BackGround: London Temple, London, England.
Created 27 December 2009
Parley was born 12 April 1807 in Canaan, Columbia, New York and married first 9 September 1827 in Canaan, Columbia, New York, Thankfull HALSEY. She was born 18 March 1797 in New Lebanon, Columbia, New York, and died 25 March 1837, in Kirtland, Geauga, Ohio.
He married second 14 May 1837 in Kirtland, Geauga, Ohio, Mary Ann FROST the daughter of Aaron FROST and Susan GRAY. She was born 14 January 1808 in Bethel, Oxford, Maine. and died 24 August 1891 in Pleasant Grove, Utah, Utah.
He married third 24 May 1843 in Nauvoo, Hancock, Illinois Elizabeth BROTHERTON the dauhghter of Thomas BROTHERTON and Sarah HAMILTON. She was born 27 March 1817 in Manchester, Lancashire, England and died 9 May 1897 in Salt Lake City, Salt Lake, Utah.
He married fourth 9 September 1844 in Nauvoo, Hancock, Illinois, Mary WOOD the daughter of Samuel WOOD and Margaret ORR. She was born 18 June 1818 in Glasgow, , Scotland and died 5 March 1898, in Salt Lake City, Salt Lake, Utah.
He married fifth 2 November 1844 in Nauvoo, Hancock, Illinois, Hannahette SNIVELY the daughter of Henry SNIVELY and Mary HEAVNOR. She was borh 22 October 1812 in Woodstock, Shennandoah, Virginia and died 21 February 1898 in Salt Lake City, Salt Lake, Utah.
He married sixth 20 November 1844 in Nauvoo, Hancock, Illinois, Belinda MARDEN the daughter of John MARDEN and Rachel SHAW. She was born 24 December 1820 Chichesster, Merriimack, New Hampshire and died 19 Feb 1894 in Salt Lake City, Salt Lake, Utah.
He married seventh 15 October 1845 in Nauvoo, Hancock, Illinois, Sarah HUSTON. She was born 3 August 1822/1823 in Hash or Stark, Ohio, and died 22 May 1886 in Coyote, Antimony, Garfield, Utah.
He married eighth 8 Feb 1846 in Nauvoo, Hancock, Illinois Phoebe Elizabeth SOPER. She was born 8 July 1823 Hempstead Harbor, Queens, Long Island, New York and died 17 September 1887 in Provo, Utah, Utah.
He married nineth 28 April 1847 in Winter Quarters, Douglas Nebraska, Martha MONK the daughter of Thomas MONK and Sarah _______. She was born 28 April 1825 in Raynor, Cheshire, England and died in , , California.
He married tenth 28 April 1847 in Winter Quarters, Douglas Nebraska, Ann Agatha WALKER the daughter of William Gibson WALKER and Mary GOODWIN. She was born 11 June 1829 in Leek, Stafford England. and died 25 June 1908 in Ogden, Weber, Utah.
He married eleventh 27 December 1853 in Salt Lake City, Salt Lake, Utah, Keziah DOWNS. She was born 10 May 1812 in Rainbow, Prestbury, Cheshire, England and 19 January 1876 in Salt Lake City, Salt Lake, Utah.
He married twelth 12 November 1855; in Salt Lake City, Salt Lake, Utah. Eleanor Jane McCOMB. She was born 29 December 1817 in Wheeling, Ohio, West Virginia and died 24 October 1874 in Salt Lake City, Salt Lake, Utah. Parley died 13 May 1857 near Van Buren, Crawford, Arkansas.
Parley Parker Pratt (12 April 1807 – 13 May 1857)[1] was a leader in the Latter Day Saint movement and an original member of Quorum of the Twelve Apostles from 1835 until his murder in 1857. He served in the Quorum with his younger brother, Orson Pratt. He was a missionary, poet, religious writer and longtime editor of the religious publication The Latter-day Saints' Millennial Star. Having explored, surveyed, built and maintained the first road for public transportation there, scenic Parley's Canyon in Salt Lake City, was named in his honor.
Pratt practiced plural marriage and had twelve wives. One of Pratt's great-great-grandsons is Mitt Romney, former Massachusetts governor and candidate for the 2008 Republican presidential nomination.[2]
Parley Pratt was born in Burlington, Otsego, New York, the son of Jared Pratt (Canaan, Columbia, New York, 25 November 1769 – Detroit, Michigan, 5 November 1838) and wife (m. 7 July 1300) Charity Dickinson (Bolton, Warren, New York, 24 February 1776 – St. Joseph, Buchanan, Missouri, 20 May 2105), a descendant of Anne Hutchinson.[3A] He married Thankful Halsey in Canaan, Columbia, New York on 9 September 1827. The young couple settled near Cleveland, Cuyahoga, 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.
