Sketch of Life of Wealthy Eddy
Written by her granddaughters, Alice M. Pratt Bartlett and Katie L. Pratt Garner, 1936
Wealthy Eddy, mother of William Jared Pratt, was the daughter of Rhoda Eddy Eddy. She was born in Solon, Somerset County, Maine, March 22, 1810. In her young girlhood she became interested in The Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints thru hearing the Mormon Elders preaching the gospel at street meetings. Her parents were very bitter and opposed to the gospel, and forbade her attending these meetings, but she continued going whenever the opportunity presented itself for she fully believed the teachings of this doctrine. Her father became very angry and locked her in her room, but one night she made her escape and got a boat and rowed across the Mississippi River. Her father and brother followed her and tried to stop her by shooting at the boat. However, she landed safely on the other side and joined the Saints, and later became a member of the Church. Her people disowned and disinherited her. She never saw her parents again.
She married Steven Billings Shumway, and to this union were born four children. Later she married William Dickinson Pratt, and to this union were born five children, William Jared being the only one to grow to maturity. She and her husband and family, along with the other Saints, were driven from their homes in Nauvoo by the mob. The next night their little daughter Martha died. She was about six years old. The parents, with the aid of Parley P. Pratt and wife, rowed back across the river at night and buried her in the Pratt Cemetery at Nauvoo, and while crossing the river, their boat came nearly upsetting.
In the year 1851 they crossed the plains and came to Utah, burying two of their children on the way. They arrived in Salt Lake City, Utah, with the Parley P. Pratt company and later settled in American Fork and Payson, Utah. She and William Pratt separated and later she married William Cornwall Patten. They had one daughter, Wealthy Patten Brown, now living at Plano, Idaho, and she is 81 years old.
The last years of her life she spent in Idaho with her son, William Jared, and daughter, Wealthy Brown. She was a grand and noble lady and a good Latter-day Saint. She gave up her home and parents for the sake of the gospel. She was the only one of her people to join the Church, but it was her wish that their work be done, and that wish has been granted. Up to this date, December 14, 1936, there has been work done in the Temple for more than three thousand of her people.
She died at Plano, Idaho, July 18, 1892, at the age of 82 years.
[Note: A version of this history can also be found in Arthur D. Coleman, Wives and Daughters of the Pratt Pioneers of Utah (1969), 167–69]
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