He that hath an ear, let him hear what the Spirit saith unto the churches. -- Jesus Christ.
Come out of her, my people, that ye be not partakers of her sins, and that ye receive not of
her plagues. -- A Voice from Heaven.
No. 27.
July 4, 1857.
Vol. XIX.
[pp. 417-25]
MURDER OF PARLEY P. PRATT
ONE OF THE TWELVE APOSTLES OF THE
CHURCH OF JESUS CHRIST OF LATTER-DAY SAINTS.
Another martyr has fallen -- another faithful servant of God sealed his pure and heavenly testimony to the truth
of the Book of Mormon, with his blood. Though our own dear brother according to the flesh, yet we weep not. He fell
in a righteous cause -- he be fell in the defence of suffering innocence, while endeavouring to aid by his letters
a helpless female with her little children, to escape the fury of her savage persecutors. He had been made
acquainted, from the most respectable and reliable sources, with the sad and most heart-rending description of
her sufferings. Years ago the poor woman had been turned into the streets of San Francisco, in a dark, dismal
night, houseless and unprotected, by an unfeeling, brutal monster of a husband. For years her life had been
threatened and deadly weapons brandished about her head; and to cap the climax of brutality, he tore the children
from their fond mother's embrace, stealing them without her knowledge, and smuggled them on board a Pacific steamer,
to traverse thousands of miles of water and land, unpitied and uncared for, to the distant port of New Orleans.
This inhuman, fiendish act, added to the long catalogue of her sufferings, made her resolve to renounce for ever
the society of one whom she could no longer look upon as a husband, but as a tyrannical, unfeeling, inhuman
monster. The final separation took place at San Francisco about two years ago.
Learning that her children had been sent to her parents, near New Orleans, she set sail, friendless and unprotected
for that port. Upon her arrival, what was her surprise to find that her parents were in the dark plot and that
she could have no freedom with her own children. And, at length, becoming wearied with the persecutions which she
endured, she started without any acquaintance to accompany her for Utah Territory -- a journey of about three thousand
miles from New Orleans. After incredible hardships she arrived in Great Salt Lake City in the autumn of 1855. In
the autumn of 1856 she again returned to her parents in New Orleans, and sometime about the close of last year she
succeeded in rescuing the children from their unnatural and tyrannical bondage, and fled with her own little family
to Texas. But the hellish brute in California, from whom she had been separated about two years, came in pursuit;
and having employed some of the old "Mormon" persecutors to join him in his blood-thirsty expedition he, at last
discovered the object of his former abuse, and again tore from her embrace her lovely little children.
The sympathies of thousands who have been made acquainted with the unparalleled sufferings of this lady, have been
aroused in her behalf. Among these, we are proud to say, was that great philanthropist, and good man, Parley P.
Pratt, who on learning the facts of her escape with her children, sought to advise her, by letters through the
post, of the pursuit of her old enemy. While engaged in this work of humanity, this monster from California swore
out a writ against him and several others, under a false charge of larceny. They were tried before the United
States Commissioner at Van Buren, Arkansas, and found not guilty, and discharged. The murderer then, in a cowardly
manner, waited for him to leave; and in about ten minutes after, in company with two other murderers, started in
pursuit, immediately followed by others; all thirsting for the blood of innocence. About twelve miles from Van
Buren on the road leading northward, they came up with their victim -- fired seven shots and then stabbed him
several times in his left side, one of the cuts piercing his heart. After this he be lived about two hours and a
half.
And thus he be fell the victim of his bigotted enemies, but the friend of suffering humanity.
The following correspondence dated Cincinnati, Ohio, February 20th, 1857, taken fron a New York paper will give
further particulars concerning --
THE MOTHER AND CHILDREN. -- During my late missions to California I became acquainted with the following train
of lamentable and heart-rending rending circumstances growing out of the spirit of intolerance, which alas! still
characterizes some of the more popular sects of the age.
