been lost because they had not been recorded. He expressed the belief that had such items been recorded they might be used to decide "almost every point of doctrine which might be agitated."

The prophet's concern over the poor state of the office led to the reappointment of Oliver Cowdery as recorder of the church September 14, 1835. He retained the position for the next two years, after which he, too, was assigned church responsibilities in Missouri.

The next four years saw a succession of men named to the offices of church recorder and historian. On September 17, 1837, George W. Robinson was elected general church recorder, replacing Cowdery. The following April 6 two men — John Corrill and Elias Higbee — were set apart as church historians. Less than a year after his appointment to the office, Corrill apostatized and was excommunicated from the church. Higbee found little time for the duties of historian. In November 1839 he was selected to accompany Joseph Smith to Washington, D. O, to petition President Martin Van Buren for redress of grievances. Later he was named to the committee to supervise the construction of the Mormon temple at Nauvoo.

It is probable that during the Saints' expulsion from Missouri in 1838-39 assistance was rendered to the Historian's Office by such men as William Clayton and James A/tulholland. Mulholland was credited by Willard Richards, a later historian, with 49,335 words of volume one of "the history" when Richards tabulated the contributions made by former clerks and recorders.

On October 3, 1840, President Smith replaced Robinson as church recorder with Robert B. Thompson who must have showed some ability in the office, since Willard Richards later credited him with having completed 5,906 words of history. 10 Unfortunately, Thompson's career in the Historian's Office was cut short by his sudden death at Nauvoo August 27, 1841. James Sloan was appointed by Joseph Smith on October 2, 1841, to fill the vacancy.

During the first decade of its existence the Historian's Office witnessed the succession of six men to the positions of recorder and historian. Of these, three — Cowdery, Corrill, and Whitmer — were excommunicated from the church in the closing years of the 1830s, and, according to Apostle Wilford Woodruff, they took most of the history they had compiled with them. Apparently this unstable situation contributed to Joseph Smith's removal of Sloan (he was called to a mission in Ireland) and to the appointment of Willard Richards. With Richards the offices of recorder and historian were combined and remain so today.

A close friend of the prophet, a member of the Quorum of Twelve Apostles, and a cousin to Brigham Young, Richards was a capable man, and for the first time some degree of stability was brought to the Historian's Office. He held the position until his death at Great Salt Lake City in 1854.

It must have been with much difficulty

Willard Richards that Richards tried to bring order out of ten years of chaos in the Historian's Office. Many of the records had been stolen or lost through mishandling or carelessness. About the time of Richards's appointment, the following notice appeared in the Nauvoo Neighbor:

The Church of Jesus Christ of Latter Day Saints is hereby informed, that everyone, having in possession, any documents, facts, incidents, or other matter, in any way connected with the history of said church is requested to hand the same in, at President Joseph Smith's office, 2d story of the brick store; or forward (postpaid) by mail. Nauvoo May 22nd, 1843. P.S. The history is now compiling and we want everything relating to the same immediately.

The next year Elder Richards busied himself with his responsibilities in the Historian's Office; at least part of each working day was set aside for the "history business." After Joseph Smith died in June 1844 and Brigham Young donned the mantle of the prophet, great strides were made in history compilation. Young took an active interest in the projects of the Historian's Office. Richards's journal repeatedly mentions the presence of Young at Brother Willard's history sessions, Brigham Young, often in the company of Apostles Heber C. Kimball and George A. Smith, sat with Dr. Richards "recording and revising history." Evidently the procedure was for the historian, after consulting what source materials he had available, to dictate the history of the church to a clerk who returned the written history to the historian. It was then read to members of the Quorum of Twelve Apostles. Errors were corrected and information added by those knowledgeable on the subject.

On April 1, 1845, Richards made the notation that Brigham Young and other apostles "began to read history at 42" and spent most of the day reading 180 pages. The following day was spent in the company of Young and George A. Smith who occupied themselves "revising history." Later that month the historian noted that enough history had been compiled to be published in three volumes. When November 1845 dawned upon the Historian's Office, "the history" had been completed to the end of 1842 and read for accuracy by George A. Smith, who was spending more and more time with Dr. Richards. Brigham Young was noticeably absent, probably being occupied with more pressing matters — namely, the exodus of the Saints west.

