The House That Parley Built

Parley P. Pratt’s Home In Nauvoo

By Paul DeBry

Parley P. Pratt

(1807-1857)

Nauvoo Background:

In the middle of the winter of 1838, Parley’s wife, Mary Ann, together with three young children, along with the rest of the Saints, were driven by a cruel and ruthless mob from their homes in Missouri. They settled in Illinois on a swampy bend in the Mississippi River that Joseph Smith would later name Nauvoo, the “beautiful city.” During this time, Parley was in jail and unable to help his family or the others in their difficult journey.

On the 4th of July 1839, Parley escaped from his gloomy, cold, dark dungeon in Missouri. He had been held there illegally for eight months and four days. His captors had attempted to feed him human flesh, poison him, and had given him spoiled food unfit for animals. He had been taken prisoner with Joseph, Hyrum and others in Far West, Missouri the prior November, under illegal pretenses. They had spent one month together before Joseph, Hyrum and others were transferred to Liberty Jail where they languished for five more months before Joseph and Hyrum were allowed to escape. It was during Parley’s first month with them in the Richmond jail where Parley had recorded Joseph’s rebuke of the guards. Joseph told the guards to cease their filthy, vulgar, foulmouthed language and boasting of their horrible acts against the Saints, or he or they would die that instant. They cowered and remained silent as Joseph stood before them in chains.[1]

It was while in Richmond Jail that Parley’s first wife, Thankful Halsey, who had died in childbirth in Kirtland, Ohio appeared to him. He records, “I lay in silence, seeking and expecting an answer to my prayer, when suddenly I seemed carried away in the spirit, and no longer sensible to outward objects with which I was surrounded. A heaven of peace and calmness pervaded my bosom; a personage from the world of spirits stood before me with a smile of compassion in every look, and pity mingled with the tenderest love and sympathy in every expression of countenance. A soft hand seemed placed within my own, and a glowing cheek was laid in tenderness and with warmth upon mine. A well known voice saluted me, which I readily recognize as that of the wife of my youth, who had for near two years been sweetly sleeping where the wicked cease from troubling and the weary are at rest. I was made to realize that she was sent to commune with me, and answer my question.

Knowing this, I said to her in a most earnest and inquiring tone: Shall I ever be at liberty again in this life and enjoy the society of my family and the Saints, and preach the gospel as I have done? She answered definitely and unhesitatingly: ‘Yes!’” [2]

Her answer gave him courage. Later he was able to escape from jail. Often Parley hid by day from his pursuers, and walked at night. Sometimes he could only crawl along due to hunger and exhaustion. Parley arrived for the first time in Nauvoo on July 11, 1839, seven days after his escape. We can imagine the joyous reunion he had with his family!

He recorded his reunion with Joseph Smith, when he first arrived in Nauvoo; “Here I met brother Joseph Smith, from whom I had been separated since the close of the mock trial in Richmond the year previous. Neither of us could refrain from tears as we embraced each other once more as free men. … He blessed me with a warmth of sympathy and brotherly kindness which I shall never forget. Here also I met with Hyrum Smith and many others of my fellow prisoners with a glow of mutual joy and satisfaction which language will never reveal. Father and Mother Smith, the parents of our Prophet and President, were also overwhelmed with tears of joy and congratulation; wept like children as they took me by the hand; but O, how different from the tears of bitter sorrow which were pouring down their cheeks as they gave us the parting hand in Far West, and saw us dragged away by fiends in human form.”[3]

Parley was only in Nauvoo 49 days. His time was spent with family and friends, recovering his health, and building a small cabin. He then left on a mission with his wife and two sons. This mission was directed by the Lord through revelation and many of the Twelve Apostles were sent to England. They left at the end of August 1839.

Parley meets the man who will build his house

On his return trip, in November of 1842, Parley met a man named Nicholas Silcox, who would come to build Parley what was arguably one of the nicest homes in Nauvoo. They met on board the ship coming to America from England. Parley was returning from his mission and Nicholas was immigrating to America as a convert to The Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints.

