Joe Geisner discusses the lost Orson & Parley Pratt diaries and we’ll dive deep into the Parley Pratt murder, just prior to the Mountain Meadows Massacre. What other important documents are lost to history? Check out our conversation…
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Parley Pratt Murder
Joe 1:08:52 Okay, Parley Pratt. Now this comes from Steven Pratt. Steve is an amazing researcher. He is a descendant of Parley Pratt. He is the guy. He’s the go-to guy when it comes [to Parley.] I asked Steve, and he was kind enough to tell me this. He said there’s a 300-page manuscript of Parley Pratt history, autobiography. Now, the autobiography of Parley P Pratt was not written. I mean, there are bits and pieces, but it was his son there that wrote, and I think John Taylor, maybe. John Taylor, I think, helped.
GT 1:09:39 The idea is Parley is just telling him all this?
Joe 1:09:43 This is his real autobiography. It’s 300-page manuscript, destroyed, gone, lost, disappeared, whatever. The journal of Pratt of 1857 an interesting date. Why 1857? If people don’t know, that’s when Pratt was murdered. That’s also when he was dealing with stealing another man’s wife.
GT 1:10:01 Hector McLean.
Joe 1:10:02 Hector McLean murdered him, a vicious murder, a horrible murder, actually.
GT 1:10:12 For which he was acquitted.
Joe 1:10:14 Yeah, yeah, yeah, yeah. Well, when you steal another man’s wife, you don’t usually have—an all-male jury doesn’t have much sympathy. But anyway, this is even more tragic in some ways. The letters of Parley Pratt, the current collection is 480 letters. Steve is putting together a huge volume, huge, huge. It’s like the papers of Joseph Smith.
GT 1:10:46 I was just going to ask. Is there a Parley P Pratt dot org or something?
Joe 1:10:48 That’s what he wants to do. Yeah, that’s what he wants to do. Unfortunately, it’s still years down the road, but the current collection is 480 letters out of 1817 known letters to have existed. That’s a lot of letters.
GT 1:11:07 Yeah.
Joe 1:11:09 Steve has scoured everything: family, Church Archives, everything, and 1400 letters or 1300 and some letters are gone missing.
Herald House Fire/Lost Records
Joe 1:11:25 Now we’re back to the horrible fire at Herald House offices. By the way, that was in Lamoni, Iowa. I think. Lyman Wight’s journals. We know they existed because Joseph Smith III quotes from them in the history of the Reorganized Church of Jesus Christ of Latter Day Saints. Smith prepared a manuscript history of Wight’s colony from the Lyman Wight journals. The primary source is contemporary with the community’s existence in Texas. All that was later destroyed in a fire at the Herald House fire. I got that from Mel Johnson, mainly from his book, but also from personal correspondence with him over that. In addition, and this comes from Mike Nielsen, he’s an amazing young scholar. Mike said, Well, don’t forget about the Charles Wandell, who was pretty active. I can’t remember if he was on a high council or what in Nauvoo. His Nauvoo journal was also destroyed. Again, people quoted from it and so that’s why we know it existed. But it was destroyed in the fire.
Joe 1:13:02 Then Jason Briggs was one of the founders of the Reorganized Church of Jesus Christ of Latter Day Saints. Jason Briggs wrote a manuscript history of the early history of the reorganization in Nauvoo. Now, what’s significant about that is this. Briggs never met Joseph Smith.
GT 1:13:26 Right.
Joe 1:13:27 He was the leader of a church. I don’t know if it was Pennsylvania or where, but it was in another state. He didn’t come to Nauvoo until after the murders of the Smith brothers, but he wrote this history. That would have been all about the Smith family, what was going on in the succession crisis, all of that. So the loss of that and that, it too, was also burned in there.
GT 1:14:00 He was good friends with the Smiths.
Joe 1:14:02 He was extremely close, right, extremely close to the Smith family.
John Taylor/George Q Cannon Journals
Joe 1:14:08 Okay, John Taylor’s journals. We know that they existed because Roberts quotes from them in his biography,
GT 1:14:17 BH Roberts.
