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PARLEY P. PRATT
Total Articles:
11
Topics surrounding Parley P. (Parker) Pratt, early Apostle of the LDS Church.
The Mormon Church teaches its members that Parley was martyred in 1857. The church hides the fact that Parley secretly married the wife of the man who murdered him, not only disobeying the civil marriage laws but interfering in a lawful marriage.
Later, Brigham Young retaliated and ordered the Mountain Meadows Massacre, killing the entire Francher party in Southern Utah.
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1st Presidency Messge For August: Hinckley Leaves Out The Details In Parley P. Pratt's Death
Monday, Jul 18, 2005, at 07:35 AM
Original Author(s): Anonymous
Topic: PARLEY P. PRATT -Link To MC Article- | ↑ | 1st presidency messge for August: Hinckley leaves out the details in Parley P. Pratt's death, which may have fueled the hatred involved in the MMM deaths.
http://www.lds.org/library/display/0,...
Hinckster blathers on about how
great old Parley Pratt was and all of the missionary work that he did.
Then he quickly mentions his death in Arkansas:
In 1857, while serving a mission in Arkansas, he was shot in the back and killed by an assailant.
In
typical mormon fashion, he leads the unwitting reader to feel anger about the death by mentioning that he was shot in the
back
Anyone here know the REAL reason this son-of-a-bitch was killed?
Look here: http://www.helpingmormons.org/linnvol6chap16.html
The "assailant" was none other than the HUSBAND of a woman that Parley Prick seduced into being his NINTH polygamous
wife. IMO, Parley got what he deserved.
Parley P. Pratt was sent to explore a southern route from
Utah to California in 1849. He reached San Francisco from Los Angeles in the summer of 1851, remaining there until June, 1855.
He was a fanatical defender of polygamy after its open proclamation, challenging debate on the subject in San Francisco,
and issuing circulars calling on the people to repent as "the Kingdom of God has come nigh unto you."
While in San
Francisco, Pratt induced the wife of Hector H. McLean, a custom-house official, the mother of three children, to accept the
Mormon faith and to elope with him to Utah as his ninth wife. The children were sent to her parents in Louisiana by their father,
and there she sometime later obtained them, after pretending that she had abandoned the Mormon belief.
When McLean
learned of this he went East, and traced his wife and Pratt to Houston, Texas, and thence to Fort Gibson, near Van Buren,
Arkansas. There he had Pratt arrested, but there seemed to be no law under which he could be held. As soon as Pratt was released,
he left the place on horseback. McLean, who had found letters from Pratt to his wife at Fort Gibson which increased his feeling
against the man, followed him on horseback for eight miles, and then, overtaking him, shot him so that he died in two
hours.
Pratt's death was several months before the mormons launched the bloody massacre on the
wagon train on September 11th, 1857 at Mountain Meadows, Utah . This wagon party originated in Arkansas. Mormons wanted
vengence for the death of their prized Parley Polygamous Prick.
More deaths possibly attributed to JS and his
"restoration of all things"
| Recently here it was posted that in the recent Ensign, Gordon B. Hinckley mentions that Parley P. Pratt "while serving a
mission in Arkansas, he was shot in the back and killed by an assailant." This leads to some interesting history.
The
first murder trial ever held in Utah involved Howard Egan shooting and killing James Monroe (no, not THAT James Monroe). Egan
had been a member of the original pioneer party to enter the Salt Lake Valley. In fact he had been one of the "captains of ten"
during the trek. He had also been a policeman and bodyguard of Joseph Smith in Nauvoo. Edward Firmage and Richard Mangrum lay
out the basic facts of the case:
"Howard Egan had been a guard to Joseph Smith and as a frontiersman had assisted
several wagon companies across the plains. While Egan was away assisting some Forty-Niners to California, one James Monroe
seduced one of Egan's polygamist wives. She later gave birth to Monroe's child. In 1851 Egan caught up with the fleeing Monroe
near the territorial border and killed him for his misconduct." (Firmage and Mangrum Zion in the Courts p 217)
Firmage and Mangrum go on to say that "Egan was exonerated in a church investigation." (Ibid. p 217)
But since this
was technically a murder there was a criminal trial in addition to the church investigation. Egan was tried in October of 1851
with W.W. Phelps and Apostle George A. Smith as his defense counsel. During the trial it was never denied that Egan shot and
killed Monroe. Neither was "self defense" used as Egan's life was not threatened by Monroe.
Apostle George A. Smith
summed up the defense's case in his closing argument to the Jury. Apostle Smith argued that Egan's killing of Monroe was not
only justified but was an "act of justice":
"This defendant asks not his life, if he deserves to die; but if he has
done nothing but an act of justice, he wishes that justice awarded to him. . . . I argue that in this territory it is a principle
of mountain common law, that no man can seduce the wife of another without endangering his own life. . . . What is natural
justice with this people? Does a civil suit for damages answer the purpose, not with an isolated individual, but with this whole
community? No! it does not! The principle, the only one that beats and throbs through the heart of the entire inhabitants of this
Territory, is simply this: The man who seduces his neighbor's wife must die, and her nearest relative must kill him! . . .
