1834–1860
How one death split the Restoration into a dozen churches
20 sources, ordered by evidentiary weight — primary and contemporary first, then documentary editions, then the argument. All of them are held as full text in the Mormon Corpus.
The Latter-day Saints' Millennial Star, 1840–1859
Parley P. Pratt and successors
The earliest printed 'mantle' language, in Wilford Woodruff's February 1845 address to the British Saints, and a reprint of the Rigdon trial with the vote counts.
Nauvoo Neighbor (1843–1845)
John Taylor
The city paper's coverage of the Expositor affair, the martyrdom and, on 11 September 1844, the proceedings of Rigdon's trial before a crowd reported at six to seven thousand.
Times and Seasons, Volume 5 (1844–1845)
Church of Jesus Christ of Latter Day Saints (Nauvoo)
The Twelve's own printed record: the 2 September 1844 announcement that a special conference had voted the Twelve should preside, the 15 September and 1 October numbers carrying the trial of Sidney Rigdon in full, and the October 1844 conference sustainings.
Latter Day Saints' Messenger and Advocate (Pittsburgh, 1844–1846)
Sidney Rigdon
The losing claimant's case in his own words: the scriptural argument from Doctrine and Covenants 90 that Rigdon was commanded to preside, the charge that the Twelve had decided to supplant him before the church ever voted, and branch-by-branch resolutions repudiating the Twelve.
The Ensign (1844–1845)
William E. McLellin and George M. Hinkle
That dissent had its own press within three weeks of the martyrdom, and — through its reprint of Rigdon's April 1845 Pittsburgh conference minutes — the internal structure of Rigdon's rival church, including his own Twelve and Grand Council.
William Clayton Nauvoo journals, 1842–1846
William Clayton
Nothing that can be quoted. Clayton's 12 July 1844 note that Joseph had said Samuel H. Smith should succeed if he and Hyrum were taken is used here only as reported in Dialogue and in Bushman.
Council of Fifty, Minutes, March 1844–January 1846
William Clayton, clerk
The existence, membership and business of the council Joseph organized in March 1844, and the thinness of Clayton's 1844 minute-taking — the reason the 'last charge' is not recorded in the minutes of 26 March 1844.
Sidney Rigdon's Plea to the Saints: Transcription of Thomas Bullock's Shorthand Notes from the August 8, 1844, Morning Meeting
LaJean Purcell Carruth and Robin Scott Jensen
What Rigdon actually said that morning, from Taylor shorthand deciphered only recently: that every man would stand in his own place, that authority 'is in the church,' and that Rigdon asked only to be spokesman for the dead prophet.
The Joseph Smith III Document and the Keys of the Kingdom
The Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints (General Conference, April 1981)
The Church's public response when the (later forged) 1844 blessing surfaced, including Joseph Smith III's own 1893 court testimony that he was not ordained by his father.
Saints, Volume 1: The Standard of Truth, 1815–1846, chapter 45, 'An Almighty Foundation'
The Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints
The Church's current official telling: Brigham's 'the keys of the kingdom are right here with the church,' the grove meeting, Emily Partridge's mantle experience, and the vote.
Joseph Smith III's 1844 Blessing and the Mormons of Utah
D. Michael Quinn
The fullest account of the designations Joseph made before 1844 — Whitmer 1834, Cowdery 1834, Rigdon, Hyrum, Samuel, Joseph III — written before the blessing document at its centre was shown to be a Mark Hofmann forgery.
Mormon Enigma: Emma Hale Smith
Linda King Newell and Valeen Tippetts Avery
Emma's own position in the crisis, her correspondence with Strang, the property fight with the Twelve, and William Smith's manoeuvres between Nauvoo and Voree.
The Making of a Mormon Myth: The 1844 Transfiguration of Brigham Young
Richard S. Van Wagoner
The case that no 1844 source records a transfiguration, that the earliest public reference is 1857, and that one diary long used as contemporaneous evidence (George Laub) is a later copy.
The Mantle of the Prophet Joseph Passes to Brother Brigham: A Collective Spiritual Witness
Lynne Watkins Jorgensen
The corpus of roughly 129 mantle testimonies, their wording, and — stated in the article itself — that records do not show Brigham Young publicly acknowledging the manifestation at the time.
The Mantle of Joseph: Creation of a Mormon Miracle
Reid L. Harper
That major historians across camps agree the Twelve did not need a miracle in August 1844, and that as late as 1847 apostles were asking for a revelation Brigham Young could have short-circuited by invoking one.
The Council of Fifty and the Church of Jesus Christ of Latter Day Saints
Matthew S. Moore
That rival leaders each claimed to be carrying out 'Joseph's measures,' and that Wight and Cutler grounded their independence in the Council of Fifty rather than in the Twelve.
Succession by Seniority: The Development of Procedural Precedents in the LDS Church
Edward Leo Lyman
That the modern automatic seniority rule was not in place in 1844 or 1847, and the substance of Orson Pratt's objections at the December 1847 councils.
Joseph Smith: The Rise and Fall of an American Prophet
John G. Turner
A compact neutral summary of the crisis: no succession plan outlined, Emma for Marks, Rigdon for himself, most apostles absent, a large majority for the Twelve, and the estate quarrel that followed.
Aftermath of the Martyrdom: Aspirants to the Mantle of the Prophet Joseph Smith
R. Jean Addams
A claimant-by-claimant survey from a believing standpoint: Rigdon's three overlapping claims, the 7 August confrontation, Strang, William Smith, Cutler, and the 1860 Amboy ordination.
Tracking the White Salamander
Jerald Tanner
The provenance failure and eventual exposure of the 'Joseph Smith III blessing' of 17 January 1844 as a Hofmann forgery — a document that had reshaped scholarly discussion of lineal succession for four years.
