Genealogical and Personal History of Fayette County, Pennsylvania, 1912


Pratt Family Biography

The coming of this family to the United States was not in the nature of an emigration, but of an invasion, the sequel proving the result happier than the intention.

(I) John Pratt, the founder, was a soldier of England and during the war of 1812 came over as an aide to an English general in command. During an engagement between the opposing armies he was taken prisoner and kept in confinement until the war ended. He was evidently well treated and formed a good opinion of his quondam enemies, for he never returned to his native land. He settled in Fayette county, Pennsylvania, where he married and died about 1863. His wife was Elizabeth Galloway. born on the Ocean, daughter of John Galloway, the emigrant who settled in Fayette county, near Wymp's Gap. She died in 1871, the mother of sixteen children, including a son, Henry M., of whom further.

(II) Henry M., son of John and Elizabeth (Galloway) Pratt, was born near Smithfield, Fayette county, Pennsylvania, September 15, 1846. He attended the public school, and grew to manhood on the farm. He was learning the carpenter's trade, but this was interrupted in 1864 by his enlistment in Company H, (Captain Green) One Hundred and Seventh Regiment, Pennsylvania Volunteer Infantry, serving until the close of the war. During the closing days of the Confederacy he was with the Army of the Potomac, driving the beleagured Lee to final surrender. During the last day of fighting he was regimental color bearer, seizing the flag when the color hearer was shot at the Deep Bottom fight, and carried it on the day of surrender. He was a close friend of Lieutenant W. C. Beck, and shared his tent during the final army days. After the war he returned to Fayette county and his trade, following that occupation and agriculture during his active years. He is a Republican in politics, and with his wife a member of the Methodist Episcopal church.

He married Mary Bowman, born near Smithfield, Fayette county, Pennsylvania, September 15, 1846, the same age as her husband, daughter of George W. Bowman, born in Fayette county in 1810, died in 1888. He was a moulder by trade and a pioneer of the iron industry in Fayette county. He married Mary Jordan, born in Fayette county in 1810. died in 1862. Children of Henry M. and Mary Pratt: William D., of whom further; Annie, born May 18, 1872, died aged three years and five months.

(III) William D., only son of Henry M. Pratt, was born near Smithfield, Fayette county, Pennsylvania, February 11, 1870. He was reared on the home farm and rereived his early education at the hands of his parents, having no other teachers nor attending school until eleven years of age. He had received such good instruction and was so well grounded in the English branches that after a few years in school, at age of sixteen years, he was qualified to teach and obtain a school. He taught during the school year, and during the vacation months worked on the farm. He passed twenty-eight successful examinations in different counties of the state and continued as an instructor until 1900. During this period he had also taken a course at Western Pennsylvania Classical and Scientific Institute. In 1900 he abandoned his profession and purchased a photograph gallery in Brownsville, Pennsylvania, from the Dawson Estate, and has there established a very successful business in photography. He is well known in fraternal circles, having been an active worker for the past twenty-five years in the Masonic Orders, Independent Order of Odd Fellows, Knights of Pythias, Knights of Malta, Royal Arcanum, the Modern Woodmen and orders of lesser note. In Scottish Rite masonry he has attained the thirty-second degree, under the Supreme Council of Spain Consistory. He has filled the chair in several of these bodies and is an bonored past officer. In politics he is a Republican, and a member of the Baptist church.

He married, September 15, 1895, Rebecca Dusenberry, born in Monongalia county, West Virginia, February 18, 1867, daughter of George and Alcinda (De Vault) Dusenberry, both deceased, the former aged eighty-eight years, the latter at age of seventy-eight. Mrs. Pratt is also an excellent photographic artist and her husband's valued assistant in the studio.


Source: Genealogical and Personal History of Fayette County, John W. Jordan, Lewis Historical Publishing Co., 1912.





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