Nicholas was a skilled carpenter and had remodeled the captain’s quarters, made a cabin in the stern of the ship, and rebuilt the cabin stairs. Nicholas later told how, “The craftsmanship of his work caught the eye of Parley P. Pratt. He [Parley] had a small log cabin he had hastily built in Nauvoo, but had plans for a large three-story brick home and store combination. He began to discuss his building plans with Nicholas. The result was ‘Parley P. Pratt … offered me work to help build him a house when we reached Nauvoo.’”[4]

In the Times and Seasons on April 15, 1843, Parley said that when he returned to Nauvoo he noticed that the cabin he had built in the summer of 1839 had been removed, “Even my cottage had been removed to open one of the principle streets.”[5]

“It is very possible that the Pratt cabin was situated right in the path of future road construction. Of course many of the streets had been laid out long after Parley and his family left for England. For a period of time, it is quite probable that the road dead-ended at Parley’s cabin. Consequently, they may have named the street “Parley Street” in honor of Parley and also because of where his cabin was located at the time they named the streets. [6]

Apr. 19, 1843, Joseph Smith indicated that he wanted Parley to stay at home and build his house this year rather than go on another mission.[7] Parley’s home was built very rapidly, taking only seven months to complete. It would have been easy for him to have a large work force working on his house at very reasonable wages. Many converts to the Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints were moving to Nauvoo from the eastern US and from the British Isles. They all needed jobs while they established themselves in the city. Much of the work was done in exchange for produce and merchandise from the store.

The cabin they lived in while building their house

The Pratt family lived in a one-room cabin across the street from where they would build the brick home. “Parley Pratt and his family took a few days to find a place to live and settle, since he had sold their former residence. On May 5,1843, He bought a building lot one block north of the temple on the southeast corner of Young and Wells Street. ‘A house [cabin] was soon rented across the street from our lot,’ wrote Mary Ann Stearns, ‘and we moved in joyfully, watching the building of our new home.”[8]

May 7, 1843 “…the unsettled state of my [Parley’s] large family (consisting of wife and her sister, 5 children, hired girl, and hundreds of goers and comers) all huddled into one small room which we use for kitchen, parlor, dining room, bedroom and publick [public] office…Myself, family, Br. Orson and family and Bro. Wm and family are all well and living [torn page,? near] each other. Mother is here with us and is [torn page, ? doing] well. [torn page] on and family will be here soon. I wish the rest of my kindred would gather here…. I am now building a two-story store and dwelling house 32 ft. by 66 feet, near the Temple. I hope to complete it in three months and then I am ready for another mission….”[9]

The barn and the first store

Parley first built a barn on the property in the spring of 1843. The barn was put up in only one month. “The barn was put up first …” Nicholas’s journal shows he went to work on Parley’s barn on April 18th, (1843). The foundations were laid out. Laborers with pick and shovels were hired to dig a basement under a section of the barn. Nicholas worked at getting a rock foundation in place for the remainder of the building. The barn was large enough to house a carriage as well as horses and cows. First it was to serve as a temporary store until the store in the new home was complete. … On Tuesday April 25th Nicholas returned to work on the barn. He directed the construction work for Elder Pratt who also helped when not involved with his Church assignments. Most of the Twelve Apostles had received assignment to leave Nauvoo to take charge of missionary efforts in the eastern states… Nicholas and others assisted on the barn as the timber framing took shape on top of the rock foundation.”[10]

Mary Ann Stearns, Parley’s stepdaughter, wrote about the building of the barn in June 1843, “The barn was put up first, a room in the basement plastered and fitted with shelves; the goods brought from New Orleans [on the riverboats] put in; and soon a thriving grocery business established. The people bring butter, cornmeal and eggs to exchange for sugar, molasses, dried fruit, etc.; and the people working on the buildings drawing their supplies from that source.”[11]

