A Family Member's Dream Foretells Parley P. Pratt's Sudden Return to the Saints' Camp at the Bluffs (1846)
Published October 17, 2026 at 8:16 AM
Contributed by
Todd Morgan
Beaumont, CA, 92223
After Parley P. Pratt was sent to retrieve money for the church from the Mormon Battalion, he unexpectedly returned to his family's camp at the Bluffs. Despite the return being unplanned and rapid, a member of his family had received a premonitory dream predicting his arrival. This family member had told the others of his coming, including the specific day, so that the family was actively watching and expecting him throughout that day.
In Their Own Words
“I took leave of Elders Hyde and Taylor and the brethren of the battalion, and started on horseback for the camp of the Saints. I rode with all speed, and in less than three days reached home--distance one hundred and seventy miles. Unexpected as this visit was, a member of my family had been warned in a dream, and had predicted my arrival and the day, and my family were actually looking for me all that day.”
— Parley P. Pratt, Autobiography of Parley P. Pratt
Sources & References
Parley P. Pratt, Autobiography of Parley P. Pratt, One of the Twelve Apostles of the Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints, ed. Parley P. Pratt Jr. (Salt Lake City: Deseret Book, 1874), chapter XLIII - via Project Gutenberg, https://www.gutenberg.org/ebooks/44896 (account extracted verbatim from the public-domain text; research confidence: high) Full first-person account: Parley P. Pratt, Autobiography of Parley P. Pratt, One of the Twelve Apostles of the Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints, ed. Parley P. Pratt Jr. (Salt Lake City: Deseret Book, 1874), chapter XLIII https://www.gutenberg.org/files/44896/44896-h/44896-h.htm
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