Although the decision to vacate Nauvoo was made in the fall of 1845, Richards first mentions preparations for the evacuation of the Historian's Office in a journal entry early in 1846 noting his presence "at home attending to assorting books and papers preparatory to journey to the West." In the weeks which followed Richards supervised a systematic packing-up of the Historian's Office. The office was bustling with activity on February 4 as history clerks William Benson, George D. Watt, and Thomas Bullock, along with several others, prepared for the removal of valuable papers and documents to the West. Boxes containing Elder Richards's materials were painted and marked with his initials. On February 7 boxes were weighed so that the heavy materials might be evenly distributed in the wagons which would be used for the exit of the Historian's Office. The following day the record boxes were loaded into wagons along with Richards's supply of "seeds, corn etc for the journey."

The historian recorded in his journal that many of the brethren had been crossing and recrossing the Mississippi River for several days. He planned to make the crossing on February 14 but was delayed because of a heavy snowstorm. February 15, 1846, dawned cold but clear, and Richards, along with several ox-drawn wagons containing records from the Historian's Office and his personal belongings, crossed the river on a flatboat into Iowa.

As previously noted, Richards recorded in his journal in November 1845 that "the history" had been read by the brethren to the end of 1842. Eight additional weeks of history were compiled before the exodus from Nauvoo. The difficult early years in Salt Lake Valley left little time for historiography. Richards's health was poor, and, in addition to this, President Young called him as his second counselor in December 1847. The new counselor retained his position as church historian, but, as president of the Legislative Council, secretary of state of Deseret, postmaster of Great Salt Lake City, editor of the Deseret News, and secretary of the Territory of Utah, he was left in his last years with little time to continue the work he had so zealously performed in Illinois. The records transported by wagon to Utah were not unpacked until June 1853, and the ailing Richards did not get back to the work. He died at the age of fifty on March 11, 1854.

The following month the Saints held their twenty-fourth annual conference. Jedediah M. Grant succeeded Richards as counselor to President Young, and Apostle George A. Smith was sustained as church historian. Apparently Richards was aware of who his successor would be, for he left a message for Smith on some blank forms in the Historian's Office.

The new appointee was not long in commencing his labors as historian and recorder. Four days after his appointment he called on Brigham Young and received permission to remove the materials from the office of his predecessor. Smith, with the aid of his clerk Thomas Bullock, installed the Historian's Office upstairs in the Council House.

In a letter to his fellow apostle, Franklin D. Richards, dated April 19, 1854, Smith describes the condition of "the history" as he received it from the late historian and counselor.

The history of brother Joseph Smith was brought up by President Willard Richards to the 28th of February 1843. As you are aware, he was ready to recommence compiling the History when he was taken sick, and I deeply regret his not having been able to continue the History, especially to the murder of Presidents Joseph and Hyrum Smith, as no person living can be as well qualified to do justice to the subject as himself.

During the summer of 1854 Smith and his clerk Bullock journeyed to Utah County where they gathered information for the history.

In November 1854 Smith lost his office space in the Council House. Almon W. Babbitt, secretary of state of the Territory of Utah, had been placed in control of the Council House. Under his authority the Historian's Office was removed to a place in the north end of the old Tithing Storehouse, a place formerly occupied by the church tithing clerks. Smith complained that the lighting was inadequate, and he worked under much discomfort because of his poor eyesight.

Late in December the writing of history was suspended because several of the office clerks were called to perform similar services for the Legislative Assembly. By February 1855 Smith's clerks had been restored to him, and the following were named as full-time help: Thomas Bullock, John L. Smith (a brother of the historian), Leo Hawkins, and Robert L. Campbell. They are described by the church historian as efficient, but his hands were nevertheless full with the revising of previously written history and the inserting of additional items to flesh out meagre accounts of important events.