Was Monroe a reasonable creature? A dog that steals a bone will hide away; but will a man be called a reasonable
creature, when he knows the executioner is on his track, and at the same time walk right over the law, crawl between the
sheets of a fellow-citizen, and there lay his crocodile eggs, and then think to stow away gunpowder in a glowing furnace? If we
are called upon here to say whether a reasonable creature has been killed, a negative reply is certain. . . . When the
news reached Iron County, that Egan's wife had been seduced by Monroe, the universal conclusion was, "there has to be another
execution;" and if Howard Egan had not killed that man, he would have been damned by the community for ever, and could not have
lived peaceably, without the frown of every man. . . .I will say, here, in our own Territory, we are the sovereign people, and to
seduce the wife of a citizen is death by the common law. . . I will refer to the case of "New Jersey v. Mercer," for killing
Hibberton, the seducer of his sister, The circumstance took place upon a [p.98] public ferry-boat, where Hibberton was shot in a
close carriage in the most public manner. After repeated jury sittings upon his case, the decision was NOT GUILTY. We will allow
this to be set down as a precedent, and, if you please, call it American common law. I will refer to another case: that of
"Louisiana v. Horton," for the killing of the seducer of his sister. The jury in this case also found the prisoner NOT GUILTY.
This is the common practice in the United States, that a man who kills the seducer of his relative is set free. A case of this
kind came under my own observation in Kentucky. A man, for taking the life of the seducer of his sister, was tried and acquitted,
although he did the deed in the presence of hundreds of persons: he shot him not more than ten feet from the Court House. I saw
the prosecutor, and conversed with him, and have a knowledge of the leading facts. I bring these instances before the jury, to
show that there are parallel cases to the one before us in American jurisprudence; . . .I say, in my own manner of talking upon
the point before you, a fellow citizen, known among us for years, is tried for his life; and for what? For the justified killing
of a hyena, that entered his sheets, seduced his wife, and introduced a monster into his family! and to be tried, too, by the
laws of a government ten thousand miles from here! If Howard Egan did kill James Monroe, it was in accordance with the
established principles of justice known in these mountains. That the people of this Territory would have regarded him as
accessory to the crimes of that creature, had he not done it, is also a plain case. . . .were I a juryman, I would lie in the
jury room until the worms should draw me through the key-hole, before I would give in my verdict to hang a man for doing an act
of justice, for the neglect of which he would have been damned in the eyes of this whole community. I make this appeal to you,
that you may give unto us a righteous verdict, which will acquit Mr. Egan, that it may be known that the man who shall insinuate
himself into the community, and seduce his neighbor's wife, or seduce or prostitute any female, may expect to find no more
protection than the wolf would find, or the dog that the shepherd finds killing the sheep: that he may be made aware that he
cannot escape for a moment. God said to Cain, I will put a mark upon you, that no man may kill you. I want the crocodile, the
hyena, that would destroy the reputation of our females to feel that the mark is upon him; and the avenger upon his
path, ready to pounce upon him at any moment to take vengeance; and this, that the chastity of our women, our wives and
daughters, may be preserved: that the community may rest in peace, and no more be annoyed by such vile depredations. . . .I would
say further, what I have said has been in my own mountain English; what the learned prosecutor may be able to show I cannot tell;
enough has been said to show you that this defendant has a right, upon just and pure principles, to be acquitted."
Egan was acquitted. Apostle Smith's closing defense argument was deemed so worthy by the Church Leaders that it was printed in
its entirety in the Journal of Discourses Vol. 1 pp 95-100.
Fast forward six years to 1857. Parley P. Pratt had
converted and married ["seduced?"] as his tenth wife Eleanor McLean, the legal wife of Hector McLean. Pratt brought Eleanor to
Utah and later returned to Arkansas to kidnap Hector's and her children of which Hector had legal custody. Hector McLean
overtook the escaping Parley P. Pratt and killed him just as Howard Egan had overtaken James Monroe and killed him.
Now by applying the standard that George A. Smith had used six years earlier and that had been approved by the Church and
published to the world, Hector McLean had acted correctly and justly. Even though Hector McLean, like Egan, and like the cases
mentioned by Apostle Smith, was later acquitted of any crime, sentiment in Utah was that a terrible miscarriage of justice had
taken place and that McLean was a murderer and that Pratt had died a martyr.
Among the Mormons, it seemed, whether an
act was a dastardly murder or a noble deed of justice seemed to depend soley on the religion of the parties involved.
| The April 2007 Ensign had a lengthy article on the amazing life of Parley P. Pratt, one of the prominent apostles of the restoration. In the article they actually made a brief mention of a second wife. I was very surprised at that as they almost never mention anything at all to do with polygamy. I was thinking that maybe the church was finally starting to be more honest with its members. WRONG!
At they end of the article it says that brother Pratt was murdered. That’s all they said. What most LDS people don’t know is why he was murdered. Parley had 12 polygamous wives. The last one was already married to another man and he wasn’t very happy that Parley added his wife to his harem.
A brief summary of the actual event not mentioned in the Ensign article is as follows:
Parley P. Pratt was sent to explore a southern route from Utah to California in 1849. He reached San Francisco from Los Angeles in the summer of 1851, remaining there until June, 1855. He was a fanatical defender of polygamy after its open proclamation, challenging debate on the subject in San Francisco, and issuing circulars calling on the people to repent as "the Kingdom of God has come nigh unto you."
