Doctrine and Covenants Historical Resources: Orson Pratt, Doctrine and Covenants Historical Resources (2025)
Orson Pratt, Doctrine and Covenants Historical Resources (2025)
Orson Pratt
(1811–81)
Orson Pratt, photograph, Church History Library, PH 4258.
Orson Pratt was born in Hartford, New York. He was baptized into The Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints by his brother Parley in September 1830. That December he was ordained an elder and appointed to serve a mission to Colesville, New York. In 1831, he moved to Kirtland, Ohio. After being called by revelation (Doctrine and Covenants 52:26; 75:13; 103:40), he subsequently served missions to Missouri, to the eastern United States (twice), to Upper Canada, and to Great Britain.
In 1834 Orson Pratt participated in the Camp of Israel expedition to Missouri. The following year, he was ordained a member of the Quorum of the Twelve Apostles. In 1836 he married Sarah Marinda Bates. In August 1842, while living in Nauvoo, Illinois, Pratt was excommunicated from the Church, but the following January he was rebaptized and reordained to his former office in the Quorum of the Twelve.
Pratt was a member of the Brigham Young pioneer company when the Saints migrated to Utah in 1847 (see Doctrine and Covenants 136:13). He presided over the Church in Great Britain from 1848 to 1849 and from 1856 to 1857. In 1874, he was appointed Church historian. He was integral to the revisions resulting in the 1876 edition of the Doctrine and Covenants.
References in the Doctrine and Covenants