A certain family had emigrated from the south a few years since and were then residing in San Francisco; consisting
of a man, his wife and three children, and a young man who was a brother of the wife and a boarder in the family.
The whole were a branch of an old and somewhat noted Presbyterian stock, which still resided in the vicinity of
New Orleans.
The lady was an accomplished and educated person, given to reading and intellectual pursuits, and was withal a woman
of sound judgment and of an independent turn of mind.
As is generally the case with such minds, this lady had only to investigate Mormonism in order to become most
firmly convinced of its truths.
She therefore wished to embrace them. On learning these facts the husband and brother manifested a most violent and
tyrannical opposition. They raged, foamed, cursed, railed, stormed and called hard names, &c., but all to no
purpose. The lady was still of the same mind and wished to obey the Gospel.
The husband finally purchased a large sword cane with which he entered the parlor one day; and turning pale with
rage, he unsheathed the same in the presence of his wife and menacing her and brandishing the naked steel over
her head, swore an awful oath, that that weapon had been purchased expressly for her and the minister who dare
baptize her, and should penetrate both their vitals the she should be baptized.
Her brother, in turn, brandished the same weapon over her in the same angry manner with the same threats.
These and many other threats, railings, and abuses repeated from time to time. by both husband and brother, served
to deter the lady's baptism for some two years -- the Elders there making it a point not to baptize a woman
without her husband's consent.
After many long painful and prayerful struggles, she at length obtained a written consent of her husband and was
baptized and duly confirmed as a member of the Church of the Saints. She still remained a faithful and obedient
wife and mother. She served her husband, looked after his interests, kept his house, continued to board her brother
and trained her children in the ways of obedience, morality and truth. She took great pains in their education
and taught them to believe in Jesus Christ, to read the Bible and to sing and pray.
Her husband was still harsh and tyrannical in the highest degree and her brother also. Her life was often threatened
and she was utterly forbidden to mention any point in her religion in presence of her husband, or to intrude any
sentence on his notice from any of the books of the Church. She had not even the privilege of singing a single line
of her hymn book in his hearing. Having lived in this unnatural bondage for a few years and having borne with
meekness and submission every railing,insult and abuse which a tyrant could heap upon her, she finally ventured on
one quiet Sunday evening to sing in his presence two lines of one of her favorite hymns. (See Saints hymn book,
page 201.)
Behold the Great Redeemer comes
To bring his ransomed people home!
Her husband on hearing this, flew into a violent rage -- snatched the book out of her hand, tore it up and threw it
in the fire. He then laid violent hands on her and forced her into the street and locked the door on her. It was a
dark evening, and in one of the back dark streets of San Francisco where an unprotected female would hardly be
considered safe for a moment. She, however, entered a neighbouring house and immediately sent a message to Dr. ____,
an old family physician, who was the mutual friend of both herself and husband. She threw herself upon his
protection, and he conducted her to a respectable hotel, where she took lodgings and board at the husband's expense.
Next day she called on the city recorder and made oath of the assault and battery and other outrages of her husband,
demanding his arrest and that she might be secured in her life and peace in the future. But through the influence of
Dr. ____, and other parties in high places, the matter was finally dropped and the parties seemed reconciled so far,
that she returned to her house and again took charge of her children, and of her husband's housekeeping.
For a few weeks, all seemed to go on as usual. The husband and brother went to their daily business -- returned at
the proper hours, found their meals in order, and the usual economy, industry and taste which she had ever displayed
in trying to render home agreeable.
On a certain day -- breakfast being over and the husband and brother gone to business at an early hour, as usual,
she assembled her children as her manner was, for family devotion. These consisted of two boys, between eight and
ten years of age and a girl of seven. The mother and children mingled their glad voices in the morning hymn and
bowed the knee together in solemn prayer -- when rising from their knees, the children gave their dear mother the
usual parting kiss, and cheerfly [hastened] away to the city school.