In a letter dated February 28, 1855, George A. Smith declined an invitation to attend a Mormon Battalion party because of pressing responsibilities at the Historian's Office. The letter is particularly interesting in that the author describes in detail the physical condition of much of his source materials:

I have six clerks engaged in the office and it keeps my brain in a perfect whirl to keep track of them. . . . Many records are nearly obliterated by time, damp and dirt. Others lost. Some half worked into mouse nests, and many important events were never written except in the hearts of those who were concerned.

In June 1855-—on a lot next to the Gardo House on east South Temple — construction began on the building which was to house the Historian's Office for over a half-century. In a letter to his uncle Richard Lyman, the historian described the house he was building as designed in the "gothic style by Truman O. Angel." He added that the church was constructing an office adjoining his house for the "history business." His correspondence of August indicates that the timbers on the basement story had been laid and a fireproof safe had been erected.

The Historian's Office staff worked throughout the remainder of the year on "the history." George A. Smith was especially anxious to complete the record of the final days of the Prophet Joseph Smith.

In December "the history" was suspended a second time when George A. Smith found it necessary to travel to the Territorial State House in Fillmore, Utah, where the legislature of which he was a member was in session. In a second attempt to gain statehood, the assembly adopted a state constitution which Apostles John Taylor and George A. Smith were elected to present to Congress together with a petition for the admission of Utah into the Union.

Smith, although surprised by the call, accepted willingly. It would afford him the opportunity to work with John Taylor who was editing The Mormon, a church-owned publication in New York City. The church historian was still at work on the history of Joseph Smith's last days. Knowing that Taylor had been imprisoned with the Smith brothers at Carthage, Illinois, and had been a witness to their martyrdom, George A. Smith had many questions he felt Taylor was best qualified to answer. After putting his affairs in order, the historian left the valley for the East on April 22, 1856.

During Smith's absence Apostle Wilford Woodruff was named acting historian. He had been a general authority of the church since 1839 and was an avid record keeper. His journal is one of the finest personal histories preserved in the church archives. Very early he had sensed the inefficiency of the office, and for this reason he had "recorded nearly all the sermons and teachings that I ever heard from the Prophet Joseph . . . President Brigham Young, and such men as Orson Hyde, Parley P. Pratt and others."

In October Woodruff was sustained by the church as assistant historian, the first to be named to this position. Undoubtedly Woodruff's excellent sense of the historical and his private records aided the Historian's Office immensely in writing and revising history.

In the meantime, attempts to gain statehood had proven futile, and George A. Smith traveled to New York City where he hounded John Taylor to write the account of the assassination of Joseph and Hyrum. On September 14, 1856, Smith wrote to Woodruff that he had remained in New York City for the sole purpose of bringing to the mind of Taylor the task of writing the account of the assassination. Taylor responded by devoting his spare time for over a month to the history. When at last the church historian started for Utah the completed account of the assassination was in his possession. From Saint Louis he again wrotethe assistant historian stating that he was certain the history would never have been completed had it not been for his persistence. Smith was back in the valley by June 1, 1857, and immediately took up his duties at the Historian's Office.

When news arrived in Utah in late July of the approach of the U. S. Army, much of Smith's time was taken up as a special agent of Brigham Young. The historian traveled widely, calling for volunteers and supervising the defense of the Saints.

Young instructed Woodruff on August 13 to summon the apostles to the Salt Lake Temple site. There, after the group had assembled, the prophet, assisted by Woodruff, packed some sixty-five books — "chiefly Church works" — in a stone box which was buried in the foundation of the temple.

During the winter months of 1857-58 Woodruff spent much of his time compiling biographies of the leading churchmen. After each history was completed, the subject was called to the Historian's Office to hear it read to insure accuracy. President Young often came to hear the biographies read and to listen to "the history."

