Patriarch Pratt Dies at Age of 82
Patriarch Milando Pratt, 82, pioneer of 1851 and son of Apostle Orson and Mary Ann Merrill Pratt, died at 5 a.m. Friday at the family residence, 1005 East Ninth South street, following an affliction that has kept him practically bedridden for the past 15 years.
At his bedside when death came were his wife, Elizabeth Rich Pratt, daughter of the late Apostle C.C. Rich, and several children including a daughter, Mrs. Viola Pratt Macfarlane, who motored to Salt Lake recently from her home in New York to spend the winter with her parents.
Patriarch Pratt was born, Sept. 226, 1848, in Harrington, Iowa. With his parents and ten brothers and sisters he crossed the plains by ox team arriving in great Salt Lake and camping on the Temple block, on Oct. 7, 1851. He was married in the old Salt Lake endowment house, May 16, 1870 and recently Mr. and Mrs. Pratt celebrated their sixtieth wedding anniversary.
During his entire life he has been active in Church work. He filled a mission to the Eastern states in 1876 and has been a home missionary the greater part of his life. He was appointed as a member of the high council for the Salt Lake stake in 1872. At the time the stake was divided in 1904, Patriarch Pratt became a member of the high council of the Liberty stake. He held this position until 1911 at which time he was released to become patriarch of the stake, a position to which he was active up to the time of his death.
He was employed the greater part of his life in the Church historians’ office, writing history and also spent several years in the bureau of information.
Surviving are his widow; three sons, Milando Pratt, Jr., New York; Charles H. and Orson M. Pratt of Salt Lake and two daughters, Mrs. Macfarlane and Leonie Pratt Bergener, also of New York. Eight grandchildren and two great grandchildren also survive.
Funeral services for Patriarch Pratt will be held at 2 p.m., Sunday in Emigration ward chapel with burial following in City cemetery. Friends may call at the home from 11 to 1:30 o’clock Sunday.
[Deseret News, Nov. 7, 1930, 2nd section, 1]
[transcribed and proofread by David Grow, Jan. 2006]
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