INTRODUCTION
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In an autobiographical sketch published in 1858, shortly after his death, Parley Parker Pratt said: "I am the third son of Jared Pratt and Charity Dickinson, of Columbia county, New York. I was born April 12, 1807, in Burlington, Otsego co., New York. Of my childhood and youth I will say but little. I was raised to hard work on a farm, brought up in the strictest morals, was a believer in the Bible and Jesus Christ, received but a limited education in the common schools."

Elder Pratt (the senior LDS Apostle after Brigham Young) gives no particular reason for avoiding disclosure of the activities of his "youth," but he does provide a clue to its passing in his next sentence: "I was married September 9, 1827, in Canaan, Columbia co., N.Y. My wife's name was Thankful, daughter of William and Thankful Halsey." Since Elder Pratt skips ahead to his 1827 marriage date, perhaps that ends the earlier period, about which he wished to "say but little."

And yet, for the student of American history, and of Mormon origins, this abbreviated glimpse into Pratt's early life is far from informative and far from satisfying. Why, exactly, did he wish to say so "little" about those previous years? Did Parley P. Pratt have something in the years of his "youth" that he needed to hide?

In 1873 Parley's eldest son (with assistance from Apostle John Taylor) compiled his father's "best miscellaneous writings," "the productions of his own pen" into the single substantial biography ever written by or for this intriguing Mormon leader. Not surprisingly, one of the first sentences on the opening page reads:

"Of my early youth I shall say but little. My father was a hard working man, and generally occupied in agricultural pursuits; and, although limited in education, he sometimes taught school, and even vocal music."

"At the age of fifteen I was separated from my father’s house, and placed as an assistant on a farm, with a gentleman by the name of William S. Herrick.... I was with them eight months, during which time our mutual affection for each other increased; and I felt grieved when my time expired and duty called me elsewhere."

In the 1874 autobiography Parley at least says a few things about his experiences before marrying in 1827. Those few disclosures will have to suffice, for the report which follows -- for they contain all that is known about the man's life between the years 1822 and 1827. And it is the re-creation of that period of Pratt's life which may tell us something important about his role in Mormon origins.

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The  Lost  Vocation

As already discussed, the charge was made as early as 1842, that Parley P. Pratt acted as a secret go-between among proto-Mormons such as Joseph Smith, Sidney Rigdon and Oliver Cowdery. The notion that Pratt had training as a journeyman tinsmith appears to be unreasonable, however. If young Parley did indeed play such a role, no evidence has survived placing him among the ranks of the "traveling tinkers." With that fact in mind, it may still be useful to investigate what other critics have said about Pratt's pre-Mormon career. Accompanying the previously cited passage from Rev. T. W. Young's 1900 book, we find this special reference:

In 1867 [Pomeroy Tucker] published a book on "The Origin and Progress of Mormonism," in which he states that during the summer of 1827, the very year in which Joseph Smith made known his discovery of the "Leaves of Gold," a stranger made repeated mysterious visits to Smith's home, and that he was afterwards recognized as Sidney Rigdon, who preached the first Mormon sermon in Palmyra. Mrs. Dr. Horace Eaton, who lived in Palmyra for more than thirty years, corroborates this statement of Tucker's...
Rev. T. W. Young, Mormonism: Its Origin, Doctrines and Dangers (Ann Arbor: 1900 p. 21)

Since Rev. Young has obviously made use of Mrs. Eaton's historical writings, it may be useful to reproduce her exact words on the subject of Parley P. Pratt and the Book of Mormon:

But who wrote the book? Surely not Smith or Rigdon.... Without doubt, Mr. Spaulding's romance, entitled "The Manuscript Found" is the Golden Bible, or Book of Mormon. But how came Rigdon or Smith, or both, in the possession of Mr. Spaulding's book?... It is generally believed however that Rigdon, while a journeyman printer in the office of Patterson, copied Mr. Spaulding's story; that by some means he heard of Smith, knew his man even at a distance, and was sure Smith's idiosyncrasies would just [fit] in with his own purpose of carrying out a foul and lucrative imposture. There was a ubiquitous tin peddler in those days by the name of Parley P. Pratt. He knew everybody in Western New York and Northern Ohio. He was a member of Rev. Sidney Rigdon's church in Mentor, Ohio. Perhaps Pratt was the carrier-vulture who told Rigdon of the money digger, Smith.
Anna R. Webster Eaton, Origin of Mormonism (NYC: 1881 pp. 2-3)

Much of Mrs. Eaton's account of Mormon origins is filled with words like "generally believed" and "perhaps," but her assertion regarding Elder Pratt is clear-cut and emphatic: "There was a ubiquitous tin peddler in those days by the name of Parley P. Pratt. He knew everybody in Western New York and Northern Ohio." Here we see the origin of Rev. Young's later mis-identification of Pratt as a "traveling tinker." While a tin smith was a specialized trade requiring years of training, practically anybody in those days could have worked occasionally as a tin peddler. The distinction between the two occupation was also sometimes blurred by peddlers who took orders for custom tin-smithing, or who made minor repairs on broken tin ware themselves. While young Pratt almost certainly was not a tin smith (tinker), he very well could have been a tin peddler.

Mrs. Eaton calls Parley P. Pratt a "ubiquitous tin peddler" who "knew everybody in Western New York and Northern Ohio" in the days before the Book of Mormon was printed. Were this statement exactly true, then practically everybody in that region of country would have known Pratt -- and probably some recollection of his activities would have survived. The apparent fact that no such confirmation from that area has been preserved either indicates that Pratt's peddling work was short-lived, done under an alias, or never happened in the first place. Whatever the true facts might have been, James H. Kennedy repeated Eaton's assertions in his 1888 Early Days of Mormonism and William A. Linn followed suit in 1902 in his own The Story of the Mormons. Other writers who expanded upon this idea will be mentioned later, but it should be recalled that the earliest source insinuating that Pratt was something like a peddler "in the habit of traveling from Ohio to New York" was the Rev. Samuel Williams 1842 pamphlet. In that publication Williams does not specifically call the traveling Pratt a "tin peddler." This specific identification does, however, occur in two letters Williams wrote to James T. Cobb late in 1878.

