Mary Ann Frost Stearns Pratt

Mary Ann Frost Stearns Pratt
Personal details
Born Mary Ann Frost
(1809-01-14)January 14, 1809
Groton, Vermont, United States
Died Pleasant Grove, Utah, Utah Territory, United States
Resting place Pleasant Grove City Cemetery
40°22′09″N 111°44′27″W / 40.3691°N 111.7409°W / 40.3691; -111.7409 (Pleasant Grove City Cemetery)
Spouse(s) Nathan Stearns (1832-1833)
Parley P. Pratt (1837-1853)
Parents Aaron Frost
Susanna Gray Bennett

Mary Ann Frost Stearns Pratt (born January 14, 1809, Groton, Vermont; d. August 24, 1891 in Pleasant Grove, Utah Territory) was a wife of Parley P. Pratt who was one of the original twelve apostles of the Church of Jesus Christ of Latter Day Saints. She is also considered by some to have been one of the plural wives of Joseph Smith the founder of the Latter Day Saint movement. Her life paralleled much of the early history of the church.

Early life

Mary Ann Frost was born in Groton, Vermont and was the daughter of Aaron Frost, a farmer and his wife Susanna Gray Bennett Frost. When Mary Ann was young, her family moved to Bethel, Maine (then a province of Massachusetts).

She married Nathan Stearns, her first husband, on April 1, 1832. She gave birth to her first child, Mary Ann Stearns, on April 6, 1833. Nathan Stearns died on August 25 of the same year leaving Mary Ann an widow.

In the late summer of 1835 Brigham Young, and a number of other Mormons came to Bethel, Maine. Mary Ann and her sister, Olive Grey Frost - who would later marry both Joseph Smith and, after Smith's death, Brigham Young - converted to the Mormon faith and were baptized by Mormon Apostle David W. Patten.

Marriage to Parley P. Pratt

In late 1836 Mary Ann and her sister moved to Kirtland, Ohio, where the church gathered and built its first temple. While in Kirtland, she met the recently widowed Parley P. Pratt, one of the original twelve apostles of the Church of Jesus Christ of Latter Day Saints. They were married in Kirtland on May 9, 1837.

In July 1837 Parley P. Pratt left on a mission trip to New York City. During this trip Pratt published the second edition of the Book of Mormon and his book A Voice of Warning defending the Mormon faith.

In April 1838, as a result of the Mormons being expelled from Ohio, Pratt and Mary Ann moved to the town of Far West in Caldwell County, Missouri. Their first child, Nathan Pratt, was born there on August 31, 1838.

Pratt participated in the Battle of Crooked River, near Ray County, Missouri on 25 October 1838. He was apprehended after the battle and was jailed at Richmond in Ray County and later in Columbia in Boone County from late 1838. In December Mary Ann joined her husband in jail but departed before his sentence was complete - probably to join the other Mormons in moving to Nauvoo, Illinois.

On March 17, 1839 Pratt was released and reunited with Mary Ann and his children at Nauvoo on July 11, 1839.

In Fall 1840, Mary Ann and Pratt went to England on a mission trip. Their daughter Olivia Pratt was born in Manchester, England on June 2, 1841. They returned from England and settled in Nauvoo, Illinois in April 1843.

Nauvoo

It is supposed by some that Mary Ann became a plural wife of Joseph Smith in 1843. However, there is no documentary evidence to support this hypothesis.

On July 24, 1844, Pratt married Elizabeth Brotherton as Pratt's first plural wife. Pratt would marry four more women later in the same year. All these marriages were without Mary Ann's knowledge or consent.

On December 10, 1845, Mary Ann, along with Parley P. Pratt and his brother Orson Pratt, received the temple endowment in the Nauvoo Temple.

Sometime after January 1, 1846 Mary Ann found out about Pratt's polygamous marriages, which dated back to 1844. The couple estranged after this. On February 6, 1846 Mary Ann married Pratt for time and is sealed to Joseph Smith for eternity in the Nauvoo Temple. (Note that Smith had been dead for a year and a half.)

On February 13, 1846, Mary Ann, Parley and children left Nauvoo with the bulk of the Mormons living there. Mary Ann returned one week later to stay with her parents, who were still in Nauvoo but plan to leave when work on the Temple is complete.

On September 18, 1846 Mary Ann left Nauvoo with the last group of Mormons and arrived, in June 1847 at Winter Quarters, Nebraska. Upon rejoining Parley she tells him she is returning to Maine with the children. Parley left on as mission trip and in March 1847 Mary received money from Parley and returned to Maine.

Later life

Mary Ann left Bethel, Maine and arrived in Salt Lake City, Utah with the Harmon Cutler Company on September 10, 1852. On March 5, 1853 she was granted a divorce from Parley P. Pratt by Brigham Young.

Mary Ann lived the rest of her life in Pleasant Grove, Utah. She never remarried. She worked as a midwife and is reputed to have delivered hundreds of children without losing a single one.

In 1880 Mary Ann authored an article in the Salt Lake City magazine Woman's Exponent entitled "Give to those Rights to Whom Rights Belong", which advocated that women be given more legal and political rights.[1] Her authorship of this article can be interpreted as placing her among the earliest of American feminists.

Mary Ann died in Pleasant Grove in 1891, at the age of 83. She was buried in the Pleasant Grove City Cemetery.

Children

Mary Ann Frost Stearns Pratt was the mother of five children her two husbands. Two of the children died while young.

Child with Nathan Stearns -

Children with Parley Pratt -

References

  1. ↑ Pratt, Mary Ann (1880-04-01). "Give to those Rights to Whom Rights Belong". Woman's Exponent 8 (21). p. 165.
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