With the arrival of spring in 1858, the Mormon populace hurriedly prepared to evacuate the northernmost settlements. On April 7, amid this excitement, Woodruff loaded his wagons with records from the Historian's Office and left in a heavy snowstorm for Provo, forty miles south of Salt Lake. The evacuation of the north continued through the next several weeks, and the assistant historian made many trips between the two cities, transporting valuable church materials and private possessions to Utah Valley.

Although a successful settlement of differences was made between the Mormons and the United States government on June 11, President Young and other prominent church officials did not return to their homes until July 1. Gradually the Saints filtered northward, and the Historian's Office was packed up and returned to Salt Lake. In October 1858 George A. Smith, along with two of his seven wives, moved into his new residence-office.

During the Civil War years Smith's life fell into a pattern. His time was divided between the Historian's Office and the territorial legislature, interspersed with special assignments from Brigham Young. Notable among the latter were Smith's leadership in the organization of the southern colonies, the establishment of the Cotton Mission, and the settlement of St. George, Utah.

In the spring of 1865 he spent considerable time in the company of his cousin Elias Smith, a first cousin to Joseph Smith. The two men were at work revising the book, Joseph Smith the Prophet, written by the dead prophet's mother, Lucy Mack Smith. It had been rejected for "inaccuracies" by Brigham Young. The historian and his cousin were attempting to weed out the parts the president had found objectionable.

In June 1868 Heber C. Kimball, first counselor to Brigham Young, died, and the following October George A. Smith was named to fill the vacancy in the First Presidency. The duties of first counselor were sufficient to occupy all of his time, but he was not released from his responsibilities as church historian and recorder until October 1870. With his removal, the Historian's Office lost one of the most competent men ever to preside over it. George A. Smith and his family continued to live at the historian's residence until his death in September 1875.

Apostle Albert Carrington was named to succeed Smith as historian, and Wilford Woodruff was retained as assistant. On May 9, 1874, Carrington became a counselor to President Young, and Orson Pratt became church historian.

Perhaps the decade of the 1870s, and especially the administration of Pratt, can best be summarized by the findings of a special committee of apostles directed by John Taylor — who had followed Brigham Young as church leader in 1877 — to "examine and inquire" into the condition of the Historian's Office. The committee made its study and filed a report of its findings with the First Presidency on September 27, 1881.

"The history" had been published to 1844 in church periodicals, and, according to the report, further compilation of it had ceased in 1856. In 1874 Pratt picked up the work on it at this point. Composed of copied extracts from various publications, "the history" was completed under Pratt's direction through the year 1877, and work was being done by clerks on the remaining years prior to Taylor's ascendancy to the presidency in 1880. The compilation had not been read and compared with the originals since Pratt's commencement in office.

The committee complained that unlike previous historians Pratt had neglected to procure duplicates of all literature which contained articles for or against the church. The reason given for the neglect was lack of funds. The report also brought to Taylor's attention the fact that the Historian's Office had failed to keep scrapbooks containing information pertinent to the church. The report continued in part:

No person seems to have an adequate idea of what the office contains. . . . There are no catalogues and no proper registry kept of books borrowed, loaned and returned. . . . There is no safe or vault of any kind . . . the present building being . . . entirely insecure against burglary, incendiary or other casualty. There is no guard kept in the building and no other means of protection provided. . . . the floors are strewed with boxes, books and papers for which there seems to be no other place. The Historian, clerks, tables^ cupboards and library are all in one compartment and everything is cluttered and inconvenient.

Apostle Joseph F. Smith and the other members of the committee concluded the report with several recommendations, the following being some of the more important: That a new building be constructed as soon as possible large enough to accommodate the Historian's Office and staff adequately. That one of the office clerks be made librarian and given the responsibility of cataloging and registering books loaned and returned. That an appropriation be made to the office for the purchase of books, papers, and supplies. That a scrapbook containing articles — both pro and con — about the church be kept. That efforts be initiated to record the activities of the First Presidency and the Quorum of Twelve Apostles. That the office suspend the copying of extracted history after December 1879.