O! how little did that tender mother and those innocent babes then realize the awful trial which immediately
awaited them; or that two oceans and a continent would separate them ere should meet again.
Talk not of Rome, of Nero, of the dark ages, or of the Spanish inquisition. All these combined could scarce form
a parallel worthy to compare with the heartless, unfeeling, inhuman, savage and worse than fiendish tyranny of
the nineteenth century. And all this enacted by Protestants in a land of freedom! Nay, rather by the nearest
kindred and on a helpless woman and children!
Evening came -- the husband and brother returned from the business of the day -- but no children came to gladden the
heart of a fond mother! Where are our children? exclaimed the anxious mother in alarm.
The brutish husband and unfeeling brother answered with a fiendish grin, or a taunt of triumph -- They are on the
bosom of the Pacific you will never see them again -- they will be brought up Presbyterians -- not Mormons!
The only answer to this was a wild shriek and a sudden fall -- the mother had fainted! Her heart, as it were, had
died within her. She remained through that dreadful night in alternate spasms, fainting fits -- occasionally awaking
to a realizing sense of her desolation: "Rachel weeping for her children, and could not be comforted, because they
were not."
She would sometimes so far awake from her swooning fits as to rave, and wander, and call loudly for her little ones
by name and then she would burst into tears -- groan and lament, and finally again drop away and become insensible.
The brutal husband and brother stood over her through the entire night, somewhat troubled and alarmed but durst not
call a physician or any assistance, lest their fiendish cruelty should be detected in all its horrors.
In the morning, being compelled to go to business at an early hour, they left her alone in in the house, locking her
in as a prisoner, in solitude and helplessness.
She, however, sufficiently recovered in the course of the morning, to open a window and raise the alarm. The
neighbours soon learned the true circumstances and sympathized deeply in her bereavement.
Some of the merchants best acquainted with the family offered to raise a subscription and send her to her children,
it being soon ascertained that they had been sent to her parents in New Orleans.
Public odium soon wrought upon the obdurate husband and brother that change which human sympathy had failed to
accomplish. They saw that the matter must be ameliorated and hushed up as far as possible by compromise.
They had been plotting for weeks, and, by the assistance of other bigots of their sect, had prepared trunks of
clothing for the children and had procured through tickets for them on the transit route between the Pacific and
Atlantic.
All things being in readiness they had watched [for] an opportunity to snatch them from school and thrust them on
board of a steamer without so much as a farewell look or word from their mother, and had committed them to the care
of strangers to pass two oceans and a continent, with no kindred or acquaintance to love or care for them.
This done the inhuman bigots had resisted all the eloquent and heart-rending heart appeals of a mother, and nothing
but the fear of disgrace, or the vengeance of an excited and indignant populace constrained them to compromise and
hush up any further excitement, by agreeing to send the mother to the children.
She was finally soothed and comforted with the hope of following them in two weeks, on the next steamer; she went
quietly and diligently to work to prepare for the journey.
Her house was now desolate and lonely beyond endurance. She, therefore by consent of her husband, spent the time
with some friends friend in the country till near the time lime of her embarkation.
But alas! her trials had but just begun. She had a prosperous passage to New Orleans, found her parents, and with
them her two youngest children -- but alas! the other she was never permitted to see. He is concealed from her
in some distant part of the country.
She found her bigoted and hard-hearted Presbyterian parents and brothers and sisters in the same plot. Her children
were held by them in bondage, under a strict watch as prisoners. She must not associate with them, even in her own
father's house, except in presence of others -- she must not sleep in the same room, nor even to retire to a private
room, to bow the knee with them at the hour of prayer, as she had always been in the habit of doing. In short, she
was in bondage intolerable, and was daily abused, insulted, mocked, ridiculed and railed at in every possible
manner. She endured these things for months and finding herself sinking under the accumulated wrongs and oppressions
of those who should have been her friends; as well as under the effects of the pestilential climate of the advancing
summer of New Orleans, she, by the consent of her children, left them for a season for the north, promising to
return to them in due time.