While in San Francisco, Pratt induced the wife of Hector H. McLean, the former Elenor J. McComb, to accept the Mormon faith and to elope with him to Utah as his 12th wife. Elenor was the mother of three children, a girl and two boys. In the S. F. Bulletin of March 24, 1877, it is stated that the apostle made the acquaintance of Mrs. McLean while engaged in missionary work in San Francisco; that her husband, who was a custom-house official and a respectable citizen, ordered him to discontinue his visits, and kicked him out of the house for continuing them surreptitiously; and that the woman was so infatuated with the Mormon Elder that she devoutly washed his feet whenever he visited her.
It is reported that she was married to Apostle Pratt November 14, 1855, in Salt Lake City. Concerned that his (Hector’s) wife [we have not found any record of divorce] would take his children and follow Pratt to Utah, McLean sent his children to his wife’s parents in New Orleans, Louisiana. Hearing that her children were in her own father’s home, she made plans to go to New Orleans and gain possession of them. After pretending that she had abandoned the Mormon belief, her parents allowed Elenor to take the children. When McLean learned of this he went to New Orleans, and traced his wife and Pratt to Houston, Texas, and thence to Fort Gibson, near Van Buren, Arkansas. On arriving at Fort Smith (near Van Buren), McLean found letters from Parley Pratt addressed to his wife, one of them signed 'Your own,––.
In May of 1857, Pratt was arrested near Van Buren, Arkansas by a Captain Little of the U.S. Cavalry on a warrant stemming from charges filed by Hector McLean. Pratt was transferred under guard to Van Buren, Crawford County, Arkansas, where the nearest federal court convened. Judge John B. Ogden, U.S. Commissioner, presided over the examining session on Tuesday, 12 May 1857. Evidence presented against Elder Pratt was considered insufficient to warrant holding him, and he was to be released. However, the judge purposely did not announce the decision to release Elder Pratt at that time, hoping to dissuade McLean from his avowed determination to kill him. Elder Pratt was kept at the jailhouse overnight in protective custody. Early the next morning Judge Ogden brought his horse to him at the jail, saw that he was discharged, and at the same time offered him a knife and a pistol as a means of self-defense. But Elder Pratt declined, saying, “Gentlemen, I do not rely on weapons of that kind, my trust is in my God. Goodbye, gentlemen.”
As soon as Pratt was released, he left the place on horseback. McLean, who had found letters from Pratt to his wife at Fort Gibson which increased his feeling against the man, followed him on horseback. Although Pratt rode a circuitous route to escape his pursuers, a light rain allowed Hector McLean and two accomplices, James Cornell and Amasa Howell, to track him. They caught up with the fleeing man some twelve miles northeast of Van Buren (near Alma, Arkansas) in front of the Winn farm. McLean fired shots, but they failed to take effect. Riding up to Elder Pratt, McLean stabbed him in the left breast with his bowie knife. The wounded man fell from his horse. About ten minutes later McLean returned and, placing a gun next to Pratt’s neck, deliberately fired into the prostrate figure.
Following the assassination of her 2nd husband, Parley Pratt, by her 1st husband, Hector McLean, Elenor returned quickly to Salt Lake City, where she relayed the details (as she knew them) of Pratt’s death [some say reporting directly to Brigham Young]. Some say that it is was her report that set off the sequence of events that culminated in the Mountain Meadows Massacre.
| Parley P. Pratt Conferences In Arkansas April 21st - And One Whopper Of A Lie - And You Thought The Lds Church Was Done With Deception
Thursday, Apr 19, 2007, at 08:33 AM
Original Author(s): Jw The Inquizzinator
Topic: PARLEY P. PRATT -Link To MC Article- | ↑ | The following appears in this article: http://deseretnews.com/dn/view/0,1249...
"An early apostle in The Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints, Pratt was killed near Van Buren, Ark., in May 1857, by a small Arkansas band antagonistic toward his teachings."
UNBELIEVABLE....
For those that still profess that all the deception, lying, and falsities were in the LDS past...I submit this as Exhibit A.
Parley Pratt was NOT killed for his "teachings". He was murdered by an angry husband of a woman that PPP married (yes, while she was still married to husband #1--the murderer).
It was NOT a dispute over LDS points of doctrine.
It was NOT an angry "mob" tryng to persecute a poor Mormon apostle/preacher.
It WAS an angry husband who tracked down PPP in a cross-country chase [while PPP was making every attempt to dodge the husband and get back to Utah with the husband's wife].
In dispute were the children of this husband and wife. The wife wanted to take the children to Utah, the husband did not concur.
The husband resolved the matter by tracking down and murdering PPP.
Here is a brief summary of the facts of the story:
Parley P. Pratt was sent to explore a southern route from Utah to California in 1849. He reached San Francisco from Los Angeles in the summer of 1851, remaining there until June, 1855. He was a fanatical defender of polygamy after its open proclamation, challenging debate on the subject in San Francisco, and issuing circulars calling on the people to repent as "the Kingdom of God has come nigh unto you."
While in San Francisco, Pratt induced the wife of Hector H. McLean, the former Elenor J. McComb, to accept the Mormon faith and to elope with him to Utah as his ninth [some reports say twelth] wife. Elenor was the mother of three children, a girl and two boys. In the S. F. Bulletin of March 24, 1877, it is stated that the apostle made the acquaintance of Mrs. McLean while engaged in missionary work in San Francisco; that her husband, who was a custom-house official and a respectable citizen, ordered him to discontinue his visits, and kicked him out of the house for continuing them surreptitiously; and that the woman was so infatuated with the Mormon Elder that she devoutly washed his feet whenever he visited her. It is reported that she was married to Pratt November 14, 1855, in Salt Lake City.
