Doctrine and Covenants Historical Resources: Parley P. Pratt, Doctrine and Covenants Historical Resources (2025)
Parley P. Pratt, Doctrine and Covenants Historical Resources (2025)
Parley P. Pratt
(1807–57)
Parley Parker Pratt, ca. 1850–1857, daguerreotype, Church History Library, PH 100.
Parley P. Pratt was born in Burlington, New York. He married Thankful Halsey in 1827. He was baptized into The Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints in September 1830 and was ordained an elder the same day. In the following three decades, he served multiple missions in the United States, Canada, England, and Chile (see Doctrine and Covenants 50:37; 52:26. In 1830, he and other missionaries baptized some 130 individuals in Kirtland, Ohio, while on a mission to the Lamanites (Native Americans) (see Doctrine and Covenants 32). While serving a mission in England in 1840, he became the first editor of the Latter-day Saints’ Millennial Star. He presided over the British Mission in 1841–1842.
In the 1830s, Pratt lived with the Saints in Kirtland and in Missouri. In 1834, he participated in the Camp of Israel expedition to Missouri (Doctrine and Covenants 103). He was ordained a member of the Quorum of the Twelve Apostles in 1835. After his first wife died, he married Mary Ann Frost Stearns in 1837. During the Missouri persecutions, he was incarcerated in two Missouri jails in 1838–1839. Beginning in 1843, he lived in Nauvoo, Illinois.
Pratt migrated with the Saints to Utah in 1847. He was murdered while serving a mission in Arkansas.
References in the Doctrine and Covenants