After receiving the committee's report Taylor issued instructions that because the Historian's Office was a privately owned institution no one was to be allowed access to its contents without permission of the trustee-in-trust. Wilford Woodruff explained that this action resulted from "our enemies" using the contents of the office to obtain information on which they based "slanderous and malignant attacks" against the church. Woodruff concluded that Taylor had been surprised to learn that this had not always been the policy. The Mormon practice of polygamy— "the last relic of barbarism" — and charges involving church domination of political affairs were, undoubtedly, the subjects of the attacks made by the enemies of the church who had been searching in the Historian's Office for ammunition to fight the Mormons.

It was during this time that Hubert H. Bancroft of San Francisco finally succeeded in his attempts to secure information from the church. He had petitioned the Mormon leaders as early as 1860 for data to be used in compiling a history of the Pacific Slope, but he had had little success because President Young and George A. Smith distrusted the motives of the Californian. Bancroft's letters of request, often accompanied by a list of questions for which he desired answers, were ignored completely or were unsatisfactorily answered. Understandably, the author was unhappy with answers like the following which was forwarded to him by George A. Smith in August 1862:

The administration of Govr. [Alfred] Cumming, of Georgia, was remarkable for the amount of intoxicating drinks used, and their consequent effects in producing blasphemy, riot and bloodshed. The short administration of acting Governor [Francis H.] Wootton, of Maryland, was marked by no event of importance, saving only that when he left, bad liquor fell in price.

Although unsuccessful, Bancroft continued to request source materials from the Historian's Office with vows of "fair and just" treatment of the Mormons. However, Young and Smith remained skeptical, and when Orson Pratt became head of the Historian's Office, he, too, responded to Bancroft's requests with caution. For twenty years Bancroft hounded the Historian's Office with promises of an "honest and objective" history if he were provided the necessary primary sources. The following is typical of his approach:

I neither bow the knee to the United States Government nor revile Utah. . . . This, then, is the point, fair-minded men, who desire to see placed before the world a fair history of Utah.

Bancroft was finally promised the materials he requested. Perhaps his dogged persistence and apparent sincerity played some part in President John Taylor's decision to cooperate with the publisher; but, if so, it was overshadowed by another factor.

The Mormon practice of plural marriage had given the church a highly unfavorable press. Church officials felt much of this "slanderous" propaganda originated with trouble-making Gentiles in Utah. Congress was being pressured to "clean-up Utah" for good, and attempts made by the church to quiet the national uproar over polygamy had proven futile. If a historian of Bancroft's reputation were supplied the sources to write a "truthful" history of Utah, then perhaps he would succeed where the church had failed in placing the Mormon side of the polygamy question before the world. Additional food for thought came when Bancroft notified the church that if the only sources he had available were those of the Gentiles, his history would quite naturally favor them.

With these points in mind, church leaders decided to furnish Bancroft with the materials he desired. In addition, Apostle Franklin D. Richards was given a special assignment to assist the publisher in the compilation of the history. Under the direction of Richards, the Historian's Office sent letters throughout the territory requesting data for Bancroft. John Jaques, a clerk in the office, was put to work searching out information in the church files.

In early July 1880 Richards, preparing to leave Utah for San Francisco to confer with Bancroft, became concerned when he noticed that a history of Salt Lake City had been omitted from the collection of sixty town histories prepared by the Historian's Office for Bancroft. He notified Orson Pratt of the omission and requested the history be forwarded to him at once.

I desire that the metropolitan city of Utah shall have a faithful and thorough representation in Mr Bs History for it has been the stomping ground and threshing floor for all the Territory — in matters Civil, Legal, Political, Judicial & Ecclesiastical.

Jane Snyder Richards, one of Franklin D. Richards's eleven wives, accompanied her husband to San Francisco to confer with Bancroft. A cordial relationship soon developed between the Mormon couple and "Mr. B." Richards spent much time with the publisher, assisting him and furnishing information for the history. So pleased with the results was Bancroft that he wrote a letter to President John Taylor stating:

A fortnight with Mr. Richards has been completed most satisfactory to me. . . . He is doing all that a man can do, and I earnestly hope you will not be disappointed in the result.

