Obituary Notes
Belinda Marden Pratt
Belinda Marden Pratt, a wife of the late Apostle Parley P. Pratt, passed quietly away at the residence of one of her sons in this city yesterday morning, February 19th, at 7:35. She was a native of the state of New Hampshire, and embraced the Gospel when quite young. She left brothers, sisters, companions, friends, and comparative wealth, and followed by the scorn of some, the grief of others, and the condemnation foal l, caster he lot with the people of the Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints, coming to Nauvoo in time to be expelled with thousands of other Saints from that city and the state of Illinois.
Taking up the line of march across the Plains with her husband’s family, she reached this Territory in the fall of 1847 (immediately following the Pioneers). She suffered all the trials, exposures and privations incident to pioneer life. She went through the sore trial of famine while nursing twin babies, in the early days of our settlement here. She passed through the unspeakable grief of losing her husband by assassination while he was on a mission.
Left with a family of little children unprovided for and unprotected, she struggled through years of more than ordinary hardships and privations. She was an educated, refined and gentle woman, full of sympathy, generosity, and kindness, seeking out the needy and afflicted and ministering to their wants. She was for years an actives, intelligent and persistent worker for the public good, holding several positions of trust and responsibility while residing in southern Utah, her duties there being administered with scrupulous care and fidelity.
In all the incidents of her eventful life, whether in joy or sorrow, she always acknowledged the hand of God, and impressed upon her children and all with whom she associated her abiding faith in the Gospel of His Son, as revealed through the Prophet Joseph Smith.
She was a faithful wife, an affectionate mother, a good and true friend, a kind and obliging neighbor, a devoted and faithful Saint of God. She died with the utmost assurance of a reunion with her husband and other dear relatives and friends in the spirit world, there to await the great day when the resurrection trump shall sound, calling the righteous dead from their graves, while saints and angels mingle their voices in anthems of welcome to those who put on immortality, and in everlasting praise and thanksgiving to Him who wrought out their great salvation. –[COM.
[Deseret News, Feb. 20, 1894]
[transcribed and proofread by David Grow, Jan. 2006]
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Funeral of Sister Pratt
The funeral of Sister Belinda A. Marden Pratt took place in the Fourteenth ward assembly hall a few minutes past 11 a.m. today, Bishop George H. Taylor presiding. Very suitable singing was rendered by the choir. Prayer was offered by Elder Robert Patrick, of the Eighteenth ward, of which Sister Pratt was a late member. The speakers were Elders Edward Stevenson, Wm. Barton, Abraham H. Cannon and Augus M. Cannon. Very consoling remarks were made of one of the age-veterans of the Fourteenth ward of which she was one of the original members in its pioneer existence, where she raised a family, and was left a widow when her husband, Elder Parley P. Pratt was murdered. The mildness, self-sacrifice and uncomplaining manner of the deceased in the midst of pioneer privations will not be forgotten soon by those who knew her. The audience was large, and consisted of the numerous family and near friends from various city wards. Sister Pratt has gone to join her martyred husband and her late daughter Belinda and a host of friends who have preceded her.
The benediction was pronounced by Elder Joseph E. Taylor.
[Deseret News, Feb. 21, 1894]
[transcribed and proofread by David Grow, Jan. 2006]
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City and Neighborhood.
The funeral of Belinda A. Marden Pratt, widow of Parley P. Pratt, whose life came to a tragic end many years ago, took place yesterday from the Fourteenth Ward Assembly Hall.
[Salt Lake Tribune, Feb. 22, 1894]
[transcribed and proofread by David Grow, Aug. 2006]
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