Orson Pratt

• Name — Orson Pratt • Born — 19 September 1811 • Birthplace — Hartford, New York, United States • Died — 3 October 1881 • Place of death — Salt Lake City, Utah Territory, United States • Resting Place — Salt Lake City Cemetery • Position Or Quorum1 — Quorum of the Twelve Apostles • Start Date1 — 1843 01 20 • End Date1 — 1881 10 03 • Position Or Quorum2 — Quorum of the Twelve Apostles • Called By2 — Three Witnesses • Start Date2 — 1835 04 26 • End Date2 — 1842 08 20 • Position Or Quorum3 — LDS Church Apostle • Called By3 — Three Witnesses • Start Date3 — 1835 04 26 • Ordination Reason3 — Initial organization of Quorum of the Twelve • Reorganization3 — George Teasdale and Heber J. Grant ordained to replenish the Twelve • List Notes — Younger brother of Parley P. Pratt. Was excommunicated for apostasy Aug 20, 1842, but readmitted Jan 20, 1843. As a result, was given reduced seniority in Jun 1875. Last surviving member of the original Quorum. Under the direction of Brigham Young, he published The Seer. • Poly Date — March 10, 1843

After the death of Joseph Smith, Pratt was among the apostles that supported the leadership of Brigham Young, who determined to move his followers from Nauvoo to the Salt Lake Valley, where the LDS Church became established. Not only did Pratt support Young’s leadership after Smith’s death, but he was also instrumental in gaining the support of the general body of the church. As an apostle under Young's leadership, Pratt tended to disagree with him on a variety of topics but found little support from the other apostles. Young expressed an appreciation for Pratt's ability to preach but added regrettably that Pratt preached "false doctrine" more often than not. A few examples of conflicts with Young include opposition by Pratt to reestablishing a First Presidency in 1847, the legalization of slavery in Utah Territory in 1852, and Young's Adam-God teachings. Young also opposed Pratt's teachings that the One God of the Bible was a matrix of attributes shared by many individuals who had achieved exaltation to godhood. Brigham Young attempted to minimize Pratt's influence. He did so by sending him away on numerous missions. Further, Pratt's brief period of excommunication from the church had long-term consequences. When dealing with seniority in the council after the death of Joseph Smith, 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 Pratt were moved down in seniority in June 1875. This ensured that neither would become president of the LDS Church. Even with these conflicts, Brigham Young refused to try Pratt for his fellowship in the Church, an indication of how Young was willing to tolerate differences of opinion on theological issues. After Young's death, Pratt's interpretations and opinions held more influence over the other apostles and later church leaders.

• Illustration — Orson Pratt in 1851 After settling in the Salt Lake Valley with the Mormon pioneers, Pratt was called to return to Europe as a mission administrator between 1848 and 1851, during which time he also served as editor of the Millennial Star. In 1850, as mission president of the British Mission, Pratt told his missionaries his strategy for spreading the gospel in an article titled, "How to Warn the Whole British Nation in One Year!" Although this goal was not achieved, by the end of the year there were twice as many LDS Church members residing in Britain as in the United States. As a mission president, Pratt was admired by the missionaries for the many logical and well-written pamphlets he wrote and published while he was there and the way he communicated with British intellectuals to discuss theology. While presiding over this mission, Pratt received a pamphlet from Lorenzo Snow entitled "The voice of Joseph" that Snow wanted translated into French to advance his missionary efforts in northern Italy. Pratt managed to make contacts with people in Paris who were willing to do this translation. In 1865, Pratt was one of the first Mormon missionaries to work in Austria. Traveling with William W. Ritter, he was there for nine months, but did not baptize anyone. The missionaries were eventually expelled by the Austrian government.

• Illustration — A dimensionally accurate replica of the 1847 roadometer When news reached Pratt that the LDS Church was moving westward, he said, "We do not want one saint to be left in the United States." He helped lead the Saints "out of Babylon." 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 Illinois 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 7, and noted that rock found on June 10, "would make excellent grindstones, being of fine grit sandstone." As a mathematician, Pratt assisted company scribe William Clayton in the design and invention of a "roadometer", 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 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.

