Appendix: Orson Pratt, A[n] Interesting Account of Several Remarkable Visions, 1840
Source Note
, A Interesting Account of Several Remarkable Visions, and of the Late Discovery of Ancient American Records; 1–31 pp.; Edinburgh, Scotland: Ballantyne and Hughes, 1840. The copy used for transcription is held at CHL.
Historical Introduction
was twenty-three years old when he was appointed to the newly organized Quorum of the Twelve Apostles in 1835, and along with others of the Twelve, he served as a proselytizing missionary to the British Isles from 1840 to 1841. While traveling to his mission, he stopped for a number of weeks in the eastern and spent time in the company of JS, who was in the East petitioning the federal government for redress for the Latter-day Saints’ losses. Pratt attended speeches that JS delivered during his stay in the area and accompanied him on a journey from , Pennsylvania, to , New Jersey, in December 1839. He likely heard JS recount his early visions, a subject JS publicly addressed while in the eastern states. As a member of one of the Latter-day Saints’ governing bodies, Pratt had earlier opportunities to hear JS speak of his early visionary experiences, but JS’s lectures on the East Coast may have left those visions fresh in Pratt’s mind as he journeyed across the Atlantic. The next year he published the pamphlet A[n] Interesting Account of Several Remarkable Visions, and of the Late Discovery of Ancient American Records, which focused on JS’s personal history and included the earliest printed account of his first vision of Deity. Pratt published the pamphlet in Edinburgh, Scotland, in late September 1840, and he informed fellow apostle , “I shall be at conference [in , England] on the 6th of Oct. if the Lord will. I shall bring about 2000 pamphlets with me which are now in the press.”
began his thirty-one-page pamphlet by describing JS’s first vision of Deity and the later visit JS received from “the angel of the Lord.” In relating how JS obtained the gold plates of the Book of Mormon, Pratt quoted extensively from the historical letters by printed in the Latter Day Saints’ Messenger and Advocate in , Ohio, in 1834–1835. He summarized the contents of the Book of Mormon, reprinted the statements of two groups of witnesses who saw the gold plates, and concluded with a fifteen-point “sketch of the faith and doctrine of this Church.”
In his description of the Book of Mormon, superimposed his understanding of Book of Mormon geography onto the Western Hemisphere by placing the Nephites in South America and the Jaredites in North America. Pratt’s association of Book of Mormon peoples with the history of all of North and South America matched common understanding of early Latter-day Saints. Shortly thereafter, when John Lloyd Stephens’s Incidents of Travel in Central America, Chiapas, and Yucatan became available in in about 1842, JS greeted it enthusiastically and church members used it to map Book of Mormon sites in a Central American setting.
’s Interesting Account of Several Remarkable Visions proved to be one of the more influential Mormon tracts to come out of this period. The first American edition was printed in in 1841, and reprints appeared in Europe, Australia, and the . Pratt’s work was a principal source for ’s German-language pamphlet Ein Ruf aus der Wüste [A cry out of the wilderness], the earliest church publication in a language other than English, and for the first French-language pamphlet, ’s Aux amis de la vérité religieuse [To friends of religious truth]. Pratt’s pamphlet was later translated into Danish, Swedish, and Dutch.
Interesting Account is not a JS document, because JS did not write it, assign it, or supervise its creation. However, two JS documents in this volume, “Church History” and “Latter Day Saints” (a later version of “Church History”), quote extensively from ’s pamphlet. These documents made use of Pratt’s language to describe JS’s early visionary experiences and built on Pratt’s summary of the church’s “faith and doctrine” for the thirteen-point statement of church beliefs that came to be known as the Articles of Faith. (The summary of beliefs in Interesting Account was in turn based on an earlier statement composed by Orson Pratt’s brother, .) Interesting Account is therefore included as an appendix to allow convenient comparison with JS’s histories. Gray highlighting in the text indicates passages that later provided wording or content for “Church History” and for “Latter Day Saints.” Passages highlighted in Pratt’s concluding statement of beliefs show parallels to JS’s own list of beliefs in “Church History.”
See Benjamin Winchester, Philadelphia, PA, to “Dear Brother in the Lord,” 10 Feb. 1840, Times and Seasons, May 1840, 1:104; and Pratt, Autobiography, 330.
Times and Seasons. Commerce/Nauvoo, IL. Nov. 1839–Feb. 1846.
Pratt, Parley P. The Autobiography of Parley Parker Pratt, One of the Twelve Apostles of the Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-Day Saints, Embracing His Life, Ministry and Travels, with Extracts, in Prose and Verse, from His Miscellaneous Writings. Edited by Parley P. Pratt Jr. New York: Russell Brothers, 1874.
Similarity of phrasing, especially in describing JS’s rudimentary education, suggests that Pratt may have had access to JS’s unpublished circa summer 1832 history.
Cowdery’s letters were copied into JS History, 1834–1836, 46–103.
JS History, 1834–1836 / Smith, Joseph, et al. History, 1834–1836. In Joseph Smith et al., History, 1838–1856, vol. A-1, back of book (earliest numbering), 9–20, 46–187. Historian's Office, History of the Church, 1839–ca. 1882. CHL. CR 100 102, box 1, vol. 1.
John L. Stephens, Incidents of Travel in Central America, Chiapas, and Yucatan, 2 vols. (New York: Harper & Brothers, 1841); see also “Facts Are Stubborn Things,” Times and Seasons, 15 Sept. 1842, 3:921–922; “Zarahemla,” Times and Seasons, 1 Oct. 1842, 3:927–928; JS, Nauvoo, IL, to John Bernhisel, New York City, NY, 16 Nov. 1841, JS Collection, CHL; and Givens, By the Hand of Mormon, chaps. 4–5.
