Prophet's scribes
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The fourth annual BYU Church History Symposium Feb. 27 focused on the theme "Preserving the History of the Latter-day Saints."
Keynote addresses by Elder Marlin K. Jensen of the Seventy, Church Historian and Recorder, and by Richard E. Turley Jr., Assistant Church Historian, were summarized in last week's Church News. On pages 14 and 15 are reports of presentations by four of the 16 other scholars.
Proceedings of the symposium will be published in book form sometime next year by BYU's Religious Studies Center, which co-sponsored the event.
Previous symposia have focused on Oliver Cowdery, Wilford Woodruff and John Taylor.
The Prophet Joseph Smith wrote of having kept "several good, faithful and efficient clerks in constant employ. They have accompanied me everywhere and carefully kept my history, and they have written down what I have done, where I have been and what I have said."
One of those clerks was 31-year-old William Clayton, the subject of the Church History Symposium presentation by James B. Allen, former Assistant Church Historian, retired BYU history professor and Brother Clayton's biographer (Trials of Discipleship: The Story of William Clayton, a Mormon).
"Like most of Joseph Smith's clerks and scribes, the name of William Clayton is obscure to most Latter-day Saints," Brother Allen observed. "If they know his name at all it is most likely as the author of one of Mormonism's most beloved hymn 'Come, Come, Ye Saints.' A few may recognize him too as the writer of a remarkable pioneer journal. But beyond that, he's absent from most of our minds. Yet, if it were not for Clayton and many people like him, we would have very little to write about and, therefore, practically no history of the Church."
Brother Clayton received a blessing on Jan. 29, 1845, from Brigham Young and Heber C. Kimball, Brother Allen related, in which he was told "he should be a scribe for this Church in the resurrection."
"He made note of that blessing, not only in the minutes of the meeting but also in his personal journal. Keeping the records of the Church was a sacred trust for William Clayton and one that he reveled in since he was appointed as scribe to the Prophet in 1842."
Brother Clayton's Nauvoo journals are a "largely untapped source for insight into various aspects of Nauvoo as well as the life of Joseph Smith," he said. "Clayton is very candid about the problems as well as the positive things he sees. Through his eyes we see the building of the temple, Joseph Smith's public as well as private life, Joseph Smith's problems and frequent need to flee Nauvoo to escape his enemies, the Prophet's business activities, the events leading to the martyrdom, the workings of the Quorum of the Anointed as well as the Council of Fifty."
The Nauvoo journals were among the valuable resources for Joseph Smith's history, Brother Allen said, noting it is well known that much of the history was not written or dictated by the Prophet but rather based on journal entries of his scribes and other people. "When these entries were made part of the history, their third-person references to Joseph were simply changed to first-person, a practice perfectly acceptable in the canons of the time. "Some of the revelations now in the history and in the Doctrine and Covenants were originally recorded in Brother Clayton's journal, Brother Allen said. Section 30 and Section 129 are examples.