The Historian's Office forwarded copies of applicable information to San Francisco as it filtered in from outlying settlements, and Jaques continued to search out data requested by Richards until the Bancroft history was completed.

With the death of Orson Pratt in late 1881, Wilford Woodruff was named church historian. He had served as assistant historian for over a quarter-century and knew the workings of the office well. However, his years as historian proved to be stormy ones for the Mormons.

Contrary to the hopes of the Saints, the federal crusade against polygamy did not subside, and increased pressures were applied by Congress with the passage of the Edmunds Act in 1882. The law was actually an amendment to the Anti-Bigamy Act of 1862 with an added provision making polygamous living — called unlawful cohabitation — a misdemeanor punishable by up to six months' imprisonment and a $300 fine, or both. Armed with this more enforceable anti-polygamy legislation and supported by Supreme Court rulings, federal officers launched a judicial crusade which threatened imprisonment for hundreds of polygamists.

When pressure reached the point where husbands had to abandon extra wives or go to jail, many went into hiding rather than serve a prison sentence. President Taylor, then seventy-seven years of age, and most of the apostles, including Woodruff, went into exile or on "the underground" as it came to be called. Apostle Woodruff's career as church historian was ended. Taylor spent the rest of his life in hiding, and Woodruff was still dodging federal deputies (mostly in southern Utah) when he was elevated to higher leadership upon Taylor's death in the summer of 1887.

With the leaders of the church in hiding, the Historian's Office took on a new dimension of authority. Apostle Franklin D. Richards, who had assisted with the Bancroft history, had been made assistant church historian in the spring of 1884. Although a polygamist, he was accepted by the United States marshal as the only one of the General Authorities not living with his plural wives. As such, his name was not on the most wanted list. He was the leading church authority at liberty to move about the Mormon community openly and transact church business. A system of secret communication was devised, and under the constant instruction and counsel of the First Presidency, Richards directed the affairs of the church, an arrangement which earned him the title of "the visible head of the Church."

Richards made his home in Ogden, thirty-five miles north of Salt Lake, and commuted the distance each day by train. During his absence from the Historian's Office, especially at night, responsibility was delegated to members of the staff. One employee, John M. Whitaker, has left a particularly valuable account of the activities of the Historian's Office during this period. As secretary to the church historian — and before his marriage to President Taylor's daughter — Whitaker had a sleeping room in the basement of the Historian's Office. He was in an ideal position to observe the hide-and-seek activities of deputy marshals and polygamists in the mid-1880s. In the exercise of his duties, he was instrumental in helping many fellow churchmen elude capture, including Apostles Wilford Woodruff, Heber J. Grant, and John Henry Smith.

Federal officials were to some degree aware of the part played by Richards and his staff. In February and again in November of 1886, deputy marshals armed with warrants raided the Historian's Office in attempts to locate President Taylor and his first counselor, George Q. Cannon. Both visits proved fruitless. Because the office served as a dropping-off place, it was closely watched by federal officers. Only with the utmost care and luck did the hierarchy of the church succeed in avoiding capture.

In the spring of 1887 the Edmunds-Tucker Bill, designed to strengthen the weaknesses in the Edmunds Act relating to polygamy violations, became law. This new act was aimed at total destruction of the political and economic power of the Mormon Church. Under its provisions, a lawful wife might testify against her husband in court, and the property of the disincorporated church was escheated to the United States. In late July 1887 the United States filed suit against the Mormon Church and in October proceeded to take possession of its properties.

Aided by Whitaker, Apostle Franklin D. Richards, in anticipation of an early visit by the court-appointed receiver, worked all day November 5, 1887, and late into the evening to

take important letters, books, documents, records, valuables etc. to another place of safety ... to preserve the records of the Church, for if once in the hands of the Marshals or Receiver, no telling what would become of them.

