Dear Ellen: Two Mormon Women and Their Letters

Dear Ellen, Page 005

Of Bygone Days enough." And so it did. Hers was a life of continual disappointment and tragedy. Her many homes were all humble cottages, and sometimes there was love and sometimes there was not. But her cheery disposition helped her through all her days. "My Dear Old Friend of bygone days," the first letter begins, One would not expect this to be the letter of a young girl. But the experiences the girls had shared were dramatic and were far behind them. Much had happened in the meantime, and those days at Kauvoo and on to Salt Lake Valley indeed seemed like "bygone days." Each had been forced into responsibilities at a very young age, "orphaned" children of Mormon missionary fathers. It all began in 1841 when the families of Orson Spencer and Addison Pratt moved their wagons into burgeoning Nau-voo. Here the families met and formed fast friendships. Orson Spencer and his wife Catharine Curtis had five children, ages nine to one, Ellen being the oldest. Addison Pratt and his wife Louisa Barnes had four daughters, ages nine to one; Ellen was the oldest. During the next eight years the families were to have many experiences in common. Addison Pratt (no relation to Mormon apostles Orson and Parley) was the son of Henry Pratt, famous New Hampshire organ builder. In Addison's youth and early manhood he had sailed the seas on American whalers, and then, when married in 1831, settled on the shores of Lake Erie at Ripley, New York, where he managed a farm and engaged as captain of boats in the lakes trade. Mrs. Pratt was a professional seamstress and a school teacher, occupations her daughter Ellen was to share. The family had received Mormonism in 1838 at the hands of Mrs. Pratt's sister and her husband, Jonathan and Caroline Barnes Crosby. Orson Spencer was one of the most outstanding early Mormon intellectual and religious leaders, a capable advocate trained in the law and in the Baptist ministry. Because of an