Concerned that his (Hector’s) wife [I have not found a record of divorce] would take his children and follow Pratt to Utah, McLean sent his children to his wife’s parents in New Orleans, Louisiana.
Hearing that her children were in her own father’s home, she made plans to go to New Orleans and gain possession of them. After pretending that she had abandoned the Mormon belief, her parents allowed Elenor to take the children. Elenor made off with her children and attempted for the next months to join up with Pratt and return with him and her children to Utah.
In 1856 President Brigham Young directed Parley P. Pratt to carry out an extended proselyting tour in the eastern states. Leaving Salt Lake City on September 11, 1856, Elder Pratt traveled extensively among the branches in Philadelphia, New York City, Cincinnati, and elsewhere.
While Pratt was engaged in that calling, he learned that Hector McLean (having learned of Elenor's disappearance from her parents with the chldren) was actively tracing his whereabouts. McLean nearly caught him in St. Louis. Pratt eluded the man and managed to escape to Indian Territory (Oklahoma), where Elder George B. Higginson was working among the Indians of the Creek and Cherokee nations.
Pratt and Elenor corrsponded several times in their attempt to link up and return to Utah.
McLean, now using his position as a federal official [custom house official] to trace Pratt and Elenor's corrspondence. He traced his wife and Pratt to Houston, Texas, and thence to Fort Gibson, near Van Buren, Arkansas. On arriving at Fort Smith (near Van Buren), McLean found letters from Parley Pratt addressed to his wife.
In May of 1857, Pratt was arrested near Van Buren, Arkansas by a Captain Little of the U.S. Cavalry on a warrant stemming from charges filed by Hector McLean. Pratt was transferred under guard to Van Buren, Crawford County, Arkansas, where the nearest federal court convened. Judge John B. Ogden, U.S. Commis¬sioner, presided over the examining session on Tuesday, 12 May 1857. Evidence presented against Pratt was considered insufficient to warrant holding him, and he was to be released. However, the judge purposely did not announce the decision to release Pratt at that time, hoping to dissuade McLean from his avowed determination to kill him.
Pratt was kept at the jailhouse overnight in protective custody. Early the next morning Judge Ogden brought his horse to him at the jail, saw that he was discharged, and at the same time offered him a knife and a pistol as a means of self-defense. But Pratt declined, saying, “Gentlemen, I do not rely on weapons of that kind, my trust is in my God. Goodbye, gentlemen.”
As soon as Pratt was released, he left the place on horseback. McLean, who had found letters from Pratt to his wife at Fort Gibson which increased his feeling against the man, followed him on horseback. Although Pratt rode a circuitous route to escape his pursuers, a light rain allowed Hector McLean and two accomplices, James Cornell and Amasa Howell, to track him. They caught up with the fleeing man some twelve miles northeast of Van Buren (near Alma, Arkansas) in front of the Winn farm. McLean fired shots, but they failed to take effect. Riding up to Pratt, McLean stabbed him in the left breast with his bowie knife. The wounded man fell from his horse. About ten minutes later McLean returned and, placing a gun next to Pratt’s neck, deliberately fired into the prostrate figure.
Following the assassination of her 2nd husband, Parley Pratt, by her 1st husband, Hector McLean, Elenor returned quickly to Salt Lake City, where she relayed the details (as she knew them) of Pratt’s death [some say reporting directly to Brigham Young]. Some say that it is was her report that set off the sequence of events that culminated in the Mountain Meadows Massacre.
Hector returned to New Orleans and resumed life. Although The McLean children were baptized, they were not endowed until just a few years ago--leading one to assume that the children were never active in the lds church.
Elenor stayed in Utah for the rest of her life.
| Two More Interesting Discoveries About Parley P. Pratt And The Mountain Meadows Massacre
Wednesday, Apr 25, 2007, at 07:53 AM
Original Author(s): Jw The Inquizzinator
Topic: PARLEY P. PRATT -Link To MC Article- | ↑ | First, I had forgotten that PPP departed SLC on his fateful last trip on Sep 11, 1856.
"Leaving Salt Lake City on 11 September 1856, Elder Pratt traveled extensively among the branches in Philadelphia, New York City, Cincinnati, and elsewhere."
http://www.gordonbanks.com/gordon/fam...
Secondly, I found this interesting quote [in a non-anti-mormon publication]:
"While Pratt preached in the eastern States, his wife, Eleanor McComb Pratt, traveled from Utah to New Orleans to recover her three children from her parent’s home. In early 1855, her estranged husband, Hector McLean, whom she described as an abusive alcoholic who violently opposed her conversion to Mormonism, had sent them by ship from San Francisco to her parents without Eleanor’s knowledge. After retrieving her children, Eleanor headed towards Utah.
McLean, who blamed Pratt, tracked him in order to exact revenge. Apostle Erastus Snow reported to Brigham Young (in code language) that Pratt had narrowly escaped from McLean in St. Louis: “The Hare [Parley] however escaped narrowly but silently by a way they knew not and the blood hounds have lost every scent of his trail. The Bird [Eleanor] with her Young [her children] had flown over the Gulf and her beak headed towards the high places of the Mountains.” On her way to the “Mountains,” Eleanor met Parley in Oklahoma Indian Territory, where McLean obtained a warrant for their arrest by alleging they had stolen the clothes the children were wearing. On this flimsy charge, a U.S. marshal with a military escort arrested them, along with another missionary, George Higginson."
http://www.sonsofutahpioneers.org/Pio...