Joe 1:14:18 Yeah. B H, Roberts quotes from them in the John Taylor journals. Those would include the diaries before 1845 and then after 1846. We’ve got that one volume that Dean Jessee edited, that Lyndon Cook then published, but that’s it. So, it’s really sad. This one’s interesting, fun, all of that, in light of my whole fixation and fascination with the George Q. Cannon journals. On 25th of February, 1888 George Q Cannon and writes, “I slept but little last night for my feelings were deeply wounded. This morning, I had another interview with brother John Henry Smith, and I read to him from my private memorandum book such statements concerning my conversation with President Taylor, which I had not put to in my daily journal, but had reserved for my own private use and information. These extracts had a great effect upon him. He expressed the pleasure that he had from hearing them, for it gave him a better idea of my course than anything he had heard. These entries of mine were never designed for anyone’s information but my own. They are entirely private, and I did not expect that any human eye would see them, but my own. But they stated the case so fully that I felt it do to myself under the circumstances that my true position should be known. I therefore read them as a matter of self-defense. Brother Smith’s feelings were much softened, and he manifested a very kind, considerate spirit.”
Joe 1:16:07 A couple of comments about that, again, because I’m fascinated with Cannon’s journals. First of all, Cannon wrote very intimate things in his journals. I can’t imagine what he had written in this memorandum book. He talks about having sex with his wives. He talks about arguments, financial stuff. I mean, he talks about everything in his journals. The journals are the best. Mike Quinn got to look at some of them before they just locked them down. He told me this would have been 1990-91 someone there. He said, if they ever publish those, we will learn so much. A matter of fact, Mike said, we will learn about bribes. We’re going to learn about corruption. We’re going to learn all kinds of things,
GT 1:17:18 Bribes, regarding?
Joe 1:17:21 Stopping the Morrill Act, watering down the Morrill Act which they did. The Mormons got watered way, way down.
GT 1:17:30 They bribed government officials not to enforce anti-polygamy so, much.
Joe 1:17:33 Yeah, yeah. That’s why Cannon was always in DC. That’s why he was always in DC. Cannon is just a fascinating guy. That’s one thing about that memorandum book, I think, is wow. What could have been in there? The other thing, though, is that I asked Robin Jensen about this memorandum book. Robin wrote me. He was kind enough to write me back in 2021. He said, “that particular passage has long intrigued me. Unfortunately, I know of no item that fits that description. What I do know is that there is a whole swath of George Q Cannon papers that are not extant. Nearly all of his correspondence, for instance, is nowhere to be found. It’s quite possible that this item is part of that collection. Here’s hoping that it will surface one day.” Obviously, Robin feels much more optimistic than I do
GT 1:18:31 Do you think it would ever be in the Library of Congress or anything like that?
Joe 1:18:35 No, no, no. There was a journal in Colorado. I think the Denver Public Library, for some reason, it got separated from all the other journals. again, CanNon journals are massive. We’re talking of 10s, if not close to 100,000 pages.
GT 1:18:53 Wow.
Joe 1:18:54 I mean, it’s 10s of 1000s, at least, like I say. That’s the handwritten. The typescripts alone. I can’t remember how massive my Word document is, but it’s in the 1000s of pages.
GT 1:19:10 Wow.
Joe 1:19:11 That’s the type script. Cannon had beautiful penmanship. Cannon was just really smart. Mike Quinn told me the Cannon family runs the Church. They’ve run the Church since George Q Cannon days, and they still run the Church. I said that to Ken Cannon one day, and he goes, That’s right. We still do. My belief, and you’ll see why, but my belief is the reason those are no longer extant, because I don’t think they are. Robin has some hope, but I don’t think they are. [I think it] is because the family destroyed them, which was very consistent and you’ll see that in the next few or next couple of entries.
Cannon Family
Joe 1:19:11 Here’s Martha Hughes Cannon. Now, Martha Hughes Cannon was married to Angus Cannon, George Q Cannon’s brother. Angus is fascinating in and of himself. He actually ran the Church when Wilford Woodruff and George Q Cannon were on the underground. Angus actually ran the Church. He was Stake President of Salt Lake. His wife, Mattie Hughes Cannon ran to England to hide out. They had love letters between her and Angus. Now Constance Lieber and John Sillito did a book in the Signature series of the Maddie Hughes Cannon letters. But as you’re going to find out, there’s a reason why they’re one sided. Maddie Hughes Xannon, this is from Constance Lieber. She requested her son burn all her journals and papers after her death. Sadly, he did. Now that’s from her. I’m lucky though. I actually was home teaching companion with Maddie’s great grandson. I asked Blaine. I said, “Where did Constance get this information?” He goes “From me.” Here’s what Blaine told me. “In conversation with my grandmother, Martha Hughes Porter Monty, I asked what had happened to her grandmother, Martha Maddie Hughes Cannon’s journals and papers. I was told that that Maddie had her son James Hughes Cannon burn the journals, as she did not want people reading them of the things she had written. I hope this helps.” Blaine is just saying that.
