Biography of Frances Theobald Pratt
Frances Theobald Pratt was born Jan. 23rd 1859 in Salt Lake City. Her father moved to Duncun’s retreat in 1861. When she was still a baby her mother died and her father remarried. While she was still a small girl she worked for a family named Lang.
Then her father moved to Toquerville, and there she met and married Lorum Pratt Sr. They went to work on the Caanon ranch for James Andrus. She was a very good cook and everyone admired her.
They then moved and worked at Moccasin Arizona. Then they lived a little while at Toquerville and then they moved to Kanab, Utah. She went through all the privations of a pioneer woman.
She was a beautiful seamstress and often sat up in bed doing sewing to pay the hired girl when her babies were born. Along with her husband she did all kinds of work to help support their children. She boarded school teachers until the last few years of her life.
She had large brown eyes and brown hair. She was very stately and proud looking of medium height.
She loved to go on trips and in 1922 she went with her husband, her son Orson Pratt and his family and George Hinton and his family on a trip to Kaibab mountain where they spent a few days. She enjoyed it very much.
In March of 1928 her son Orson took her and his father to Beaver and down through Dixie, she enjoyed visiting her childhood home, and showing them her old home and meeting old friends.
Frances and Lorum were married May 7th, 1876, in Toquerville, Utah by Bishop Bringhurst and they were sealed in the Saint George Temple in March 1885. She was the mother of twelve children: Stella, Earnest, Ada, Lorum, Orson, Chester, Dora, Mildred, Roxie, Hermoin, Eldwin and Glendel. Chester lived almost a year, Roxie died when she was almost three and Glendel lived to be 15 years old. She lived to see the rest of her children married. The young folks were always welcome in her home and always gathered there on Sunday nights.
She was a very active woman until the night she had a stroke which left her helpless for one week. The night she took sick she was the last one to go to bed and when it was almost morning she seemed restless and her husband ask what she wanted and when she didn’t answer he lit the lamp and saw she could not speak. He sent for the Dr. and for the children and everything possible was done for her. She died on her 74th birthday. The snow was deep. The funeral was held in Fredonia, Arizona and she was buried in Kanab, Utah 7 miles away, beside her three children.
[source unknown, transcribed by David Grow, Feb. 2007]