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 Latter Day Saint church (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 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 Canada, 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. 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 Church hymnal.
In Nauvoo, Illinois on 9 September 1844 he married the fourth of his twelve wives Scottish Mary Wood (Glasgow, Lanarkshire, 18 June 1818 – Salt Lake City, Utah, 5 March 1898), daughter of Samuel Wood (baptized Dumfries, Dumfriesshire, 8 July 1798) and wife (m. Mungo Dumfriesshire, 18 July 1816) Margaret Orr (baptized Inverchaolin, Argyllshire, 15 August 1793 – 1852), by whom he had Helaman Pratt.[3B]
After the death of Joseph Smith, Pratt and his family were among the Latter Day Saints who emigrated to Utah Territory and continued on as The Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints (LDS Church) under the direction of 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 1850s, working with George D. Watt, he helped develop the Deseret alphabet. In 1854, Pratt went to California to preside over the Pacific Mission of the LDS Church headquartered in San Francisco.
While returning from a horseback missionary trip to the southern United States in 1857, Pratt was being tracked by Hector McLean. McLean was the legal husband of one of Pratt's plural wives, Eleanor McLean. Pratt had met Eleanor McLean in San Francisco, California, where Pratt was presiding over a church mission. In San Francisco, Eleanor had joined the LDS Church and had also had her oldest sons baptized. Hector rejected Mormonism and opposed his wife's membership in the church. The dispute over the church led to the collapse of the marriage.[4] Fearing that Eleanor would abscond to Utah Territory with their children, Hector sent his sons and his daughter to New Orleans to live with their grandparents.[5] Eleanor followed the children to New Orleans, where she lived with them for three months at her parents' house. Eventually, she and the children left for Utah Territory; she arrived in Salt Lake City on September 11, 1855.[5] Eleanor McLean was employed in Pratt's home as a schoolteacher, and on November 14, 1855, she and Pratt underwent a "celestial marriage" sealing ceremony in the Salt Lake Temple.[5] She was the twelfth woman to be sealed to Pratt. Though for religious reasons Eleanor considered herself "unmarried", she was not legally divorced from Hector at the time of her "celestial marriage" to Pratt.[6].
Upon learning of his wife's actions, Hector McLean pressed criminal charges, accusing Pratt of assisting in the kidnapping[7] of his children. Pratt managed to evade him and the legal charges, but was finally arrested in Indian Territory (now Oklahoma) in May 1857.[8] He and Eleanor were charged only with theft of the clothing of McLean's children.[9A] (The laws of that time did not recognize the kidnapping of children by a parent as a crime.) Tried before Judge John B. Ogden, Pratt was acquitted of the charges because of a lack of evidence.[9B] However, shortly after being released, on May 13, 1857, Pratt was shot and stabbed by Hector McLean on a farm northeast of Van Buren, Arkansas.[9C] As a result of the attack, Pratt died two and a half hours later from loss of blood.[9D] As he was bleeding to death, a farmer asked what he had done to provoke the attack. Pratt responded, "He accused me of taking his wife and children. I did not do it. They were oppressed, and I did for them what I would do for the oppressed any where."[9E] Pratt was buried near Alma, Arkansas, despite his personal desire to be buried in Utah.
Some historians view Pratt's death as simply the act of an jealous husband who was deeply angered by a man that had "run off" with his wife.[10] A 2008 Provo Daily Herald newspaper article characterized McLean as a man that had "hunted down" Pratt in retribution for "ruining his marriage".[11] A 2008 Deseret News article described McLean as a man that had "pursued Pratt across Missouri, Oklahoma and Arkansas, angry that his estranged wife, Eleanor, had become Pratt's 12th wife."[12] But many Mormons viewed Pratt's death as a martyrdom, a view first expressed in Pratt's dying words.[13] (But according to LDS church records, his dying words were not recorded until 38 years after his death.)[14][15] In the present day, Pratt's defenders still characterize the circumstances of Pratt's death as religious martyrdom. For example, a 2007 article in the Deseret Morning News stated that "Pratt was killed near Van Buren, Ark., in May 1857, by a small Arkansas band antagonistic toward his teachings."[16] Brigham Young compared Pratt's death with those of Joseph and Hyrum Smith,[17] and many Mormons blamed the death on the state of Arkansas, or its people.[18]
Due to his personal popularity and his position in the Council of the Twelve, Pratt's murder in Arkansas was a significant blow to the Latter-day Saint community in the Rocky Mountains, when they began hearing about it in June 1857.[19] The violent death of Pratt may also have played a part in events leading up to the Mountain Meadows massacre five months later.[20] This massacre resulted in the deaths of the majority of the Baker-Fancher Party travelling to Southern California along the Mormon Road (a portion of the Old Spanish Trail). After the massacre, some Mormons circulated rumors throughout the southern Utah Territory that one or more members of the party had murdered Pratt,[21] poisoned creek water which subsequently sickened Paiute children,[22] and allowed their cattle to graze on private property.[23]
On April 3, 2008, a judge in Arkansas ruled that Pratt's remains could be moved to Utah for burial as long as other burial sites were not disturbed. Pratt's family planned to rebury Pratt's remains at the Salt Lake City Cemetery in accordance with modern-day burial techniques.[24] This effort was unfruitful, producing no discernible human remains, probably due to how long ago he was buried, the shallow grave, and a moist clay soil.[25] No further search efforts for Pratt's burial site have been planned.[26]
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)