GT 1:21:59 Martha Washington did the same thing with George.
Joe 1:22:11 That was under orders, though, from George Washington, yeah.
GT 1:22:07 I was watching a documentary on that. on that it was, and everybody’s like, “Oh, we wish [we had them.]” They did find one letter.
Joe 1:22:12 All those personal letters were all destroyed. The only thing we have, George Washington is the public letters.
GT 1:22:22 Well, they found one of Matha’s letters, yeah, because it was tucked in the desk, and she forgot about it or something.
Joe 1:22:30 Can you imagine? Well, there’s a reason. These were intimate letters. She’s in England, Angus is in… They are love letters. They’re talking about intimate, sexual things. She didn’t want [it out.] She’s writing those in letters. My point is, it’s one sided. We just have hers. Because Angus kept her letters.
GT 1:23:02 We don’t know what she was responding to, we just have the one side.
Joe 1:23:07 Right. So all of Angus’s [letters], which probably were more explicit, she destroyed along with her journals. So yeah, It’s really sad.
Joe 1:23:20 Abraham Cannon, this is George Q Cannon’s son. This is found in Leo Lyman’s Candid Insights, another volume from the significant diaries. “Before the diaries were deposited BYU some family members motivated by misunderstandings and hurt feelings,” Leo is downplaying this so much, “removed a handful of pages from the originals. The Missing entries, no doubt, had to do with family matters, although material regarding church and political issues were unavoidably lost in the process. Cannon’s diaries for 1896 have never been located.” Thank goodness Harvard Heath and Leo quotes this whole thing. Thank goodness Harvard Heath interviewed family members. Harvard Heath a long-time staff member of the Harold B Lee archives and manuscripts department interviewed Jean Cannon Willis, a granddaughter of Abraham Cannon, sister of Rachel Cannon Henninger, who donated Abraham’s diaries to the library. When asked if she knew who had excised the missing portion, she replied, “We did,” meaning the family. He concluded that the items had been removed because they were very personal. In my own examination of the diary, I could find no pages missing up to volume 8.
Joe 1:24:41 Then Harvard and Leo are so good, they actually identify every page that’s missing and all of that. But I’m not going to go through that. But anyway, here’s the interesting part, well, the whole thing’s interesting to a nerd like me. “Some of the latter excisions probably related to Cannon’s courtship in marriage to Lillian Hamlin.” I did miss one important part. I could find no missing pages up to volume eight. Then he starts finding it. He said, “This is the time there were 33 pages excised. This is the time that Cannon was having his courtship and plural marriage to Mamie Croxall. Those women were from another wife.
GT 1:25:39 Oh.
Joe 1:25:40 Okay, so there’s that. So then we jump then to the later volumes. It says some of the later excisions probably related to Cannon’s courtship and marriage to Lillian Hamlin. Lillian Hamlin is significant because she was engaged to Abraham’s brother. Abraham Cannon’s brother died. So, they go to the temple and they get sealed to one another, though Abraham is proxy for his brother. To show you how personal these journals were, the family excised all the pages. As a matter of fact, the entire journal that would have dealt with that, along with some of the missing portions of 1844, also related to Anne Mousley Cannon, who’s Angus Cannon’s daughter, because she’s from one of them. It’s one of the Mousley wives that he had. He married he married sisters. He married two Mousley sisters. She’s from one of those. What’s going on between Abraham and his cousin is also interesting. Abraham’s marriage to Lillian’s in 1896 and resulting controversy generated by the Reed Smoot hearings is probably the reason that the last six and a half months of his life are no longer extent. They destroyed the entire journal.
GT 1:27:24 Why do you think they destroyed it?
Joe 1:27:27 Because of the relationship he had with Lilian Hamlin, and because of this relationship, he had with Ann Mousley Cannon.
GT 1:27:26 Okay.
Joe 1:27:37 This cousin, which, by the way, that was not an uncommon thing among Mormons. Joseph F Smith married Samuel Smith’s daughter,
GT 1:27:50 FDR married his fourth cousin.
Joe 1:27:51 Yeah, yeah, yeah. Well, these are first cousins, but yeah. So anyway, yeah, so his uncle’s daughter is who Joseph F Smith [married.] Unfortunately, he then beat her which is this whole sad story. She then went into an insane asylum.
{End of Part 2}
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