Norma Elliott collection of Addison Pratt materials
Scope and Contents
The collection contains transcripts of letters from Addison Pratt to his family, a transcript of Pratt's missionary journal from his time in Tahiti, genealogy research of Addison Pratt's family, and a rubbing of Pratt's gravestone. Dated approximately 1950.
Dates
- Creation: Approximately 1950
Creator
- Elliott, Norma Larson, 1916-2009 (collector, Person)
- Pratt, Addison, 1802-1872 (Person)
Conditions Governing Access
Open for public research.
Conditions Governing Use
It is the responsibility of the researcher to obtain any necessary copyright clearances. Permission to publish material from Norma Elliott collection of Addison Pratt materials must be obtained from the Supervisor of Reference Services and/or the L. Tom Perry Special Collections Board of Curators.
Biographical History
Norma Larson Elliott (1916-2009) was a Mormon family history specialist in Arizona.
Norma Larson Elliott was born on May 30, 1916 to Margaret Smith and Alof Pratt Larson in Lakeside, Arizona. She studied family history at Brigham Young University in 1962, and it remained a passon for her whole life. She not only found much of the genealogy that is listed for the Larson, Smith, Hunt, and Marsden families, but also collected their histories. She also maintained records about her parents' homestead businesses, Latter-day Saint missions, and lives.
She had no children of her own, but was a motherly influence in the lives of her nieces and nephews.
Elliott died on June 5, 2009 in Tempe, Arizona.
Biographical History
Addison Pratt (1802-1872) was an early Latter-day Saint convert, pioneer, and missionary in the Pacific Islands.
Addison Pratt was born on February 21, 1802, in Winchester, New Hampshire, to parents Henry and Rebekah Jewell Pratt. He married Louisa Barnes (1802-1880) on April 3, 1831, in Dunham, Canada, and together they had four children.
When Pratt was 20 years old, he went to sea on a whaling ship "The Rambler", and later "Hope", spending about a year on Oahu, Hawaii in between ships. He later sailed on other ships until he was ready to quit the sea and get married. After joining the Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints, Addison and Louisa and their children joined the Saints in Nauvoo where Addison told Joseph Smith about his experiences on the Sandwich Islands (now Hawaii) and Society Islands (Tahiti, etc). Smith sent Pratt and others on a mission for the Church in 1843, and did not return to his family (who had moved west with Brigham Young and company) until 1848. In 1849, he returned to the Society Islands, followed by his family in 1850. They all returned to America in 1852, and joined the Saints in San Bernardino, California, unitl 1857 when all the Saints were called to Utah because of the trouble with Johnson's Army.
The Pratt family lived in Beaver, Utah for a time, but Addison was not comfortable in the high elevations and arid climates of Utah, so he returned to Anaheim, California, to live with a daughter near the sea.
He died of dropsy (an old fashioned term for what might have been edema due to congestive heart failure) on October 14, 1872, in Anaheim, California.
Extent
6 folders (0.25 linear ft.)
Language of Materials
English
Custodial History
Elliott collected and/or created the materials in this collection; she passed them on to her sister, Dorothy Lisonbee, who donated them to the library in 2014.
Immediate Source of Acquisition
Donated; Dorothy Lisonbee; 2014.
Appraisal
Utah and the American West and LDS cultural, social, and religious history (20th century Western & Mormon Manuscripts collection development policy, 5.VII, 2007).
Processing Information
Processed; Margaret Weddle, student manuscript processor, and John M. Murphy, curator; 2015.
Subject
- Pratt, Addison, 1802-1872 -- Archives (Person)
- Pratt, Addison, 1802-1872 (Person)
Genre / Form
Geographic
Topical
- Title
- Register of Norma Elliott collection of Addison Pratt materials
- Status
- Completed
- Author
- Margaret Weddle
- Date
- 2015 January 21
- Description rules
- Describing Archives: A Content Standard
- Language of description
- English
- Script of description
- Latin
- Language of description note
- Finding aid written in English in Latin script.
Repository Details
Part of the L. Tom Perry Special Collections Repository
1130 HBLL
Brigham Young University
Provo Utah 84602 United States