She at length, after incredible hardships and toils, made her hir way to Great Salt Lake City, where she arrived in
safety in the autumn of 1855. She had, by this long journey, somewhat recovered her health and true to the instincts
of a mother, she immediately commenced and constantly persevered in a most rigid course of economy and industry, in
order to redeem her pledge to her children
She taught school in that city almost constantly for one year. She then made her way over the dreary plains for
some fifteen hundred miles to the frontiers of the States and thence down the rivers to the children.
The account which appeared in the New Orleans
Bulletin, some time near the close of the past year, may possibly refer to her.
If so, making due allowance for its numerous falsehoods and misrepresentations, it opens another chapter in her
somewhat romantic and heroic life.
Had the lady in question had a kind and dutiful husband, instead of an unfeeling tyrant, religious differences
would not have separated the family to this day; but on the contrary, the father, mother and children might still
have been living in San Francisco in peace.
It was not Mormonism, but Presbyterianism that broke up the family.
A FRIEND OF THE OPPRESSED.
Cincinnati, O., February 20, 1857.
BIOGRAPHICAL SKETCH OF PARLEY P. PRATT
This great Apostle and martyr of the nineteenth century was born on the 12th day of April, 1807, in Burlington, Otsego County, State of 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 Newton, 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 is a lineal descendant, of the seventh generation, from that distinguished pilgrim and humble pioneer to the New World.
The youthful days of our martyred brother were characterized by the soberness and thoughtfulness of manhood. Though from adverse circumstances his education was extremely limited, yet he displayed, even in youth, an originality of mind seldom exhibited. In September, 1830, he, being led by the Spirit of the Lord from his home in the State of Ohio, came several hundred miles eastward, where he fortunately obtained a copy of one of the most remarkable works of modern times -- the Book of Mormon. He read the same, was convinced of its divine authenticity, and traveled in search of the highly favored men of God who had seen angels and heard the voice of the Almighty. He soon succeeded in finding some of them, from whom he learned that about five months previous the first Church of the Latter-day Saints had been organized. He requested baptism, and was immediately after ordained an Elder. The same month he visited Canaan, Columbia County, New York -- the county where he had spent many of his youthful days -- and after preaching a few times in different neighborhoods, and baptizing Orson Pratt, his brother, he returned to Seneca County.
Receiving a revelation through Joseph the Prophet, he, in company with three or four others performed a mission, some fifteen hundred miles, to the western boundaries of the State of Missouri, and was among the first of the Saints to stand upon that choice land where the City of Zion is hereafter to be built, preparatory to the second advent of our Savior.
In the spring of 1831 he returned to the northern part of Ohio, where he met Joseph the Prophet. In the summer he again performed a mission through Ohio, Indiana, Illinois and Missouri, preaching, baptizing and building up the Church.
In the autumn of 1833 he and about twelve hundred men, women and children were driven by a murderous, furious mob from their own houses and lands in Jackson County, Missouri. Two hundred houses were burned, cattle shot, hay stacks and grain burned, many whipped until their bowels gushed out; others killed, and the afflicted remnant driven across the river into Clay County.
Soon after this Elder Pratt performed a long journey of about fifteen hundred miles east, preaching repentance and strengthening the Saints.
In 1834 he again returned to Clay County, Missouri, officiating in his holy calling wherever he went.
In 1835, having returned to the northern part of Ohio, he was chosen and ordained one of the Twelve Apostles of this
last dispensation, and the same year performed a lengthy journey through Pennsylvania, New York, and several of the
New England States, and returned again to Ohio.
In 1836 he visited Canada, and established a large branch of the Church in Toronto, and other branches in adjoining towns.
In 1837 he visited New York City, where he founded a large branch of the Church.
