Download or read book The Rise of the Latter-Day Saints written by William Hartley and published by . This book was released on 2019-09-02 with total page pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: Historians and academics use a handful of histories written by those closest to Joseph Smith during his ministry to document and tell the story of the Latter-day Saints. The Joseph Smith Papers Project has highlighted Joseph Smith's early histories and the manuscript history of the Church. They have transcribed and made available many official histories or assigned histories from the early Church in print and on the Web. They have included other important documents, like the early history of Parley P. Pratt. One of the most important histories that was not previously available is a complex history of the early Church written in several installments by Newel Knight. He was one of a few early converts to write about the founding events in Church history. Knight died in January 1847, north of Winter Quarters, at the young age of forty-six. During the last five years of his life, he wrote a personal history composed of two elements: autobiography and journal. Though extremely important to the history of the Church, Knight's history has always been a difficult source to use because it was never published in one place until now. This publication of his history will bring together his manuscripts and offer a way to cite them more precisely.