OCR Text |
Show Page 95 Goddard's wife corroborated this in greater detail later, and her statement was published as a sworn affidavit in 1844. Zeruiah Goddard testified that Bennett often cursed and swore at Sarah in the middle of the night and that "their conduct was anything but virtuous." Mrs. Goddard's statement added information which must have profoundly shocked Orson Pratt: "I remonstrated with the Dr. and asked him what Orson Pratt would think, if he should know that you were so fond of his wife, and holding her hand so much; the Dr. replied that he could pull the wool over Orson's eyes. Mrs. Pratt stated to me that Dr. Bennett told her, that he could cause abortion with perfect safety to the mother... On one occasion I came suddenly into the room where Mrs. Pratt and the Dr. were, she was lying on the bed and the Dr. was taking his hands out of her bosom; he was in the habit of sitting on the bed where Mrs. Pratt was lying, and lying down over her." 39 On July 8, a prominent non-Mormon citizen of Nauvoo, Jacob B. Backenstos, appeared before a justice of the peace and "accused Dr. John C. Bennett with having an illicit intercourse with Mrs. Orson Pratt... 40 when said Bennett replied that she made a first rate go." This man's purpose in swearing, he said, was to combat the sensation aroused over Bennett's printed fabrications. These depositions obviously resulted from a general alarm over the "awful disclosures" Bennett was making about the leadership of Joseph Smith. Others, including the daughter of Sidney Rigdon, were implicated along with Sarah Pratt in Bennett's escapades. Many such affidavits were published in order to combat Bennett's allegations, and, though Bennett was generally disbelieved, these stories continued to provide fuel for anti-Mormon fires. As for Orson Pratt, the choice lay between an unfaithful wife lying to cover up her guilt, or an adulterous leader whose prevarications were supported by sworn testimony. To his credit, he made the most logical, and*, at the same TTffle", -most magnanimous, decision . |