trip west, he and his companions stopped to visit Sidney Rigdon. They were instrumental in converting Rigdon and approximately 130 members of his congregation within three weeks. Pratt became close friends with the Smiths, particularly Joseph, with whom he would later experience persecution and imprisonment, including incarceration at Liberty Jail. In early 1833, Pratt served as a missionary in Illinois. He went to Jackson County, Missouri, where through the summer he headed the School of the Elders, a gathering of about 60 men who studied religious and secular subjects, similar to the School of the Prophets in Kirtland, Ohio. In the fall of 1833, he served as president of the Mormon branch number 8 in Jackson County and as a leader in the Mormon militia. He was among those Latter Day Saints driven into Clay County, Missouri, by mob violence. In February 1834, Pratt and Lyman Wight headed back to Kirtland to report on the events in Missouri to Joseph Smith. From Kirtland, Pratt traveled with Smith in Pennsylvania and western New York, preaching and trying to recruit people to serve in Zion's Camp. After traveling together for three weeks, during some of this time with Pratt serving as Smith's scribe, Smith returned to Kirtland from Geneseo, New York, for a court case. Pratt continued his missionary efforts along with Henry Brown. Pratt and Brown went to eastern New York to give his family members money to move to Kirtland. They went to Richland, New York, where Pratt convinced Wilford Woodruff, who had been baptized three months before, to join Zion's Camp. Pratt returned to Missouri later in 1834 as a member of Zion's Camp. After Zion's Camp broke up, Pratt rejoined his wife, Thankful, who had remained in Clay County while he had been traveling. While working as a day laborer, Pratt served on the Missouri High Council. Thankful had run up large debts in Pratt's absence, and when he returned with her to Ohio, some felt he was trying to flee his creditors and criticized him for it. Pratt settled in New Portage, Ohio (now part of Barberton), where he was the leader of a group of Latter-day Saints there. More missionary service In 1835, after his call as an apostle, Pratt served with other apostles in a mission to New York, New England, and eastern Canada. Pratt preached in Upper Canada, in and around Toronto, in 1836.