Times and Seasons. Commerce/Nauvoo, IL. Nov. 1839–Feb. 1846.
Smith, Joseph. Collection, 1827–1846. CHL. MS 155.
Givens, Terryl L. By the Hand of Mormon: The American Scripture That Launched a New World Religion. Oxford: Oxford University Press, 2002.
Orson Pratt, An Interesting Account of Several Remarkable Visions, and of the Late Discovery of Ancient American Records, 1st American ed. (New York: Joseph W. Harrison, 1841); Orson Pratt, Remarkable Visions (Liverpool: R. James, [1848]); Orson Pratt, An Interesting Account of Several Remarkable Visions, and of the Late Discovery of Ancient American Records (Sydney: Albert Mason, 1851); Orson Pratt, An Interesting Account of Several Remarkable Visions, and of the Late Discovery of Ancient American Records, 2nd American ed. (New York: Joseph W. Harrison, 1841); see also Crawley, Descriptive Bibliography, 1:160–161; 2:63–64, 262–265.
Pratt, Orson. Remarkable Visions. By Orson Pratt, One of the Twelve Apostles of the Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints. Liverpool: R. James, 1848.
Crawley, Peter. A Descriptive Bibliography of the Mormon Church. 3 vols. Provo, UT: Religious Studies Center, Brigham Young University, 1997–2012.
Orson Hyde, Ein Ruf aus der Wüste, eine Stimme aus dem Schoose der Erde (Frankfurt: Im Selbstverlage des Verfassers [by the author], 1842); John Taylor, Aux amis de la vérité religieuse. Récit abrégé du commencement, des progrès, de l’établissement, des persécutions, de la foi et de la doctrine de l’Église de Jésus-Christ des Saints des Derniers Jours (Paris: Marc Ducloux et Compagnie, 1850); see also Crawley, Descriptive Bibliography, 1:205–208; 2:166–167.
Hyde, Orson. Ein Ruf aus der Wüste, eine Stimme aus dem Schoose der Erde: Kurzer Ueberblick des Ursprungs und der Lehre der Kirche “Jesus Christ of Latter Day Saints” in Amerika, gekannt von Manchen unter der Benennung: “Die Mormonen.” Frankfurt: Im Selbstverlage des Verfassers, 1842. Also available with English translation in Dean C. Jessee, ed., The Papers of Joseph Smith, vol. 1, Autobiographical and Historical Writings (Salt Lake City: Deseret Book, 1989), 402–425.
Crawley, Peter. A Descriptive Bibliography of the Mormon Church. 3 vols. Provo, UT: Religious Studies Center, Brigham Young University, 1997–2012.
See Pratt and Higbee, An Address . . . to the Citizens of Washington; compare Pratt, Late Persecution of the Church, iii–xiii.
Pratt, Parley P., and Elias Higbee. An Address by Judge Higbee and Parley P. Pratt, Ministers of the Gospel, of the Church of Jesus Christ of “Latter-day Saints,” to the Citizens of Washington, and to the Public in General. N.p., 1840.
Pratt, Parley P. Late Persecution of the Church of Jesus Christ, of Latter Day Saints. Ten Thousand American Citizens Robbed, Plundered, and Banished; Others Imprisoned, and Others Martyred for Their Religion. With a Sketch of Their Rise, Progress and Doctrine. By P. P. Pratt, Minister of the Gospel, Written in Prison. New York: J. W. Harrison, 1840.
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ney. He had not gone far, before he was overtaken by an officer with a search-warrant, who flattered himself with the idea, that he should surely obtain the plates; after searching very diligently, he was sadly disappointed at not finding them. Mr Smith then drove on; but before he got to his journey’s end, he was again overtaken by an officer on the same business, and after ransacking the waggon very carefully, he went his way, as much chagrined as the first, at not being able to discover the object of his research. Without any further molestation, he pursued his journey until he came into the northern part of , near the Susquehannah river, in which part his resided.
Having provided himself with a home, he commenced translating the record, by the gift and power of God, through the means of the Urim and Thummim; and being a poor writer, he was under the necessity of employing a scribe, to write the translation as it came from his mouth.
In the mean time, a few of the original characters were accurately transcribed and translated by Mr Smith, which, with the translation, were taken by a gentleman by the name of , to the city of , where they were presented to a learned gentleman by the name of , who professed to be extensively acquainted with many languages, both ancient and modern. He examined them; but was unable to decipher them correctly; but he presumed, that if the original records could be brought, he could assist in translating them.
But to return. Mr Smith continued the work of translation, as his pecuniary circumstances would permit, until he finished the unsealed part of the records. The part translated is entitled the “Book of Mormon,” which contains nearly as much reading as the Old Testament.
In this important and most interesting book, we can read the history of ancient America, from its early settlement by a colony who came from the tower of Babel, at the confusion of languages, to the beginning of the fifth century of the Christian era. By these Records we are informed, that America, in ancient times, has been inhabited by two distinct races of people. The first, or more ancient race, came directly from the great tower, being called Jaredites. The second race came directly from the city of Jerusalem, about six hundred years before Christ, being Israelites, [p. 14]
JS History, ca. Summer 1832 / Smith, Joseph. “A History of the Life of Joseph Smith Jr,” ca. Summer 1832. In Joseph Smith, “Letter Book A,” 1832–1835, 1–[6] (earliest numbering). Joseph Smith Collection. CHL. MS 155, box 2, fd. 1.