Friday, December 8, 2023

Joseph F. Smith's Journal Entry upon Finding out about the Death of Parley P. Pratt

  

September 1, 1857: Tuesday

 

to day we received the Utah and California mails. I received 4 No’s of the W[estern] Standard and 4 of the D[eseret] News. also letters from Aunt [Mercy] Thompson. Salt Lake—Bro W[illiam] J. Harris, New York, good news. Cousin Samuel [H. B. Smith] has gon[e] to England—on a mission which I rejoice to hear. also a long letter from my cousin Josephine Smith, California. She writes to me as if I were some Laquey [lacky] or a being [crossed out] unconscious of my real existance, and did not know but that which every Body said was thus and so, because they said so! we also received the news of the meloncally death of Prest. Parley P. Pratt. he was murdered by a Curs [sic] of the name of [Hector] McLane, near Vanburn, Arcansus [Arkansas], was shot with 6 balls which only made holes in is coat, then stab[b]ed, twice by McLane. one of the incissures went directly to the heart, notwithstanding [this] he lived several hours and answered many questions. to endever to speak my feelings upon the subject would be fearful. vague would be the attempt. he died a martyer for the cause of Truth. he has conquered the world, Death and the Devil. and [h]is name is ratified in the Arch Ives of Heaven and shall endure to all Eternity, and grow brighter and more pure with the elapse of years, while those of his murder[er]s’ shall rot and sease for ever! spent the day reading, conversing with Bro. [Simpson M.] Molen & c. &c. also [received] a letter from Jane [Fisher]. (Joseph F. Smith Journal, September 1, 1857, in “My Candid Opinion:” The Sandwich Island Diaries of Joseph F. Smith 1856-1857, ed. Nathaniel R. Ricks [Salt Lake City: The Smith-Petit Foundation, 2011], 122)

 

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