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Pratt, Parley Parker

missionary, author, was born April 12, 1807, in Burlington, N. Y. He was a baptist preacher before his conversion to Mormonism in 1830, and became one of the most earnest and eloquent ministers in the church of latter-day saints. In 1835 he was appointed one of the first twelve apostles. He was one of the pioneers of 1847, when the valley of the Great Salt Lake was selected as a place of settlement for the exiled saints. He explored the region in 1849, and built a road in what is known as Parley's canon. Parley's peak is also named after him. He was the author of Voice of Warning and Instruction to All People; History of the Persecutions of Missouri; and Key to the Science of Theology. He was assassinated May 13, 1857, near Van Buren, Ark.