Posted by:
jw the inquizzinator
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Date: October 11, 2010 11:15PM
Just wanted to clarify a few things...
Hector and Eleanor's marriage (at least while they were in San Francisco) was not great. The Jared Pratt website (that has a lot of good info) would have you believe Hector was a drunk and was abusive. And that after an incident in 1855 Eleanor never considered herself married to Hector.
http://jared.pratt-family.org/parley_histories/parley-death-stephen-pratt.htmlI have found nothing to corroborate that accusation. I have also found nothing to show that Eleanor and Hector were divorced. Hector was employed as a federal custom's house official in San Francisco.
If you look at the timeline here it is telling. Eleanor ran off with PPP to SLC in 1855. At that point I think Hector was saying good riddance to Eleanor, and she to him. It was at some point in 1855 that Hector sent the children back to New Orleans. How Eleanor could abandon her children is beyond me. If Hector had been abusive, the law would have been on her side....even in 1855-56 IMHO. But she chose a different path. She chose to travel to SLC and chase PPP. My own opinion is that she was enamored with PPP and Mormonism...and her egocentricity outweighed her maternal feelings.
Once in SLC, Eleanor found that she wanted her children. Being a plural wife of PPP was probably not all that she thought it would be. So she accompanied Parley on his missionary trip back East. I have no doubt that she had but one intention and that was to get her children (that she hadn't seen for two years) and return with them to SLC. Because she had abandoned them, she knew this would not be easy. Her ruse of having left the LDS Church was initially convincing, but she quickly revealed her real intent.
She first scampered over to Houston with the kids where she was put up by some LDS members. Hector was already en route (allegedly when Eleanor's parent's informed Hector that she had taken the children).
PPP had to coordinate with host of folks to affect Eleanor's escape to SLC with the children. Hector, leveraging his status as a Federal custom's house official, convinced some postmasters to allow him to read letters from PPP to Eleanor. Much of their contents was encoded as was there names (secret combinations?). Hector put enough of it together to pinpoint where PPP and Eleanor were...a real feat IMHO.
PPP was arraigned in Van Buren, AR for 'stealing' the children's clothes (couldn't charge a mother with kidnapping--a key piece of evidence pointing to the fact that Elanor and Hector never had legal arrangements executed in respect to the children).
I just found out recently that the first mayor of Van Buren was a McLean (can't make this stuff up).
I suspect Hector had already told his story all over town prior to PPP being arrested. Once in jail, the judge knew the charges were bogus, but he also made sure Hector got the children safely away. The judge also knew there'd likely be trouble when he released PPP. Parley was such an arrogant ass, he thought his deity would protect him. It is interesting that he beat feet out of town and left Eleanor hanging.
Hector and a couple of new 'buddies' (that I have no doubt he recruited locally...Hector's earlier posse had been referred to as 'Masonic Brethren') were hot on PPP's trail and eventually overtook him and killed him. Not sure how they caught him so quick unless Parley had a lousy horse or didn't think he needed to gallop away.
Hector intended to have PPP arrested under different charges in St Louis (he knew the clothes charges wouldn't stick).
So instead of classifying Hector as an enraged husband, I think it more correct to categorize him as an enraged father who was protecting his children.
Eleanor went back to SLC without the children. I doubt she ever saw them again. I also have no doubt she made an impassioned plea to BY for vengeance (it was BY who had sealed PPP and Eleanor) upon her arrival--by a Mormon 'express' transport--in Utah. I am confident this was the main motivation for BY ordering the MMM--yes, I think he ordered it.
Hector returned to New Orleans. He actually invented some sort of cotton bale lifting device (you can Google him up on Google patents).
I am still trying to find out more about Hector's children after all this....but so far no luck.