So Sep 11 was just a remarkable coincidence for the MMM (365 days to the day from the time PPP departed SLC [and prob the day that BY said good-bye to him].
And, the Snow note shows the lds royalty [including BY] knew about McLean and PPP's attempt at getting Eleanor's children back to SLC [against the wished of the parent that did NOT abandon the children].
| Now some of you probably have this figured out already, but it finally hit me as I was digging for more info on Hector McLean, PPP, etc in San Francisco in the early 1850s. Here's a couple of things I found out:
1) When PPP went to South America in 1851 from San Fran, he took along a wife.
http://www.lightplanet.com/mormons/pe...
"In 1851 the First Presidency called Elder Pratt to preside over a "General Mission to the Pacific" with headquarters in San Francisco. Sensing a duty to the peoples of Latin America, he, with his wife Phebe Soper, and Elder Rufus Allen, sailed to Valparaiso, Chile, in September 1851. Frustrated by language difficulties, poverty, the death of an infant son, and the ecclesiastical and political conditions in Chile, the missionaries returned to San Francisco in March 1852."
2) When PPP got back to San Fran, another wife met him and ask for a divorce, which PPP got from BY ($10 was the going rate I believe).
http://www.boap.org/LDS/Early-Saints/...
"On my arrival home I found my wife, Mary Ann Frost, and my two children, Olivia and Moroni, who had arrived from Maine, where they had been for several years. The two children were glad to see me, but their mother had for several years been alienated from me. I, however, supported her until the following spring, when she applied for and obtained a bill of divorce; after which, with the two children, she removed to Utah County."
3) Eleanor McLean was baptized in SLC. I led myself to believe she was baptized in San Fran. The PPP advocates always point out that Eleanor "joined" the lds faith before she ever met PPP [thus diminishing the claim that PPP 'courted' her into the faith]. PPP advocates would have us all believe that Eleanor showed up in SLC in Oct 1854, then was sealed to PPP by BY in Nov 1854. I think it much more likely that PPP and Eleanor just formalized their relationship in Nov 1854, a relationship that had roots possibly as far back as 1851.
Eleanor McLean was baptized in Salt Lake on 24 May 1854 in the Endowment House in Salt Lake City, Utah.
http://data.pratt-family.org/descenda...
"Parley Parker Pratt and Eleanor Jane (Ellen) Mc Comb were married on 14 Nov 1855 in Salt Lake City, Salt Lake, Utah. They were sealed together on 14 Nov 1855 in the Endowment House LDS temple. Eleanor Jane (Ellen) Mc Comb was born on 29 Dec 1817 in Wheeling, Ohio, West Virginia. She was baptized into the LDS Church on 24 May 1854 in Endowment House, Salt Lake City, Utah. She was endowed on 14 Nov 1855 in the Endowment House LDS temple. She died on 24 Oct 1874 in Salt Lake City, Salt Lake, Utah. She was buried on 24 Oct 1874 in SLC Cemetery, Salt Lake City, Salt Lake, Utah. Her Ancestral File Number is 84ZJ-7X. >She was married to Hector Hugle McLean in June 1841. They were separated in 1844. Hector was born in 1816/1817 in Scotland (per the 1860 US census)."
4) PPP departed SLC, with Eleanor in tow, to perform mission in the East on Sep 11, 1856 [Eleanor's "mission" was to get their children back since Hector had them parked in New Orleans with Eleanor's parents]. This is the last day BY ever laid eyes on PPP. Perhaps ol' BY marked his calendar, because exactly 365 days later, the blood flowed at Mountain Meadows..coincidence? Hmmmmmmm
| I'm excited and sad to hear that there's news from home. It seems as though Parley P. Pratt is Risen! Well, he will be disinterred and moved to Salt Lake City, anyway.
Even as I type this news, I'm enjoying a beautiful snow-covered mountain vista here in Salt Lake, overlooking the valley - the same valley that Parley P. Pratt was familiar with, and the place to which he wanted to be buried as his dying wish.
I've included the associated press release, but I wanted to include some of my own comments just for kicks and history sake.
A piece of Mormon history that members in the Alma, Van Buren, and surrounding areas in Arkansas have enjoyed will leave an empty space and an empty place for many faithful believers in that area.
Having Parley's grave site in the community has always brought a sense of pride and honor to the local faithful members. In fact, the grave is just a hop and a skip from the local ward building.
Moving Parley Pratt from Arkansas to Utah has been in the works for years, but it's finally becoming a reality. Parley P. Pratt is being moved to Salt Lake City.
I've followed this story over the past few years out of mere curiosity, but even lately, I've been even more enveloped in the developments.
I grew up a few sticks and stones from the grave site of Parley P. Pratt in Arkansas, and my family often visited the grave site each year.
We would visit at times just to pay our respects to one of the original Apostles called by Joseph Smith for the Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints.
Other times we would visit for service projects. We would clean up the area, or help with projects that the ward or stake had set up to help beautify the site. I remember helping with the youth as we built a stone walkway to the site.
Naturally, as we were all faithful and believing Mormons, we didn't really know the story behind what happened the day Parley Pratt took his last look at this world and slipped into the next. Assuming there is a next.
