Parley P. Pratt

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Parley P. Pratt
Parley P. Pratt
Statue of Parley P. Pratt facing Parley's Canyon at sunrise.
Statue of Parley P. Pratt facing Parley's Canyon at sunrise.

Parley Parker Pratt (12 April 1807–13 May 1857) (commonly known as Parley P. Pratt) was a leader in the Latter Day Saint movement and an original member of The Quorum of Twelve Apostles from 1835 until his murder in 1857. He served in the Quorum with his younger brother, Orson Pratt. He was a productive missionary, poet, religious writer and longtime editor of the religious publication The Latter-day Saints' Millennial Star. Scenic Parley's Canyon in Salt Lake City, earlier known as Big Canyon, was renamed in his honor. On February 13, 2007 Pratt's great great grandson and former Massachusetts governor Mitt Romney announced his candidacy for the 2008 Republican presidential nomination.[1]

Parley Pratt was born in Burlington, New York, the son of Jared and Charity Dickenson Pratt. He married Thankful Halsey in Canaan, New York on 9 September 1827. The young couple settled near Cleveland, Ohio on a plot of "wilderness" where Parley had constructed a crude home. In Ohio, Pratt became a member of the Reformed Baptist Society, also called Campbellites, through the preaching of Sidney Rigdon. Pratt soon decided to take up the Campbellite ministry as a profession, and sold his property.

Contents

[edit] Church service

While traveling to visit family in western New York, Pratt had the opportunity to read a copy of the Book of Mormon owned by a Baptist deacon. Convinced of its authenticity, he traveled to Palmyra, New York and spoke to Hyrum Smith at the Smith home. He was baptized in Seneca Lake by Oliver Cowdery on or about 1 September 1830, formally joining The Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints (Mormons). He was also ordained to the office of an Elder in the church. Continuing on to his family's home, he introduced his younger brother, Orson Pratt, to Mormonism and baptized him on 19 September 1830.

Pratt then returned to Fayette, New York in October 1830, where he met the Prophet Joseph Smith and was asked to join a missionary group assigned to preach to the Native American (Lamanite) tribes on the Missouri frontier. During the trip west, he and his companions stopped to visit Sidney Rigdon, and were instrumental in converting Rigdon and approximately 130 members of his congregation within two to three weeks.

Pratt was later assigned additional missions to the Eastern United States, the Southern United States, England, the Pacific Islands, and to South America. He moved to Valparaiso, Chile to begin the missionary work there. They left after not much success and the death of his child Omner in 1852. In addition to his brother, Orson Pratt and Sidney Rigdon, he was instrumental in introducing the Mormon faith to a number of future LDS leaders, including Frederick G. Williams, John Taylor and his wife Leonora, Isaac Morley and Joseph Fielding and his sisters, Mary and Mercy Fielding.

In addition to serving as an active missionary, Pratt entered the leadership of the early Latter Day Saint movement acting as an original member of The Quorum of Twelve Apostles under Joseph Smith. While on a mission to the British Isles in 1839, Pratt was editor of a newly created periodical, The Latter-day Saints' Millennial Star. While presiding over the church's branches and interests in New England and the mid-Atlantic states, Pratt published a periodical entitled The Prophet from his headquarters in New York City. He was also a noted religious writer and poet. He produced an autobiography, as well as some poems which have become staple LDS hymns, some of which are included in the current LDS Hymnal.

After the death of Joseph Smith, Pratt and his family were among the church members who emigrated to Utah under the direction of President Brigham Young. Pratt was involved in establishing the refugee settlements and fields at both Garden Grove and Mt. Pisgah, Iowa and personally led a pioneer company along the Mormon Trail to the Salt Lake Valley. Sometime in the mid 1850's, working with George D. Watt, he helped develop the Deseret alphabet.

[edit] Violent death

On a preaching mission in 1857, Pratt was being tracked by Hector McLean, the disgruntled ex-husband of a woman, Eleanor McLean, whom Pratt had recently married as a plural wife. McLean pressed charges, accusing Pratt of coming between him and the woman who was then his wife. Pratt managed to evade him and his charges, but was finally arrested in Indian Territory (now Oklahoma). He was tried before Judge John B Ogden, acquitted and released. However, shortly afterward, on 13 May 1857, he was killed by Hector McLean and two other men on a farm northeast of Van Buren, Arkansas.

Pratt's murder by McLean in Arkansas may have played a part in events leading up to the Mountain Meadows massacre[2], fueled by brewing animosity among Mormons in Utah toward outsiders traveling through their territory. The Baker-Fancher Party travelling to Southern California along the Mormon Road (a portion of the Old Spanish Trail) were ambushed and murdered by local settlers, led by John D. Lee, and allied Southern Paiutes on 11 September 1857 after a four-day siege. [3] Prior to the siege and massacre, rumors were circulated throughout southern Utah Territory that one or more members of the party had murdered Pratt [4], poisoned creek water (sickening Paiute children) [5], and allowed their cattle to graze on private property. [6] It is not clear that the Baker-Fancher Party was responsible for more than a grazing incident, as many conflicting versions of the creek poisoning story were recorded at the time. Lee was convicted for his role in the massacre, and was executed in Mountain Meadow on 23 March 1877. [7]

[edit] Publications

  • A Voice of Warning (1837)
  • The Millennium and Other Poems (1840)
  • Late Persecutions of the Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints: With a Sketch of Their Rise, Progress and Doctrine (1840)
  • Key to the Science of Theology (1855)
  • The Autobiography of Parley Parker Pratt (1874, posthumous)

[edit] See also

[edit] References

[edit] Notes

  1. ^ Associated Press, Romney Family Tree Has Polygamy Branch
  2. ^ Bagley, Will (2002). Blood of the prophets, Brigham Young and the Massacre at Mountain Meadows. Norman, Oklahoma: University of Oklahoma Press. ISBN 0-8061-3426-7. 
  3. ^ Bagley, ch.8
  4. ^ Bagley, p.98 (identification by the widow Pratt)
  5. ^ Bagley, pp.105-110
  6. ^ Bagley, p.102
  7. ^ Bagley, pp.307-310, 315-317

[edit] External links

Preceded by
William E. McLellin		 Quorum of the Twelve Apostles
February 21, 1835–May 13, 1857		 Succeeded by
Luke S. Johnson
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