38 Proceedings. 



tion, and devoting his time during vacation of the village 

 school to helping his father in the milling business. He grew 

 to young manhood, receiving meanwhile a very fair educa- 

 tion. Quite early he began his career as a teacher by teach- 

 ing a common school. In this work he was very successful, 

 since his tastes and talents directed him. After a few years 

 experience in teaching, Mr. Pratt came to Davenport, 

 Iowa, in February, 1857, where he entered into partnership 

 with Mr. Joseph C. Lopez in the proprietorship of the 

 Davenport Commercial College. Mr. Pratt was so success- 

 ful in the management of this institution for business train- 

 ing that in 1859 he bought out his partner, and in the same 

 year bought another smaller business college in the same 

 town. Prosecuting the work until 1865, he made his school 

 one ot a chain of business colleges and subsequently sold 

 out his entire interest to Bryant, Stratton & Merrill, the 

 proprietors of that extensive system of commercial colleges 

 known under the name of Bryant & Stratton. Folio wing^ 

 this sale Mr. Pratt was for many years a teacher of pen- 

 manship in the Davenport schools, but it was especially in 

 the Davenport Academy of Sciences that he did his best 

 work. He was one of the charter members who organized 

 the Academy in 1867. Becoming at once its first secretary 

 and one of its trustees, he gave to this institution the best 

 labor and efforts of his life. During his whole connection 

 with the Academy his work was indeed a labor of love. 

 Mr. Pratt had also been an omniverous reader, and paying 

 special attention to natural history, he came to the work of 

 organizing and developing the Davenport Academy with a 

 high degree of preparation. 



A unique feature of his work in connection with the 

 Academy was the association which he developed between 

 theAcademj^ and the public schools. He arranged a series of 

 lectures to the various grades of school children in geology, 

 zoology, botany and comparative anatomy. He was very 

 competent to teach on these subjects. He effected an arrange- 

 ment whereby classes came to the Academy from the various 

 schools, listened to lectures, and examined the specimens, 

 which were arranged for their special benefit into a series of 

 groups or study collections. In this work Mr. Pratt con- 



