[lit-ideas] Re: Pratts
- From: David Ritchie <ritchierd@xxxxxxxxxxxxx>
- To: lit-ideas@xxxxxxxxxxxxx
- Date: Mon, 30 May 2011 16:11:15 -0700
Memorial Day is a good time think about what we remember. A while back, the
following sentences in Larry Mc Murtry, "Oh What a Slaughter," caught my eye,
"The Fancher Party was already on the road when Parley Pratt was killed--by an
outraged husband whose wife the prophet coveted for his own purposes. This
woman, Eleanor McComb McLean Pratt, though in appearance an unlikely Helen of
Troy, was soon recovered sufficiently from her grief to proclaim the evil of
gentiles and appeal for vengeance." Mc Murtry says that this appeal for
vengeance was one of several "stresses" within the Mormon communities in the
late summer of 1857 that contributed to the Mountain Meadows massacre.
Since I grew up near a place named Pratt's Bottom, and Pratt is not a name you
run across regularly, I wondered if there might be a connection between the
Pratts whose bottom the land in Kent once was
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Pratt's_Bottom
and these American Pratts.
The latter are descended from a Lt. William Pratt, who landed in Connecticut in
the 1630's. This website seems strangely uninterested in what came before in
some other land:
http://jared.pratt-family.org/general_histories/general_descendancy_search.html
They do, however, have a very different version of the marriage of Eleanor to
Hector McLean.
http://jared.pratt-family.org/parley_histories/parley-death-stephen-pratt.html
In this account of the events leading up to and including the murder there's a
weird typo, "At about half past noon a lady came to the hotel in Van Buren
where Eleanor was staying and told her that Parley had been shot. A later
report said he was wounded but not dead. Then McLean appeared on the scene. He
and few friends were drinking at the bar of the hotel when Mr. Smith, the
landlord, approached them and asked McLean what he had done. Hector raped,
'Well, I have done a good work.'"
"Raped" for "replied"?
Wikipedia says Pratt had twelve wives. It also says that the Canyon named
after him in Utah is not called "Pratt's Canyon," it's "Parley's Canyon."
My favorite part of the Wikipedia article is a legal issue, what to charge
someone with when you can't charge them with kidnapping children: "Upon
learning of his wife's actions, Hector McLean pressed criminal charges,
accusing Pratt of assisting in the kidnapping of his children.[9] Pratt managed
to evade him and the legal charges, but was finally arrested in Indian
Territory (now Oklahoma) in May 1857.[10] He and Eleanor were charged only with
theft of the clothing of McLean's children.[11] (The laws of that time did not
recognize the kidnapping of children by a parent as a crime.) Tried before
Judge John B. Ogden, Pratt was acquitted of the charges because of a lack of
evidence.[11]"
And the reference attached to that footnote about "lack of evidence"? A book
about the Mountain Meadows massacre. Looking for reviews of the recent movie
that had that event in its story, I found this site:
http://mountainmeadowsmassacre.com/September_Dawn.html
Scan down and you'll find, "What do the critics say about September Dawn"? Ty
Burr and Roget Ebert didn't like it. Mitt Romney said he's not going to view
the film.
Actor Jon Voight has said that September Dawn was not intended to critcize the
Mormon Church or Mitt Romney:
"This is a true part of our American history - very well documented as well -
but we're not pointing a finger at the (Mormon) church today.
"Nor does it have anything to do with Mitt Romney's campaign. (He is) one of
the people in the political sphere today who really understands what we're
facing with religious fanatics in the Islamic world."
Mitt Romney is a great, great grandson of Parley Pratt.
http://www.unionleader.com/article/20110526/NEWS0605/110529919/0/FRONTPAGE
Carry on.
David Ritchie,
Portland, Oregon
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