Some sources agree that Pratt married seven women and was the father of forty-five children, though other sources, including his first wife Sarah, claim that he married ten women. At age 57 Orson Pratt married his tenth wife, sixteen-year-old Margaret Graham. Pratt and all of his wives and children struggled with poverty, likely because Brigham Young constantly sent Pratt on missions. Still, Pratt was able to support himself and his family by writing and publishing pamphlets on Mormon theology. Some of his wives also earned money by selling hats, fabrics, and other goods. On August 29, 1852, Orson Pratt delivered a sermon that taught the principle of polygamy, discussing the blessings of raising many children up in the LDS Church. This was the first time the practice was discussed openly in the church. In June 1870, Pratt participated in a debate against John P. Newman on whether or not the Bible supported polygamy. He defended the practice in his writings for The Seer and throughout his ministry, gaining the title "the apostle of polygamy."

• Sarah Marinda Bates • Charlotte Bishop • Adelia Ann Bishop • Mary Ann Merrill • Sarah Louisa Chandler • Marion Ross • Juliette Ann Phelps • Eliza Crooks • Sarah Louise Lewis • Margaret Graham

In 1886, Pratt's wife Sarah Pratt claimed in an interview that, while in Nauvoo, Illinois, that Joseph Smith was attracted to her and intended to make her "one of his spiritual wives" while Pratt was in England on missionary service. To Smith's proposal, Sarah replied that she would never break her marriage covenant with Orson and that she did not believe in Smith's revelation regarding plural marriage. She issued an ultimatum to Smith: "Joseph, if you ever attempt any thing of the kind with me again, I will tell Mr. Pratt on his return home." After Pratt returned from England, Sarah later claimed another incident occurred between her and Smith at her home. Sarah Pratt's neighbor, Mary Ettie V. Smith, reported that "Sarah ordered the Prophet out of the house, and the Prophet used obscene language to her," claiming that he had found John C. Bennett in bed with her. According to Bennett, another incident where Joseph Smith tried to kiss Sarah caused her to tell her husband about the whole incident. Pratt was torn between believing his wife or Smith; he wrote, "My sorrows are greater than I can bear!" Pratt then took Sarah's side and confronted Smith, who denied Sarah's allegation and responded that she was John C. Bennett's lover. The resulting estrangement between Smith and Pratt, who stood by Sarah in preference to the denials of Smith, led to Smith warning Pratt that "if [Pratt] did believe his wife and follow her suggestions he would go to hell". In the local and Mormon press, Sarah Pratt was accused of having had an adulterous relationship, not with Smith, but with John C. Bennett, and several affidavits were printed in local and pro-Mormon Nauvoo publications, including the leading councils of the church and from others such as Jacob B. Backenstos, a relative of the sheriff of Hancock County, though many of these allegations are believed to be falsified. Orson Pratt attempted to commit suicide in 1842. At the time, apostle Wilford Woodruff stated that "Dr. John Cook Bennett was the ruin of Orson Pratt." A public meeting was held where a resolution supporting Smith's character was proposed; Pratt stated that he was unable to support the resolution, to which Smith replied, "Have you personally a knowledge of any immoral act in me toward the female sex, or in any other way?" Pratt answered no, but he became estranged from the church and Smith. Brigham Young, Heber C. Kimball, and George A. Smith spent several days trying to get Pratt to believe Smith, but Pratt continued to side with his wife. Finally, the three apostles excommunicated Pratt from the church. Sarah was not excommunicated at this time. Both Orson and Sarah were rebaptized by Joseph Smith when they returned to the church in 1843. Orson did not ever consider himself truly excommunicated, and neither, by one interpretation, did Smith. Bennett claimed that Pratt and his wife were planning to leave Nauvoo and help him "expose Mormonism," but Pratt published a statement in the October 1, 1842 Nauvoo Wasp to deny this claim. Pratt soon returned to the church and denounced Bennett. Van Wagoner cites a letter written by Pratt's brother Parley P. Pratt which said that Orson was a part of the church and that Bennett's book, The History of the Saints (1842), was written solely to get vengeance on those who had excommunicated him and barely worth mentioning. Pratt wrote a postscript to his brother's letter: "J.C. Bennett has published lies concerning myself & family & the people with which I am connected". Smith and Pratt directly discussed Pratt's wife, with Smith stating to him, "She lied about me: I never made the offer which she said I did," after which Joseph suggested he divorce Sarah and start a new family. Pratt did not divorce Sarah at that time, though one source does report that Orson came to believe that Sarah had lied about Smith's proposal. This event would impact the couple for the rest of their lives; they eventually did divorce, though decades later. Sarah secretly encouraged her children not to believe in Mormon teachings. She and her sons, Orson Pratt Jr., and Arthur Pratt eventually apostatized from the church.