On November 17 Marshal Frank H. Dyer, who had been appointed receiver on November 7, appeared at the Historian's Office and took control. The "visible head of the Church," fearing that he was in danger of being dragged into court and forced to testify against the church, was "out of the reach of the deputies" when Dyer took over the office. After the government had confiscated a substantial part of the church's real property, the Historian's Office, as well as other administrative buildings, was rented to the church on a monthly basis.

As the decade wore on, the federal crusade against polygamists relaxed under the adjudication of such men as Elliott F. Sandford, chief justice of Utah. Nonetheless, any hope entertained by the church of a victory in the battle with the government was ended May 19, 1890, when the United States Supreme Court upheld the constitutionality of the Edmunds-Tucker Act. The church had without positive results exhausted every legal avenue open to it. Submission or destruction of the church lay ahead.

In September of that year President Woodruff announced that as a result of his appeals for divine guidance church members should refrain from contracting "any marriage forbidden by the laws of the land." With the issuance of the now-famous Manifesto and the grooming of Utah for statehood, the Historian's Office gradually returned to the routine it had followed prior to the stormy decade of the eighties.

When Wilford Woodruff ascended to the office of president of the church on April 7, 1889, Apostle Franklin D. Richards succeeded him as church historian. Richards held the office until his death. His administration was marked by an intense desire to " 'secure the strictest accuracy possible' " and to have all history " 'subjected to the most careful scrutiny that may be available.' " Richards enlisted the services of three assistants — John Jaques, Apostle Charles W. Penrose, and Andrew Jenson — to research and compile church history.

No overview of the Historian's Office would be complete without a mention of Andrew Jenson. He had developed early a great sense of the historical, and for years before becoming associated with the Historian's Office he had collected and compiled history pertaining to Utah and the Mormons. In the late 1880s he was given a two-year allowance from the church while he gathered historical information on the "various stakes of Zion." However, it was not until February 1891 that Jenson was retained as a permanent member of the staff of the Historian's Office. In 1898, as a result of his valued services, he was sustained as assistant historian.

As an employee of the Historian's Office, Jenson traveled widely and worked diligently. Under his supervision the massive 750-volume "Journal History of the Church" was compiled. Also, it is probably much to his credit that shortly after the turn of the century a committee called by Joseph F. Smith to investigate the condition of the Historian's Office could submit a report of findings much different from that which was forwarded to President John Taylor in 1881:

Upon careful inspection, we found that the original letters, documents, manuscripts and books of the Church now in possession of the General Church Historian are in a good state of preservation . . . and have been filed and catalogued and made easy of access . . . carefully filed away in modern files.

The turn of the century marked the seventieth anniversary of the founding of the Historian's Office. In that time, thirteen men had served as recorder or historian or both. Some of the more gifted men, such as George A. Smith and Franklin D. Richards, made contributions for which they will be remembered — Smith for his organization and dedication, Richards for his devotion to objectivity and authenticity.

Although the early period was characterized by rank inefficiency, it was not untypical of the birth pains of any social institution struggling for life. Much of the upheaval stemmed from lack of experience and of a clear-cut understanding of what was expected rather than from lack of ability. Men assigned to "record the history" were saddled with other responsibilities and little realized that what seemed routine to them would come to be called history. Repeated movement in search of permanent settlement, pressures from unfriendly neighbors, invading armies, and harassment from federally appointed receivers — these do not provide the ideal circumstances under which to maintain a library-archives and to compile history.

At the close of the nineteenth century, many of the problems which had plagued the Historian's Office were solved, most notably the preservation of original sources from destruction by natural elements. Yet, other problems remained. New facilities were again needed. As late as 1908, investigating committees were attempting to inaugurate a system of registration whereby no documents would be allowed to leave the office without the consent of the historian. And even after seventy years the church was still trying to convince employees of the office that "all data, manuscripts, documents and records" must be regarded as the property of the church.

The role of the Mormon Church in the development of Utah and the West has been considerable. It is indeed fortunate that a record of its activities and influence is preserved today and is available for research in the Historical Department's modern facilities in Salt Lake City.

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