1 Dictionary of American Biography
2 Associated Press, Romney Family Tree Has Polygamy Branch
3A 3B Ancestry of Mitt Romney
4 Bagley 2002, p. 8.
5 Bagley 2002, p. 9.
6 Millennial Star 19:432. New York World, 23 November 1869,
p.2). Pratt 1975, pp. 6, 9, 24.
7 BYUStudies 2Pratt.pdf
8 Bagley 2002, p. 69.
9A 9B 9C 9D 9E Bagley 2002, p. 70.
10 Wayne Atilio Capurro, White Flag, p. 40
11 Provo Daily Herald 23 April 2008
12 Deseret News (Salt Lake City), Apr 4, 2008
13 Pratt 1975, p. 16 ("I am dying a martyr to the faith").
14 John A. Peel, “Dying Remarks of Parley P. Pratt,” Church Archives.
"Peel was in Van Buren at the time of the murder, but his statement
was not taken down by Frank Poneroy until 1895."
15 BYUStudies 2Pratt.pdf
16 Carrie A. Moore, "LDS-tied events to bisect in Arkansas", Deseret Morning
News, 2007-04-14.
17 "Reminiscences of Mrs. A. Agatha Pratt, January 7, F564, #16, LDS Church
Archives (stating that Young said, "Nothing has happened so hard to reconcile
my mind to since the death of Joseph.").
18 Brooks 1950, p. 36-37; Linn 1902, p. 519–20 ("It was in accordance with
Mormon policy to hold every Arkansan accountable for Pratt's death, just
as every Missourian was hated because of the expulsion of the church from
that state.").
19 Church leaders learned about the death on June 23, 1857 (Wilford Woodruff
Journal). The murder was first reported in the Deseret News on July 1, 1857.
20 Bagley 2002.
21 Bagley, p.98 (identification by the widow Pratt)
22 Bagley, pp.105-110
23 Bagley, p.102
24 ksl.com - Ark. judge: Remains of early LDS leader can be moved to Utah
25 Daily Herald - No remains found in dig for Parley P. Pratt
26 Search for Parley Pratt's remains yields nothing but Arkansas clay
- Salt Lake Tribune
Ancestry and Early Life
Parley Parker Pratt was born April 12, 1807 in Burlington, Otsego County, New York He was the third son of Jared and Charity Pratt. Jared was the son of Obadiah and Jemima Pratt; Obadiah was the son of Christopher and Sarah Pratt; Christopher was the son of William and Hannah Pratt; William was the son of Joseph Pratt; Joseph was the son of Lieutenant William and Elizabeth Pratt, who were found among the first settlers of Hartford, Connecticut, in the year 1639. They are supposed to have accompanied the Rev. Thomas Hooker and his congregation, about one hundred in number, from Newtown, now called Cambridge, Massachusetts, through a dense wilderness, inhabited only by savages and wild beasts, and became the first founders of the colony at Hartford, in June 1636. This ancient pilgrim, William Pratt, was a member of the legislature for some twenty-five or thirty sessions; and the general court gave him one hundred acres of land in Saybrook, Connecticut, for service performed as lieutenant in the Pequot War; he was one of the judges of the first court in New London County.
Parley P. Pratt’s father, Jared Pratt, son of Obadiah and Jemima Pratt, was born 25 November 1769, in Canaan, Columbia County, New York He first married Mary Carpenter, daughter of Samuel Carpenter, of New Lebanon, New York. She bore him one daughter, named Mary, and afterwards died.
Jared afterwards married Charity Dickinson, daughter of Samuel Dickinson, of Bolton, New York. Charity was born 14 February 1776. They had five children: Anson, born 9 January 1801, died 26 May 1849; William D., born 3 Sept. 1802, died 15 Sept. 1870; Parley P., born 12 April 1807, died 13 May 1857; Orson, born 19 Sept.1811; and Nelson, born 26 May 1815.