We knew he had been killed - martyred in the name of spreading the glorious Mormon gospel message, but the details, like most details in church history, were incredibly blurry.
I've done a lot of research on Parley Pratt over the last several years, to learn more about his last days and moments in life. Everybody has their own spin on what happened. Some (e.g. his family and believing Mormons) make him out to be a martyr and saint. Others (e.g. the McLean family, reputable scholars, and non-members historians) portray Parley for what he was - a wife stealin' polygamist.
The truth is always somewhere in between.
As recently as 2005 I went to visit my family for my sister's wedding and enjoyed an afternoon at the grave site before finally having to fly back home to Salt Lake.
After leaving the grave site in 2005 and seeing Parley in Arkansas for the last time, I just have one regret. I didn't get to spit on the grave before I left. I didn't know to. I hadn't learned all of the details.
There's silver lining for the story, however. They are moving Parley to Salt Lake where I happen to live, so I'll have the opportunity to give him a proper spitting. What's even better is that he's coming to me - I don't have to fly out to him.
Why, you ask, would I want to spit on his grave? Is it because I'm now a non-believer who hates Mormons, especially early apostles? Nope. Not even close. I still have a soft place in my heart for Mormons and their early leaders.
Parley Pratt was sincere in his beliefs, that I am almost sure of. But he also had the same unquenchable sexual appetite that the early Mormon church leaders exhibited.
The story of why I want to spit on Parley Pratt's grave comes from a little known piece of history that I came across some time ago that has sense become more familiar.
When Parley Pratt was finally buried that evening of his death, the years would soon erase the traces of his grave. The Pratt family had tried unsuccessfully to send folks out to find the grave and bring Parley back home. Fast forward to 1937. Harold Pratt was taken to the grave and took pictures of it.
As some folks tell it, the grave site was identified by and elderly gentleman who used to sit on the stone on his way home from school.
He said he was partial to Parley's grave because his father would spit on the stone every time he passed it by and say: "Damn you to hell Parley P. Pratt!"
Why would anyone want to spit on Parley's Pratt's grave? Because he was Mormon? Because he was a victim of the terrible and ruthless persecution that all Mormons faced at the time?
Nah, let's not start telling fairy tales again. Believing Mormons will tell you that Parley was out valiantly serving a mission and spreading the gospel.
What he was really doing was tying up lose ends regarding a new wife that he had recently converted and married - while she was still married to her husband, on orders given by Brigham Young.
Eleanor McLean had left her husband for Pratt. Hector McLean wasn't real happy that his wife had been converted to Mormonism to become a polygamous wife.
The story is told both ways, that Hector was an alcoholic and somewhat abusive (by the Mormons) and that Hector was a good family man, trying to keep his family together (by those who knew him personally).
Whichever way you want to look at it, Hector was hell-bent on tracking Parley Pratt down for destroying his family. Hector sent his kids to live with their grandparents while he took on the mission of revenge.
I can't say that I blame him. It wasn't enough that Parley had 11 wives already, but it sure is convenient to convert a lady and take her on as your 12th wife while she's still married to her husband. (There's a lot of that in the early history of the church.)
Hector finally caught up to Parley and had him arrested at Ft. Gibson, Oklahoma. He was then transferred to Van Buren, Arkansas.
The press article about Parley Pratt's disinterment and trip to Salt Lake would have you believe that he was charged and accused for "the estrangement of the McLean marriage" but he was actually arrested and held on charges of stealing children's clothes. Those were the charges that were exonerated.
After his release from jail, people were mighty nervous for Pratt. And for good reason. McLean was only going to be satisfied with Pratt's death - nothing less.
McLean and an accomplice finally caught up with Pratt in Alma, Arkansas. Hector shot and stabbed Pratt.
Pratt would live a few more hours before finally passing away that fateful day; May 13th, 1857, unable to enjoy the fruits of polygamy, and his recent eternal love lady - Eleanor McLean.
Eleanor would live to only see her youngest son again, when he came out to live with her in Salt Lake in 1870.
Hector McLean and his accomplice were arrested for murder but were not convicted in their trial - which is very telling. Many folks in the Alma and Van Buren areas sympathized with Hector's situation.
Mountain Meadows - that's another story.
120 Arkansans slaughtered and butchered in Utah on their way to California.
Brigham Young was flaming mad at the news that Parley Pratt had been killed. The last day he saw him alive was September 11, 1856. The Mountain Meadows Massacre conveniently was ordered on September 11, 1857, one year to the day that Pratt was last seen alive by Brigham.
The story goes both ways - it was just a coincidence and a terrible tragedy caused by local church leaders (as told by Mormon sympathizers) or it was blood atonement carried out in revenge of Pratt's death ordered by Brigham Young. There's been Brigham Young connections made. That the 120 were from Arkansas and all slaughtered on September 11th is curious.
In 1999, Gordon B. Hinckley distanced the church from any wrongdoing saying that "we can't understand" what happened that day. He asked that we "close the book" on that chapter in history. Hinckley, claiming to have "read about" the tragedy, seemed convinced that Brigham Young didn't issue the killing order.
17 children under 6 years of age were spared. The older children weren't.
September 12th, 2007 the Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints made an official apology statement for the tragedy that occurred that day, taking responsibility for what has been an infected wound in their history since it happened.
