Orson Pratt
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Orson Pratt (September 19, 1811 – October 3, 1881) was a leader in the Latter Day Saint movement and an original member of the Quorum of Twelve Apostles. He was born in Hartford, New York, USA the son of Jared and Charity Dickenson Pratt.
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[edit] Church membership and service
Orson Pratt was the younger brother of Parley P. Pratt, who introduced him to the Church of Jesus Christ of Latter Day Saints and baptized him on his nineteenth birthday, September 19, 1830 in Canaan, New York.
Pratt was ordained an Elder several months later, on April 26, 1831, by the Prophet Joseph Smith, Jr. and immediately set out for Colesville, New York, his first mission. This was the first of a number of short missions in which Orson visited New York, Ohio, Missouri, and the Eastern States. On February 2, 1832, he was ordained a High Priest by Sidney Rigdon and as a High Priest he continued his missions, preaching in Pennsylvania, New York, New Jersey, Vermont, New Hampshire, Connecticut, and Massachusetts.
Orson Pratt was a member of the original Quorum of the Twelve Apostles under Joseph Smith. He was ordained to this position on April 26, 1835. He served as a member of the mission of the Twelve Apostles to the British Isles between 1839 and 1841. He contributed to the mission by preaching in Scotland, and producing an early missionary tract, A Interesting Account of Several Remarkable Visions. This tract contains the earliest known public printing of an account of Joseph Smith's First Vision and also contains material similar to that later published as the 1842 Articles of Faith.
On his return to America in 1841, Pratt found the Church membership in contention over several issues. Rumors and gossip were rife in Nauvoo, Illinois and Pratt found the religious principle of plural marriage difficult to accept. He rebelled against Smith when he found that his wife Sarah Pratt accused Smith of attempting to seduce her. He was disciplined and excommunicated August 20, 1842. Some months later, Orson reconciled with Smith and requested re-baptism. Pratt was reinstated in the Quorum of the Twelve Apostles on January 20, 1843. This brief period of disassociation with the Church had a long term consequence for Pratt. When dealing with seniority in the council after the death of Joseph Smith, Brigham Young ruled that, if a council member had been disciplined and removed from the council, his seniority was based on the date of readmission. By this ruling, both Apostle Orson Hyde and Orson Pratt were moved down in seniority in June of 1875.
[edit] Migration west
Pratt was a member of Young's initial pioneer company, the "Vanguard Company," that crossed the plains to select a western site for Mormon colonization. His journals of this trip are an important Mormon history resource. As the group made their way from Missouri to Utah, Pratt acted as the company's scientific observer. He made regular readings with the company's scientific instruments, took notes on geological formations and mineral resources, and recorded information on plants and animals. He described snow on Laramie Peak on June 7th, and noted that rock found on June 10th, ...would make excellent grindstones, being of fine grit sandstone. (May, p. 57)
As a mathematician, Pratt assisted company scribe William Clayton in the design and invention of a version of the modern odometer. Intended to compute the distance traveled per day, the design consisted of a set of wooden cog wheels attached to the hub of a wagon wheel, with the mechanism "counting" the revolutions of the wheel. The apparatus, called the "roadometer," was built by carpenter Appleton Milo Harmon, and was first used on the morning of May 12, 1847.
With Erastus Snow, Pratt entered the Salt Lake Valley on July 21, 1847, three days ahead of the main body of the Vanguard company. Several days later, he preached the first sermon in the Salt Lake Valley and formally dedicated the valley to the Lord.
Once settled in the West, Pratt served as a mission administrator in Europe between 1848 and 1851. Pratt's strong skills in analysis and writing led Young to assign him to produce sermons and pamphlets dealing with LDS topics. He wrote sixteen pamphlets in defense of LDS doctrines, drawing on the works of Joseph Smith, Jr. and his brother Parley P. Pratt. These include Divine Authority, or the Question, Was Joseph Smith Sent of God? in 1848 and Divine Authenticity of the Book of Mormon in 1850 and 1851. Although these materials were primarily used in the mission field, Pratt was also a church spokesman on the topic of plural marriage. At a special missionary conference in Salt Lake City in August 1852, Pratt publicly preached a sermon announcing the doctrine of plural marriage. He published a 12-month periodical in defense of the practice, The Seer, which provides the most complete defense of the LDS doctrine during this period. Pratt himself practiced plural marriage, having seven wives and forty-five children.
Pratt acted as Church Historian and General Church Recorder from 1874 until his death. He edited many church periodicals and helped divide editions of the Book of Mormon and Doctrine and Covenants into verse format and provided appropriate cross references.
Orson Pratt died of complications from diabetes on October 3, 1881, the last surviving member of the Original Council of the Twelve.
[edit] Science publications
Pratt was known as an accomplished mathematician, and had a strong interest in astronomy. He offered science based lectures on these topics to early LDS audiences in Utah, and published two related books. New and Easy Method of Solution of the Cubic and Biquadratic Equations was published in 1866, and Key to the Universe was published in 1879.
[edit] See also
[edit] References
- Allen, James B. and Leonard, Glen M. (1976). The Story of the Latter-day Saints. Deseret Book Co., Salt Lake City, UT. ISBN 0-87747-594-6.
- Bergera, Gary James (2003). Conflict in the Quorum: Orson Pratt, Brigham Young, Joseph Smith. Signature Books, Salt Lake City, UT. ISBN 1-56085-164-3.
- England, Breck (1985). The Life and Thought of Orson Pratt. University of Utah Press, Salt Lake City, UT. ISBN 0-87480-249-0
- Ludlow, Daniel H., Editor (1992). Church History, Selections From the Encyclopedia of Mormonism. Deseret Book Co., Salt Lake City, UT. ISBN 0-87579-924-8.
- May, Dean L. Utah: A People's History. Bonneville Books, Salt Lake City, Utah, 1987. ISBN 0-87480-284-9.
- Whittaker, David J. (1994). The Essential Orson Pratt. Signature Books, Salt Lake City, UT. ISBN 0-941214-95-8.
[edit] External links
| Preceded by William Smith |
Quorum of the Twelve Apostles April 26, 1835–August 20, 1842 |
Succeeded by John F. Boynton |
| Preceded by Amasa M. Lyman |
Quorum of the Twelve Apostles January 20, 1843–October 3, 1881 |
Succeeded by Ezra T. Benson |