In 1838 he removed to Caldwell County, in the western boundaries of Missouri; and in the same year another dreadful persecution commenced against the Saints, and they were for the third time driven from their own houses and inheritances, and their property to the amount of millions was destroyed; some scores of defenseless men, women and children were murdered; scores of others incarcerated in dungeons, among whom was the subject of this memoir; the balance, about fifteen thousand, were exterminated from the State, and found refuge in Illinois. Elder Pratt was kept in prison, without trial, about eight months, when, by the kind providence of God, he made his escape; an account of which is published in the Millennial Star, Vol. VIII, pages 129, 145 and 161. Immediately after gaining his liberty he published a history of the Missouri persecution, written while in prison. The first edition appeared in Detroit in 1839.
In 1840 he visited England, and in the town of Manchester commenced the publication of a periodical entitled the Millennial Star, which has continued until the present time -- this being the nineteenth volume.
In 1841 he was appointed the President over all the British Conferences, and remained in this high and honorable station until the autumn of 1842, during which he edited the Star, superintended the Saints' emigration, and published several small but interesting works. The following winter he returned to Illinois, where he continued laboring in the ministry for one or two years.
About the beginning of the year 1845 he was appointed the President over all the Churches in the New England and Middle States, his headquarters being at New York City, where he wrote for a periodical entitled The Prophet. In the summer he returned to Nauvoo.
In February, 1846, he was again driven from his home by a ruthless mob. Some fifteen or twenty thousand Saints were also driven from the United States about the same time, with the loss of houses, and lands, and an immense amount of property, which the mob are in the unmolested possession of until the present day. After wading through unparalleled sufferings with his family, he and the suffering Saints succeeded in reaching the Indian country at Council Bluffs, and being called by the Holy Ghost, through the Prophet Brigham Young, to go to England, he left his family upon the broad prairie, without house or scarcely any food, to comply with the word of the Lord. He arrived in England, assisted in setting the Churches in order, and in strengthening the Saints throughout the British islands.
In the spring of 1847 he returned to his family and brethren; and in the summer and autumn of that year he removed to Great Salt Lake Valley, and suffered incredible hardships until the harvest of 1848.
He assisted in forming a Constitution for the Provisional Government of Deseret, and was elected a member of the Senate in the General Assembly; and was afterwards elected to the Legislative Council when Utah became a Territory of the United States.
The year 1851 he was sent on a mission to the Pacific islands and to South America.
In the summer of 1855 he returned over the Sierra Nevada mountains to his home, and occupied a part of his time in preaching in the various settlements of Utah, and at other times laboring with his own hands in the cultivation of his farm. The following winter he officiated as chaplain in the Legislative Council at the State House in Fillmore City.
In the autumn of 1856 he accompanied about twenty missionaries across the plains to the States. During the winter and part of the following spring he visited the Saints at St. Louis, Philadelphia, New York and other places, preaching, writing and publishing the glad tidings of the kingdom of God.
And finally, on the 13th of May, 1857, he fell a noble martyr for the cause of truth, which he had advocated with such untiring perseverance for nearly twenty-seven years. His last great and magnanimous act, in trying to rescue helpless innocence from the fury of their savage persecutors, will be handed down to unborn generations as an imperishable monument to his praise; while his wicked, brutal murderers, and all that gave countenance to the diabolical deed, shall gnaw their tongues for pain, and perish, and be forgotten.
Among the numerous writings of this martyred Apostle may be mentioned first, the '
Voice of Warning,'
printed in New York in 1837, and which has since passed through many editions, and been translated into several foreign
languages; second, his 'History of the Missouri Persecutions;' third, his 'Poems;' fourth, his 'Key to Theology;'
a masterly production, lately published. 'The History of His Life,' up to near the time of his martyrdom, was written
by himself, and is now about ready for the press; this will doubtless prove to be one of the most interesting works
proceeding from his pen.