• Illustration — Headstone of Orson Pratt, Sr., located at Plot I_2_13_1E in the Salt Lake City Cemetery, inscribed, in part, "His own epitaph was:~ My body sleeps for a mo-ment, but my testimony lives and shall endure forever.". At age 70, Orson Pratt, the last surviving member of the original Quorum of the Twelve Apostles, died “as if in a gentle slumber” on his couch, surrounded by family members, at his home in Salt Lake City. Diabetes, according to one Dr. Castle, was the cause of death. In the year or so preceding his death, though Pratt’s diabetes rendered him “feeble” and often “unable to leave his room,” he recovered enough to express to a congregation gathered in the Salt Lake Tabernacle only days before his death that he desired to live on and again “lift up his voice as a missionary to the nations of the earth.”

While in Illinois, Pratt acted as an instructor of mathematics at the University of Nauvoo. • Illustration — Second issue of The Seer February, 1853. In Utah, Pratt's strong skills in analysis and writing led Young to assign him to produce sermons and pamphlets dealing with religious topics. Pratt wrote sixteen pamphlets in defense of LDS Church doctrines, drawing on the works of Joseph Smith 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. His pamphlet "An Interesting Account of Several Remarkable Visions" was the first published account of the First Vision and included a list of beliefs that is similar to Smith's 1842 "Articles of Faith". In "Absurdities of Immaterialism", Pratt defended the Mormon doctrine of materiality, with reference to science, philosophy, and theology. As part of his system of Mormon theology, Pratt embraced the philosophical doctrine of hylozoism. 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 conference in Salt Lake City in August 1852, Pratt publicly preached a sermon announcing the doctrine of plural marriage. He later published an essay in defense of the practice in 12 monthly installments in the church periodical The Seer, which provides the most complete defense of the Mormon doctrine during this period. Pratt himself is considered one of the most influential early apologists for the LDS Church. Pratt's views were not always without controversy. In 1865, a majority of the First Presidency and the Quorum of the Twelve Apostles of the LDS Church officially condemned some of Pratt's doctrinal writings, including some of his articles from The Seer. They considered it to be misleading and questionable in relation to the actual doctrine of the Church. Though his many controversial beliefs have been rejected by Brigham Young and other Church leaders, Pratt's writings have nevertheless influenced many modern Mormon beliefs, including their concept of God and the doctrine of the gathering of Israel. In 1869, Pratt transliterated a portion of the Book of Mormon into the Deseret Alphabet. Pratt acted as Church Historian and 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 verses and provided footnoted cross references. He served seven terms as Speaker of the House in the Utah legislature.

Pratt was known as an accomplished mathematician and had a strong interest in astronomy. The disciplines combined with others to form in his mind a philosophy of what might be called 'early' Mormon cosmology. He offered science-based lectures on these topics to early Mormon 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. The former is claimed to have been used as a textbook in England, Germany, and France, as Pratt was known as a talented mathematician even outside of Mormon circles. In October 1851, Orson Pratt taught mathematics in the 'Parent School' of the University of Deseret. The Thirteenth Ward School House was used for a classroom. On December 15, 1851, he commenced a series of lectures on astronomy and its religious implications, in the Council House. These educational efforts technically were part of an adult educational program.