In his letter of Nov. 12, 1878, Rev. Williams says:

Some of Rigdon's nephews are members of the baptist churches in Pittsburgh. Every one who desires to know what they know of Rigdon's deceptions feel delicate about asking them anything about him. I did hear from what I thought good authority that Rigdon when near his death expressed the wish that he was back in the Reg[ular] Bap[tist] Den[nomination]... Parley Pratt was a tin Pedlar who passed from Conn. out to the West who brought about the acquaintance between Rigdon and Smith.

As mentioned before -- it seems likely that Williams' source was some relative or associate of Rigdon's, who professed to have access to Rigdon's personal secrets. By 1878 Rev. Williams was communicating with "Rigdon's nephews," and it may have been from this family that Williams heard of the "tin pedlar" story, many years earlier.

In his letter of Dec. 14, 1878, Rev. Williams says:

it may be that Rigdon had a little community begun at Kirtland before he met Joe Smith. But I remember well the report that Parley Pratt the tin pedlar told Rigdon of Smith and was the means of bringing them together, and I suppose it was 1829 or '30.

It is possible that the 1878 identification of Pratt passed from Williams to Cobb and from Cobb to Eaton, via Major Gilbert (who lived near her in Palmyra). If a pre-1878 identification of Pratt as being a wandering tin peddler could be located, it might be reasonably argued that Mrs. Eaton discovered this claim about Parley P. Pratt independently, perhaps among old traditions preserved in the Palmyra area. Until such verification can be established, the earliest known source for the "peddler" assertion remains the Rev. Samuel Williams.

Mrs. Horace Eaton in 1885

As a side note, it might be relevant for the reader to recall that two very early newspaper accounts identify Oliver Cowdery as having been a peddler -- and, for that matter, that the evidently seasoned long-distance walkers (Cowdery and Pratt) peddled copies of the Book of Mormon along the way, while hiking together on their long journey to Missouri during the winter of 1830-31.

Before our investigation of Parley P. Pratt's alleged pre-Mormon peddling can effectively continue, some idea of its place in Pratt's known chronology must be determined.

In his posthumous Autobiography Parley P. Pratt provides a narrative of his early years, from which the following chronology can be extracted:

In the above tabulation the first two entries for the year 1826 are punctuated with question marks. Although Parley provides the season for his move to the Palmyra area as "Spring," he gives no definite date. If "Spring" is determined by an increase in temperature and a decrease in snowfall, its relative date might be any time during the first part of a calender year. So, from Parley's own indefinite recollection (if it can be trusted at all) he was near Palmyra, New York, early in the year 1826. This, at least, provides a starting point for our investigation of the claims made by Palmyra resident, Mrs. Eaton, that "in those days" (prior to any public mention of a "Golden Bible) there was in the area a "tin peddler" named Parley P. Pratt.

Parley's own description of his 1826 westward relocation reads as follows:

The winter [of 1825-26] rolled round; spring came again; and with it a prosecution on the part of Mr. Morgan for money due on land [in Oswego Co., New York].

The consequence was that all our hard eamings, and all our improvements in the wilderness, were wrested from us in a moment. Mr. Morgan retained the land, the improvements and the money paid.

Weary and disconsolate, I left the country and my father, who took charge of our crops and all unsettled business.

I spent a few months with my uncles, Ira and Allen Pratt, in Wayne County, N. Y., and in the autumn of 1826 I resolved to bid farewell to the civilized world...
Parley P. Pratt, Autobiography, Chapter 3.

At some unspecified date, near the time that the Spring of 1826 "came again," Pratt says he departed Oswego County, New York and traveled to Wayne Co., New York. This county had been established in 1823, primarily from Ontario County -- the home of the Joseph Smith, Sr. family. In other words, for most of 1826 Pratt admits having lived within walking distance of his future religious leader, the soon-to-be Mormon prophet. On the other hand, young Joe Smith's whereabouts for most of 1826 are unaccounted for, so nobody can say for certain how near (or how far) these two future LDS dignitaries were to each other throughout that time period. At the very least, Pratt's self-admitted presence near Palmyra strengthens Mrs. Eaton's claim that he was known in that region of the country as a peddler.

Exactly how close was Pratt to the Smith home at Manchester during this period? He mentions spending "a few months" with his "uncles, Ira and Allen Pratt," during the year. Whether he lived continuously in their houses, or merely called their residences his occasional "home," Pratt does not reveal. In 1820 the two brothers lived in Phelps township, Ontario County, New York, the township immediately adjacent to Joseph Smith's Manchester, on the east. Assuming that members of Oliver Cowdery's family were then living in Arcadia or Lyons townships, the Pratt brothers were living immediately adjacent to the Cowderys, on the south. At some date between the 1820 census and the 1830 census, the Pratts moved a few miles north, into what became Wayne County. By 1830 Uncle Ira Pratt lived in Sodus, just north of Arcadia and Lyons; while Uncle Allen lived in Galen, immediately east of Lyons. At most, Parley was twenty miles away, as the crow flies, from the Smith homestead at Manchester -- at the least he was fifteen miles distant from the infamous money-digging clan. It is probably significant that Pratt fails to make this fact clear in the telling of his autobiography.

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