O, how pleasant is the death of a righteous person! He lays down his body with a sure and certain hope of coming forth from the tomb in the morning of the first resurrection, to reign as a mighty King and Priest of the Most High God, to sit enthroned in eternal glory, ruling with power and dominion for ever and ever.
O, kind hearted, affectionate brother! How dearly we loved thee in life! How joyous to our soul were the words of life which flowed from thy mouth by the pure spirit of inspiration! How lovely still is our remembrance of thee! We weep not for thy death, for it was glorious! Thou hast left us only for a short moment, and we shall soon embrace thee again! Thy fiftieth year had but just rolled away, and now thy Jubilee has come! Rest in thy Father's house, with all the noble martyrs of the nineteenth century, until the Jubilee of the earth shall also come; then shalt thou return and reign triumphantly with all the redeemed of Adam's race."
From the following letter, written only about four months prior to his martyrdom, he plainly indicates that his
pilgrimage and "personal history in this world," were near their close:
New York, United States,
January 2d, 1857.
"Dear Brother Orson -- I received your kind letter on the 30th December, 1856. I was thereby glad to hear from you and of your welfare.
"I am well; I spent about a month in St. Louis; I then came on to Cincinnati and stayed four days, drawing full houses. I arrived in Philadelphia the day before Christmas -- was present next day at a grand party in that city, in Washington Hall. It was a fine time. Sunday last I preached three times to a full house.
"I arrived here on Wednesday last; found Presidents Taylor and Smith as well as usual.
"Yesterday I attended a party here, in the Saints' Hall; it was an interesting affair, some four hundred persons being present. We were entertained with songs, prayers, preaching, praying, recitations, eating, drinking, etc.
"In the midst of our evening's enjoyment the news arrived of the arrival of the Columbia, with a ship load of Saints from England. Today we accompanied brother Taylor to see them. All well, but a rough passage; no deaths. The weather is mild here, and the winter so far very fine.
"I have not yet seen the Pratt family, of whom you speak, but I think I will visit them in a day or two.
"You ask how long I will stay in the States. I answer, till spring. I will then go home, if God will, if I have to go with a hand cart. This country is no place for me; the darkness is so thick I can literally feel it. I cannot obtain the least assistance here for my family; a tight match to obtain traveling expenses.
"I have heard nothing from home since October 1st, but I hope to hear soon. I congratulate you on the marriage of your first born, and hope you will soon become a grandfather.
"Now, dear brother Orson, be of good courage -- our pilgrimage will soon be over, and our personal history in this world will naturally come to the word FINIS.
"As to my history, I have it now complete from my birth up to today. It will contain about as much reading as the Book of Mormon. I would publish it, in part or in full, if gold was plentiful. * * *
"I have written to Nelson Pratt and received an answer; he is well. I am going there soon, if all is well.
"I am to start from St. Louis for home just as early in the spring as the weather will permit. Farewell! God bless you.
"I am your own brother,
"P. P. PRATT. "
Note: For a rather different telling of this story, see the Dec. 19, 1856
issue of the New Orleans Commercial Bulletin. There Mrs. McLean is pictured as being a deluded convert,
"wrapped up in the gross and disgusting deception" of Mormonism, who abandoned her own children in order to move to
Utah. Parley P. Pratt is portrayed as an "artful polygamist" who was "steathily insinuating himself into the affections
of the wife of an honorable and highminded gentleman, influencing her to dispise and abandon her own husband and
friends, and smuggle off his goods to the Mormon Church." Neither Mormon nor Gentile newspaper accounts of the lurid
affair mention the fact that Mrs. McLean had already consumated an illegal, quasi-marital union with Pratt, while she
was still married to Mr. McLean. Pratt finally took Eleanor McLean as his plural wife on Nov. 14, 1855. For more on
the story see the Arkansas Intelligencer's issues of
May 15, 1857 and
May 22, 1857 as well as
Steven Pratt's 1975 article, "Eleanor McLean and the Murder of Parley P. Pratt" in BYU Studies,
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