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Pratt, John W., the subject of this sketch, was born in Livonia, N. Y., April 25, 1859. He was descended, in
the seventh generation, from Lieut. William Pratt, who came from England with Rev. Thomas Hooker, and settled in
Newtown (now Cambridge), Mass., in 1633, and thence removed in June, 1636, to Hartford, Conn. The generations are:
William, Samuel 1655, David 1688, David 1720, Peabody 1757, George 1784, George Franklin 1816, John Wilcox 1859.
His paternal great-grandfather, Peabody, was a Revolutionary soldier, as was also his great-grandfather on the
side of his paternal grandmother, Onesimus Risdon, a native of Vermont. His grandfather came to Livonia, Livingston
county, N. Y., in 1807, where he built a tannery (afterwards removed to Springwater) and carried on an extensive
leather furnishing and boot and shoe store. He was a man of great business ability and prominent in affairs, and
died leaving a competency. His father, George Franklin Pratt, succeeded to the business and later entered into
mercantile business in Livonia. His mother was daughter of Abner Wilcox and Sally Horton, who removed to Livonia
from Dutchess county and settled on a farm of three hundred acres a mile north of the Center, and now owned by
Samuel Woodruff. His maternal greatgrandfather was also a Revolutionary soldier. Mr. Pratt is the youngest of five
children, and inherited in a full measure the business energy of his family, which was early manifested. He also
has the features of the Pratts marked through all the generations of the family. He was educated in the common
schools of Livonia and studied at the Franklin Academy, Prattsburgh, N. Y., and the Walton Academy, Walton, Delaware
county. N. Y. After finishing his education Mr. Pratt was for several years in the employ of T. W. Millham, general
merchant and postmaster at Livonia, N. Y., in the capacity of salesman and bookkeeper. In 1877 he came to Batavia
and entered the office of the Wiard Plow Co., where he has been for twenty-two years, now occupying the position
of cashier and head bookkeeper. In 1880 Mr. Pratt married Jennie A., one of a family of five children and daughter
of the late Dr. Cyrus C. Baker, who was a prominent homeopathic physician of Batavia, N. Y. They have four children:
Laura S., John C., Louella B. and Gertrude W. Mr. Pratt is one of the self-made men of the town, having served
as trustee of the village and for the past eleven years as a diractor and treasurer of the Genesee County Permanent
Loan & Building Association, and takes a general interest in school and church matters and has ever advanced
the best interest of his town and townspeople.
Source:
Our County and it's people
A descriptive work on Genesee County, New York
Edited by: F. W. Beers
J.W. Vose & Co., Publishers, Syracuse, N. Y. 1890
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Companies in 1890
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