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Show NPS Form 10-900-a (7-81) United States Department of the Interior National Park Service National Register of Historic Places Inventory-Nomination Form Continuation sheet 1 Item number ° Page Orson Pratt was born September 19, 1811 in Hartford, Mew York to Jared and Charity Dickinson Pratt. The fourth of six children, he had little opportunity for education as a youth, but pursued studies on his own and gained proficiency in several subjects, including mathematics, astronomy and physical sciences. A major turning point in his life occurred on his nineteenth birthday when he was baptized a member of The Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints by his older brother, Parley P. Pratt. For the remaining fifty years of his life, he served the church tirelessly in many positions, continuing faithfully with the organization as it moved from New York, to Ohio, to Missouri, to Illinois, then to Utah. Soon after his conversion he began proselyting as a missionary, and in 1835 he was chosen as a member of the first Quorum of the Twelve of the church, which had been organized in 1830. (His brother Parley was also chosen as a member of that body.) The Quorum operated under the direction of the prophet and president of the church, and its members were called to help direct the preaching and administrative affairs of the church. Their responsibilities usually included serving proselyting missions that often lasted for two or three years. Orson Pratt was sent to Scotland on such a mission soon after his appointment to the Quorum, and, in all, he crossed the Atlantic Ocean sixteen times in response to the call to serve. His success as a missionary in the British Isles was phenomenal, bringing thousands into the church through the power of both his speech and his writing, having authored and published many pamphlets and written for and edited the Mi "Menial Star, the IDS Church publication in Great Britain. While serving in his church positions he found time to pursue his educational interests as well. He discovered a law governing planet rotation in 1850, published Pratt's Cubic and Bi-Quadratic Equationsin 1866 in England, and later published an astronomical work, Key to the Universe. Although such discoveries and publications gained him some international attention at the time they were brought forth, he never attained international prominence as a mathematician and astronomer, primarily because, due to lack of time and proper facilities, he did not empirically prove his theories. 2 Pratt's abilities, however, were remarkable enough to prompt Richard Anthony Proctor of the Royal Astronomical Society to pronounce him to be "one of only four real mathematicians in the world." 3 His keen perception and gift of expression enabled him to expand and combine the doctrines and principles introduced somewhat randomly by Joseph Smith, founder and first prophet of the LDS Church, into a philosophic system of the Mormon religion.4 He would often combine his own scientific knowledge with Biblical and Mormon scripture to create a philosophy which reinforced both. He was chosen by Brigham Young in 1870 to represent the church in the celebrated three-day debate on polygamy with Dr. John P. Newman, an eloquent Methodist.minister. Although the debate was officially ruled a draw, most newspapers around the country conceded Pratt the victor. Orson Pratt is also credited for devising the symbols of the Deseret Alphabet, a phonetic alphabet which church leaders viewed as a major breakthrough in |
