TOWN OF PRATTSBURGH. 



373 



WILLIAM B. PRATT. 



The Pratt family of Steuben County trace their descent 

 from John Pratt, who, with his brother, Lieut. William 

 Pratt, emigrated to America, and is supposed to have settled 

 at Cambridge, Mass., in 1633. John Pratt was one of the 

 members of Thomas Hooker's church, and was evidently 

 one of the company who went across the wilderness with 

 their pastor and laid the foundations of Hartford, as he drew 

 lot No. 31 in the first assignment of lots there in February, 

 1639, and the same year represented Hartford in the first 

 General Court, and for several years afterwards. 



Capt. Joel Pratt, a lineal descendant of the fifth genera- 

 tion from John Pratt, and son of Deacon Elisha Pratt, of 

 Colchester, Conn., born Sept. 26, 1745, married Mrs. Mary 

 Beach Fowler, daughter of Deacon Benjamin Beach, of 

 Hebron, Conn., February, 1779 ; first settled in Columbia 

 Co., N. Y., and in the year 1799 visited the wilderness 

 about Prattsburgh on horseback, at which time what is now 

 Prattsburgh was an unbroken wilderness. He returned 

 home, and in the year 1800, with his son Harvey, a four- 

 ox team, six men, and one hired girl, with needful tools and 

 provisions, after a journey of eighteen days, reached what 

 is now Urbana Hill, four miles west of the village of Ham- 

 mondsport, and the first year cleared off" one hundred and 

 ten acres of forest, and made the land ready for wheat. 



In 1802, Capt. Pratt removed his family to the new set- 

 tlement. In 1804 he made improvements on the place now 

 occupied and owned by William B. Pratt, near the village 

 of Prattsburgh, and in 1805 settled there with his family. 

 (For further particulars relative to Capt. Pratt's early settle- 



ment, see history of Prattsburgh.) Their children were Joel, 

 Ira, Harvey, Anna, Dan, and Elisha. 



Capt. Pratt was identified with and held a controlling 

 interest in the early settlement and disposition of lands, gave 

 the town its name, assisted in founding the first religious 

 society, laid out the public park, and secured it to the Pratts- 

 burgh Religious Society, together with a plat of ground for 

 a cemetery, and lands for the support of church interests. 

 He died at Prattsburgh, Sept. 30, 1821. His wife died at 

 the age of sixty-three, Jan. 31, 1818. 



Elisha, youngest son of Capt. Joel Pratt, born in Spen- 

 certown, Columbia Co., Aug. 21, 1790, was twelve years of 

 age when the family settled here. He married Emily, 

 daughter of Dr. Bildad Beach, of Marcellus, Onondaga Co., 

 N. Y., Feb. 7, 1821 ; lived on the homestead first settled at 

 Prattsburgh during his life ; was a farmer by occupation ; 

 led a strictlv business life, was a man of correct habits and 

 sterling integrity in all his business relations, and respected 

 by all who knew him. He died April 12, 1849. His wife 

 died June 2, 1871, aged seventy-four. She was a person 

 of great vigor of mind, was the last relic of the early set- 

 tlers on the road from Prattsburgh towards Bath, and was 

 at the head of a family fifty years prior to her death. Their 

 children were, Joel (deceased), William B., and Mary B. 

 (who died young). 



Mr. William B. Pratt, only surviving child of the family, 

 was' born Dec. 27, 1822, received a fair education at the 

 common school and at the Franklin Academy, but spent 

 a very large part of his majority at farm labor at home. 



Mr. Pratt is among the representative agriculturists in 