The barn would have been built on the east side of the property, with the house on the west side. The property sloped 10 feet or so down to a ravine on the east side, making it an ideal location for a barn. It was common in those days to build barns on a hillside. This also would allow a horse with a wagon to pull into the first floor on the lower side of the hill, and into the second floor on the upper side of the hill. This arrangement would have made it easy to locate the store in the “basement” of the barn and have it accessible for the outside without going into the main floor of the barn and then down the stairs to the store. We have no records to show that the barn was built in this manner, but the land would have lent itself to that kind of construction. “In May [1843] the Pratt barn was completed, the store was in full operation.”[12]

In an advertisement on May 24, 1843, the Nauvoo Neighbor records, “Dry goods, provisions, etc., Mr. Pratt at his store on Young Street, one block north of the Temple.”[13]

Erastus Snow went into partnership with Parley in the store. Erastus’ wife, Artimesia “had come into a small legacy in the East, and with the modest proceeds from its sale, they decided to enter a partnership with Parley P. Pratt, who sensed that in a town growing as rapidly as Nauvoo a mercantile business would be a sound investment. So they put the money derived from the legacy into goods, and from the profits and capital stock itself, both men were able to pay for their new homes. Indeed it is likely, had not the obligations laid upon both men as missionaries prevented their devoting time and talents to merchandising, that they could soon become financially independent. But such was not the case. Parley was a member of the Council of Twelve; his first obligation was to preach the gospel, to travel abroad whenever and wherever sent, to organize, to direct; and it must be said to his credit that he never neglected the responsibilities of his important calling. The same is true of Erastus Snow. While he was not a general authority, his unique talents for missionary work were almost constantly utilized by the church leadership. Like Parley, he never permitted this obligation to become secondary to his temporal needs and ambitions. Therefore the firm of Pratt and Snow did not remain in business long; the more important duty of missionary work precluded its continued existence, but while it existed it was solvent and profitable. The goods which they had purchased in the East, and which Erastus had accompanied to Nauvoo, not only paid the cost of their homes but made them a living as well.”[14]

The brick home

As the barn neared completion, work on Parley’s home began. “The basement [of the new home] was excavated and rock walls plastered while Nicholas was doing the carpentry work on the final stages of the barn. As soon as the foundation stones were in place and plastered, the framing of the large home and store combination began. Nicholas had assisted in building large country squire mansions in England while in his apprentice training. He had started his building education at about age six with his father. He had eighteen years of experience to guide the work of various trades and ensure proper construction of Elder Pratt’s home.”[15]

Mary Ann Frost Pratt

(1808-1891)

In the later part of June 1843 another skilled man arrived to help on the home. “Grandfather and Grandmother Frost [Mary Pratt’s parents] and their family came from their home in Maine. Grandfather Frost, a carpenter, soon went to work on the house.”[16] A brick mason from England named Robert Pixton also came to work on Parley’s home.[17]

Mary Ann Stearns, Parley’s stepdaughter records,

“In the latter part of June our joy was increased by the arrival of Grandfather and Grandmother Frost, with their two daughters, Sophronia and Huldah, from their home in the state of Maine. They were all in the Church and rejoiced in the prosperity of Zion. Grandfather, being a carpenter, soon went to work on the house, which was of brick with white stone base caps and window sills, and four, foot square-stone pillars at the front of the store, supporting a stone cornice at the first story. There were twenty-seven large windows in the building, and the cost when finished was $3,500, laying floors, making the stairs; and before the roof was quite finished we commenced moving in and kept going from one part to the other until it was all completed. There was a deep cellar under the whole house, and before the floors were all laid my little brother Nathan, while walking over the joists, stepped on the end of a board when it tipped up and he fell through into the cellar, breaking his leg between knee and hip.”[18] The home was two stories with a full basement. Sister Antoinette Fineran who lived in the home in the 1990’s wrote that, “It was an imposing home in those days, a red brick house of nine rooms that became both a home and a store.”[19]