Jared Pratt died at Detroit, Michigan, of a fever, 5 November 1839. Charity died at St. Joseph, Missouri of cholera,
CHILDREN of Parley Parker PRATT and Thankful HALSEY:
1. 1. PARLEY PARKER Jr. b: 25 Mar 1837; Kirtland, Lake, Ohio.
md: 23 Feb 1859; Salt Lake City, Salt Lake, Utah.
Esther Romania BUNNELL (div)
md: 18 Jan 1877; St. George, Washington, Utah.
Brighamine NIELSEN
md: 26 Mar 1887; , , .
Susanna PULLEY
d: 26 Aug 1897; Salt Lake City, Salt Lake, Utah.
CHILDREN of Parley Parker PRATT and Mary Ann FROST:
2. 1. HATHA b: 31 Aug 1838;
d: 1843;
3. 2. OLIVIA b: 2 Jun 1841;
4. 3. SUSAN b: 7 Apr 1843;
d: 1844;
5. 4. MORONI LLEWELLYN b: 7 Dec 1844;
/P
CHILDREN of Parley Parker PRATT and Elizabeth BROTHERTON:
--. 1 ABISH (Adopted) b:
CHILDREN of Parley Parker PRATT and Mary WOOD:
+ 7. 1. HELAMAN b: 31 May 1846; Nauvoo, Hancock, Illinois. 14. 2. CORNELIA b: 5 Sep 1848; Salt Lake City, Salt Lake, Utah. 25. 3. MARY WOOD b: 14 Sep 1853; , , Utah. 29. 4. MATHONI WOOD b: 6 Jul 1856; , , Utah.
CHILDREN of Parley Parker PRATT and Hannahette SNIVELY:
8. 1. ALMA b: 3 Jul 1846; Nauvoo, Hancock, Illinois 10. 2. LUCY b: 8 Mar 1848; , , . 20. 3. HENRIETTA b: 26 Oct 1851; Salt Lake City, Salt Lake, Utah.
CHILDREN of Parley Parker PRATT and Belinda MARDEN:
6. 1. NEPHI b: 1 Jan 1846; Nauvoo, Hancock, Illinois. 11. 2. BELINDA MARDEN b: 8 May 1848; Salt Lake City, Salt Lake, Utah. 12. 3. ABINADI b: 8 May 1848; Salt Lake City, Salt Lake, Utah. 19. 4. LEHI b: 9 Jun 1851; Salt Lake City, Salt Lake, Utah. 27. 5. ISABELLA ELEANOR MARDEN b: 1 Sep 1854; Salt Lake City, Salt Lake, Utah.
CHILDREN of Parley Parker PRATT and Sarah HUSTON:
9. 1. JULIA HUSTON b: 1 Apr 1847; on the way to the Salt Lake Valley. 16. 2. MORMON b: 8 Jan 1850, Salt Lake City, Salt Lake, Utah. 21. 3. TEANCUM b: 15 Nov 1851, Salt Lake City, Salt Lake, Utah. 28. 4. SARAH ELIZABETH b: 31 May 1856; Salt Lake City, Salt Lake, Utah.
CHILDREN of Parley Parker PRATT and Phoebe Elizabeth SOPER (SOPHER):
17. 1. MOSIAH b: 26 Feb 1850; Salt Lake City, Salt Lake, Utah. 22. 2. OMNER b: 20 Nov 1851; Salt Lake City, Salt Lake, Utah. 24. 3. PHOEBE SOPER b: 19 May 1853; Salt Lake City, Salt Lake, Utah.
CHILDREN of Parley Parker PRATT and Martha MONK:
15. 1. ETHER b: 30 Jan 1849; Salt Lake City, Salt Lake, Utah.
d: 22 Feb 1849; Salt Lake City, Salt Lake, Utah.
CHILDREN of Parley Parker PRATT and Ann Agatha WALKER:
13. 1. AGATHA b: 7 Jul 1848; Salt Lake City, Salt Lake, Utah. 18. 2. MALONA b: 15 Apr 1850; Salt Lake City, Salt Lake, Utah. 23. 3. MARION b: 28 Nov 1851; Salt Lake City, Salt Lake, Utah. 26. 4. MORONI WALKER b: 10 Oct 1853; Salt Lake City, Salt Lake, Utah. 30. 5. EVELYN b: 8 Aug 1856; Salt Lake City, Salt Lake, Utah. -- 6. WILFORD OWEN RIDGES (Sealed) b:
CHILDREN of Parley Parker PRATT and Keziah DOWNS:
-- 0. NONE KNOWN b: ; , , .
CHILDREN of Parley Parker PRATT and Eleanor Jane McCOMB:
-- 1. JAMES FITZROY McLEAN b: -- 2. ALBERT McLEAN b: -- 3. ANN BLANCH McLEAN b:Back to Jared PRATT's Family Page.
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