Thankful Pratt

Obituary

DIED In this town on the 24 ultimo of puerperal convulsions Sister T. consort of Elder Parley P. Pratt, aged 40 years.

From the sudden and afflictive manner of her exit, the sensation produced in the minds of her acquaintance and friends, was peculiarly shocking, but it was doubly so to her surviving partner, who is thus called to part with the companion of his youth at a time when the maternal hand seemed of all periods to be most needed in rearing a tender offspring, the mutual pledge of his union with the deceased.

We trust the Lord has kindly relieved her from the evils to come, and that from her obedience to the truth and the love of it, she will have a part in the first resurrection.

Sister Pratt, had for years been in a feeble state of health, yet she has endured with her husband, the slanderous calumny and abuse of this present generation, and once been driven by a ruthless mob from a peaceable dwelling in Jackson County Mo. in consequence of her religion. She shared with her partner in the loss and abuse incident to that unhallowed and disgraceful scene, and returned with him to this state. She has been deprived of his society much of the time since her marriage, having ill health, and her peculiar anxieties for him in his absence, to prey upon & depress her spirit. But she is now released from her clayey tenement. The Lord has kindly invited her home.

[Messenger and Advocate, Kirtland, Ohio, vol. 3 Apr. 1837, No. 31]

[transcribed and proofread by David Grow, Jan. 2006]

• Note: Puerpual fever is defined as “blood poisoning following childbirth.” If a woman died shortly after childbirth [as Thankful did], it was most often due to this condition.
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“In the latter part of the day Elder Warren Parrish preached the funeral sermon of Sister Pratt, the wife of Elder Parley P. Pratt, one of the Twelve Apostles.”

[Wilford Woodruff’s Journal, 82] [Journal History of the Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints, Mar. 26, 1837, 1]

[transcribed and proofread by David Grow, July 2006]

(Taken from Jared Pratt Family Association http://www.Jared.pratt-family.org