Interestingly enough, the Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints is seeking a National Historic Landmark Designation for the site.
http://www.whymormons.net/2008/04/par...
| In Edinburgh, there is a hill known as Arthur's Seat
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Arthur%2...
Some believe the name goes back to the 6th century AD, and relates to King Arthur.
History has never been of much interest to the mormon church. And neither has respect for individuals or nations.
The mormon legend goes that Parley P. Pratt visited Scotland, climbed Arthur's Seat and from there pronounced a so-called mormon apostolic blessing upon Scotland. As if Scotland need such a blessing. Scotland was already a very successful nation, contributing so much to the world, for so little a place.
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Scottish...
Anyway, Scotland's then prominence in the world didn't stop the mormon church trying to highjack one of it's famous landmarks. Following pratt's visit and so-called blessing, the mormons in Salt Lake renamed Arthur's Seat to "Pratt's Hill".
Now, a Utard may not fully appreciate the lack of respect this conveys. Maybe, if Bob Marley had ever visited Temple Square, and Rastafarians thenceforth called the place, Marley's Sqaure, well, maybe then, Utard's might get it.
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Bob_marl...
Who knows?
It's funny, but Pratt's prayer was a bit of a failure. There was a flash in the pan in the baseball baptising 60' in Scotland, but times have changed. Like the rest of Europe, the Cult fo jesus smith is in sharp decline in Scotland. Chapels closed and abandoned. Stakes centres shrinking. Cult victims educating themselves, and kicking the Cult out of the playing field.
Joe's legacy is dying in Scotland, just as in Germany and elswhere in Europe.
In a recent visit to Scotland, the mongrel, prophet-lawyer, Dallin Oaks was asked by a friend of mine, "Why [ as per figure 7 within facsimile 2] does god have an erection when he is giving our the keys of the priesthood, as described in the Book of Abraham."
Oaks, replied, "I don't know the answer to that question."
Well, he did know the answer. Oaks knows that the BoA is a crock, and is no more a translation of the writings of Abraham, than Yogi bear is an ancient Indian mystic.
The chickens are comming home to roost. Up and down the UK - in Scotland, England, Wales and Ireland - people are waking up. It's really hard to keep the Cult Deceit going, when the facts of history are so easy to get hold of. Cold hard facts. The bane of the mormon church.
For me, it only took a few days of reading and discovery for the whole mormon fairy tale to unravel.
So, Oaks, Ballard, Smith and Young, the people of Scotland will send you back to Salt Lake, to think again.
Good riddance to bad rubbish.
| Bizarre Ending To Eleanor Mccomb Mclean Pratt And Hector Mclean
Thursday, May 28, 2009, at 08:17 AM
Original Author(s): Jw The Inquizzinator
Topic: PARLEY P. PRATT -Link To MC Article- | ↑ | OK, you can't make this up....this goes under the category of strange but true.
Found Hector Hugle McLean's death record...New Orleans, 1867, He was 50 (although the online record says 30...I am sure that is a transcription error...I mean how many Hector Hugle McLean's could there be in New Orleans in 1867?).
He died on October 24, 1867. http://files.usgwarchives.org/la/orle...
Eleanor McComb McLean Pratt died on October 24, 1874, exactly seven years later....same day.
http://data.pratt-family.org/descenda...
Also from the last link "Parley Parker Pratt and Eleanor Jane (Ellen) Mc Comb were married on 14 Nov 1855 in Salt Lake City, Salt Lake, Utah. They were sealed together on 14 Nov 1855 in the Endowment House LDS temple. Eleanor Jane (Ellen) Mc Comb was born on 29 Dec 1817 in Wheeling, Ohio, West Virginia. She was baptized into the LDS Church on 24 May 1854 in Endowment House, Salt Lake City, Utah. She was endowed on 14 Nov 1855 in the Endowment House LDS temple. She died on 24 Oct 1874 in Salt Lake City, Salt Lake, Utah. She was buried on 24 Oct 1874 in SLC Cemetery, Salt Lake City, Salt Lake, Utah. Her Ancestral File Number is 84ZJ-7X. >She was married to Hector Hugle McLean in June 1841. They were separated in 1844. Hector was born in 1816/1817 in Scotland (per the 1860 US census)."
So any thought of Eleanor being the sweet convert in San Francisco THEN going with PPP to SLC seems to be wrong. Looks like she want off to SLC in 1854, was baptized in May, then was not sealed until 18 months later (Nov 14, 1855). In between those dates, her son Albert (age 9) was baptized (27 Aug 1854 in Union City, Alameda, Caifornia). I assume Eleanor made a trip with PPP to SLC to get baptized, then returned with him to SF. It was after Albert's baptism [I imagine Hector didn't care what Eleanor did at that point, but dragging the kids in was the last straw), Hector sent the kids to New Orleans.
It wasn't until 1857 that Eleanor tried to get the kids back (can you say child abandonment?)....her adventure eventually costing poor Parley his life [life lessons in there methinks].
This story doesn't quite come through in the new book....hmmmmmm.
| Another Hector H. Mclean Article, Ref Letters In Code, Deseret Alphabet?
