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A Book of Mormons Richard S. Van Wagoner and Steven C. Walker Copyright 1982, Signature Books |
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Orson Pratt (1811-1881)
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Orson Pratt was an apostle, scholar, and defender of plural marriage. Photograph courtesy LDS Church Archives. |
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Family Background 1811. September 19: Born in Hartford, New York. Orson attended a few classes in bookkeeping, mathematics, geography, grammar, and surveying, but was basically self-educated. He married Sarah Marinda Bates in 1836, and later Charlotte Bishop (1844), Adelia Ann Bishop (1844), Mary Ann Merrill (1845), Sarah Louisa Chandler (1846), Marion Ross (1852), and Juliette Ann Phelps (1855). He was the father of forty-five children.
1830. Baptized on his nineteenth birthday by his older brother, Parley. A short time later he was ordained an elder by Joseph Smith and sent on a mission to the Eastern States. Between 1830 and 1869 he served ten additional missions to the Eastern States, plus seven missions to Great Britain. He was the first Mormon missionary to Canada (1832), and also the first to Scotland (1840), where in nine months he established an Edinburgh branch of more than two hundred members.
Pratt attended the School of the Prophets in Kirtland (1833), participated in Zion's Camp (1834), and at the age of twenty-four was called to the first Quorum of the Twelve by the Three Witnesses (1835).
1841. July: When Pratt returned from a mission to Great Britain, he found that Church leaders had withdrawn his wife's food allotment and were accusing her of adultery with John C. Bennett. She countered that Joseph Smith had proposed she become one of his "celestial wives," and that Brigham Young had urged her to say nothing, but "do as Joseph wished." 1842. May: Pratt did not join the other apostles in withdrawing "the hand of fellowship" from John C. Bennett. July 15: According to the Prophet, Pratt attempted to commit suicide "and caused almost all the city to go in search of him." July 22: Pratt refused to endorse a resolution affirming Joseph Smith's moral character. Brigham Young wrote Parley P. Pratt that "Br. Orson Pratt is in trouble in consequence of his wife. His feelings are so wrought up that he does not know whether his wife is wrong, or whether Joseph's testimony and others are wrong, and do lie, and he deceived for 12 years or not; he is all but crazy about the matters … We will not let Br. Orson go away from us. He is too good a man to have a woman destroy him." Church leaders tried in vain to get Pratt to "recall his sayings against Joseph and the Twelve," Wilford Woodruff recorded, "but he persisted in his wicked course and would not recall any of his sayings which were unjust and untrue." August 20: After four days of fruitless efforts at reconciliation, the Twelve excommunicated Pratt for "insubordination," and Sarah for "adultery." Within three months Pratt publicly "confessed his error and his sin in criticizing Joseph." In 1878 he said that he had "got his information from a wicked source, from those disaffected, but as soon as he learned the truth he was satisfied." Joseph Smith rebaptized Orson and Sarah Pratt in January, 1843, and Orson was reinstated in the Quorum of the Twelve. Sarah never admitted error. After Orson's death she related details of the incident in a vituperative attack on Joseph Smith in "Workings of Mormonism" (unpublished), and in an 1886 interview in Mormon Portraits.
1846. Parley P. Pratt, in the midst of severe marital problems with his wife Mary Ann, accused Sarah of"influencing his wife against him, and of ruining and breaking up his family," of "being an apostate, and of speaking against the head of the church and against him." In the Nauvoo Temple on January 11 he accused her of "whispering against him all over the temple." Orson exploded, defending Sarah so vehemently that they were both "voted" out of the temple, and Orson disfellowshipped. In an explanatory letter to Brigham Young, Orson argued, "If I had… insulted any of your families in so disgraceful a manner I should have been very thankful if I escaped without getting my head broke." Orson "made satisfaction" a few days later and was readmitted to fellowship. |
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| Orson and Sarah Pratt with children, courtesy Daughters of Utah Pioneers. | ||||
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Pioneer 1847. July 13: Eleven days before the main party of pioneers entered the Salt Lake Valley, Pratt led an advance company of twenty-two wagons to "proceed to the Weber River canyon and ascertain if we can pass through safely, if not to find a pass over the mountains." July 21: Pratt and Erastus Snow were the first pioneers to enter the Salt Lake Valley. During the trek Pratt had invented an odometer to measure the distance traveled each day. He also directed the surveying of Salt Lake City. 1851. Between 1851 and 1881, in addition to several missions, Pratt served seven terms in the Utah legislature, where he was elected Speaker of the House.
1852. August: Brigham Young selected Pratt to introduce the doctrine of plural marriage officially to the Saints at a special conference in Salt Lake City. He was also called to begin a new magazine, The Seer, in Washington, D.C. The publication would expound "the views of the Saints in regard to the Ancient Patriarchal Order of Matrimony, or Plurality of Wives, as developed in a Revelation, given through JOSEPH THE SEER." 1870. Dr. John P. Newman, chaplain of the U.S. Senate and President Ulysses S. Grant's personal pastor, delivered a strong anti-polygamy sermon in his Metropolitan Methodist Church in Washington, D.C. Salt Lake Daily Telegraph editor Edward Sloan proposed Newman debate polygamy in Salt Lake. Newman accepted and, when Brigham Young declined to be his opponent, settled for Orson Pratt. The extended debate was reported daily in the New York Herald Mormon writer Edward Tullidge declared that "millions of readers followed the arguments of Dr. Newman and Orson Pratt and it is safe to estimate that quite two-thirds of them yielded the palm to the Mormon apostle."
Pratt was "Professor of Mathematics and English Literature" at the University of Nauvoo. He taught mathematics at the University of Deseret, served as Church recorder and historian (1874-81), and prepared the 1878 editions of the Book of Mormon and Doctrine and Covenants, arranging both books into chapters and verses, with footnotes and references. His philosophical bent conflicted with Brigham Young's practical posture. They publicly disagreed on everything from the nature of God to the propriety of publishing Joseph's "inspired version" of the Bible. President Young said Pratt didn't know enough to keep his foot out of it [his mouth], but drowns himself in his philosophy." 1860. Wilford Woodruff told the Saint George High Council of Pratt's "unyielding stubbornes, and of upbraiding the Twelve for not being manly, for not declaring their views the way he looked at it, and branding them as cowards &c &c. Spoke of the firmnes of Pres Young in correcting Orson Pratt and setting him aright; of Orson wishing to resign his position in the Quorum; of Pres. Young saying 'No you wont Orson, I'll rub your ears until I get you right.'" Although Pratt apologized publicly, his popular philosophical writings continued to irritate the president so much that the First Presidency and apostles published point-by-point condemnations of Pratt's views in 1865. Following the death of Brigham Young, George Q. Cannon learned that Pratt found so little support in the presiding quorums because of the president's dominating manner: "Some of my brethren … did have feelings concerning his course. They did not approve of it, and felt oppressed, and yet they dared not exhibit their feelings to him, he ruled with so strong and stiff a hand, and they felt that it would be of no use."
1875. Two years prior to his death, Brigham Young readjusted the seniority of the members of the Quorum of the Twelve. Orson Pratt and Orson Hyde, both of whom had been ordained before John Taylor, were placed behind him, according to the dates of their reinstatement in the Quorum.
October 3: Died of diabetes at the age of seventy-seven in the home of his wife Marion Ross at 300 North 300 West in Salt Lake City. Shortly before his death, he dictated his epitaph to Joseph F. Smith: "My body sleeps for a moment, but my testimony lives and shall endure forever." Buried in the Salt Lake City Cemetery.
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