Wednesday, Jun 3, 2009, at 07:59 AM
Original Author(s): Jw The Inquizzinator
Topic: PARLEY P. PRATT -Link To MC Article- | ↑ | Found this in my search through old Missouri Newspapers, Libery Weekly Tribune, Liberty, MO, July 10, 1857
"HECTOR H. MCLEAN, THE MAN WHO KILLED THE SEDUCER OF HIS WIFE"
"This gentlemen, whose heroic and persevering efforts to rescue his children form the loathsome embraces of Mormonism have made his name familiar to the public, yesterday paid us a visit. He showed us a number of letters written to his wife by P.P. Pratt, in the characters which the Mormons have invented in order to carry on correspondence and conceal their meaning, should the[i]r letters ever happen to fall into the hands of "Gentiles." The letters thus written are as perfectly incomprehensible to us as they would be if written in Chinese.--Strange as it may appear, Mr. McLean translated these letters correctly, as circumstances subsequently showed, without any previous knowledge of the characters used."
"The only key he had was furnished in the first letter, wherein the writer informed his victim that certain alterations had been made in this Mormon alphabet, and explained what they were, so that she might understand them. The alterations were only two, and from this slight clue to the meaning of these hieroglyphics, Mr. M'Lane succeeded, after giving up in despair several times, in deciphering the whole, thus enabling him to thwart the efforts of the imposter to rob him of his children.--It was extraordinary, and shows itself veritably that necessity is the mother of invention. Mr. M'Lane narrated to us a number of circumstances which almost seemed to indicate the direct interposition of Providence in his behalf in causing him to secure his children."
"We advise Mormon spies here, as elsewhere, to give Mr. M'Lean as wide a berth as possible. His company to them will prove extremely disagreeable to say the least."
"If Buchanan would confer upon him the Governorship of Utah, and he would accept it, we are inclined to think that the old Brigand would have a sudden weakness in his knees.---New Orleans Bulletin."
And before anyone quotes this, I had previously posted this:
""While Pratt preached in the eastern States, his wife, Eleanor McComb Pratt, traveled from Utah to New Orleans to recover her three children from her parent’s home. In early 1855, her estranged husband, Hector McLean, whom she described as an abusive alcoholic who violently opposed her conversion to Mormonism, had sent them by ship from San Francisco to her parents without Eleanor’s knowledge. After retrieving her children, Eleanor headed towards Utah.
McLean, who blamed Pratt, tracked him in order to exact revenge. Apostle Erastus Snow reported to Brigham Young (in code language) that Pratt had narrowly escaped from McLean in St. Louis: “The Hare [Parley] however escaped narrowly but silently by a way they knew not and the blood hounds have lost every scent of his trail. The Bird [Eleanor] with her Young [her children] had flown over the Gulf and her beak headed towards the high places of the Mountains.” On her way to the “Mountains,” Eleanor met Parley in Oklahoma Indian Territory, where McLean obtained a warrant for their arrest by alleging they had stolen the clothes the children were wearing. On this flimsy charge, a U.S. marshal with a military escort arrested them, along with another missionary, George Higginson."
http://www.sonsofutahpioneers.org/Pio...
Not sure the New Orleans Bulletin was referring to that....but perhaps.
Interesting none-the-less.....and proof that not only was Hector not prosecuted in Arkansas (where the majority must have thought he did what any concerned 'pioneer' parent would do if their children were kidnapped), but that he was also socially exonerated in New Orleans as well.
| Mormons believe in honoring and sustaining the law when it is convenient:
While returning from a horseback missionary trip to the southern United States in 1857, Pratt was being tracked by Hector McLean. McLean was the legal husband of one of Pratt's plural wives, Eleanor McLean. Pratt had met Eleanor McLean in San Francisco, California, where Pratt was presiding over a church mission. In San Francisco, Eleanor had joined the LDS Church and had also had her oldest sons baptized. Hector rejected Mormonism and opposed his wife's membership in the church. The dispute over the church led to the collapse of the marriage. Fearing that Eleanor would abscond to Utah Territory with their children, Hector sent his sons and his daughter to New Orleans to live with their grandparents. Eleanor followed the children to New Orleans, where she lived with them for three months at her parents' house. Eventually, she and the children left for Utah Territory; she arrived in Salt Lake City on September 11, 1855. Eleanor McLean was employed in Pratt's home as a schoolteacher, and on November14, 1855, she and Pratt underwent a "celestial marriage" sealing ceremony in the Salt Lake Temple. She was the twelfth woman to be sealed to Pratt. Though for religious reasons Eleanor considered herself "unmarried", she was not legally divorced from Hector at the time of her "celestial marriage" to Pratt.
Upon learning of his wife's actions, Hector McLean pressed criminal charges, accusing Pratt of assisting in the kidnapping of his children. Pratt managed to evade him and the legal charges, but was finally arrested in Indian Territory (now Oklahoma) in May 1857. He and Eleanor were charged only with theft of the clothing of McLean's children. (The laws of that time did not recognize the kidnapping of children by a parent as a crime.)
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Parley_P...
It seems that all of the men in leadership positions in the early church had checkered histories. Wealth and women were the goals of Joseph Smith and his cronies.
Original sources:
Bagley, Will (2002). Blood of the Prophets, Brigham Young and the Massacre at Mountain Meadows. Norman, Oklahoma: University of Oklahoma Press. ISBN 0-8061-3426-7
Millennial Star 19:432. New York World, 23 November 1869, p.2).
Pratt, Steven (1975). "Eleanor McLean and the Murder of Parley P. Pratt" (PDF). BYU Studies 15 (2): 225–56. http://byustudies.byu.edu/shop/pdfSRC/15.2Pratt.pdf.
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