Ephraim Pratt

From a biographical sketch in a history of Washington County, Iowa, page 537 (posted at Rootsweb, World Connect, by Susan Fisher at "Ancestors of Jennifer & Adam Fisher".

E.P. PRATT, farmer and stock-raiser, section 1, Marion Township, is a native of Pennsylvania, where he was born in 1820. He is the son of Elias and Polly (Swain) Pratt, the former a native of Massachusetts and the latter of Pennsylvania. When he was but two years of age his father moved to Athens County, Ohio, and there the subject of this sketch was reared on a frm and educated in the district schools of that county. In October, 1845, he left Ohio and came to Iowa with his wife and two children, and stopped in Cedar Rapids, where he remained during the following winter. In the spring of 1846 he settled where the Omish [sic] settlement now is, on the Iowa River, where he attended a farm one year for another man. He then went to Johnson County, twelve miles northwest of Iowa City on the Iowa River, and there took up a claim of 160 acres of Government land. He improved that place and made it his home for some six or eight years, and then bought another quarter of raw land, which he also improved, and where he lived eight years. He helped organize the first school district in that county, and held the office of director for twelve years. While living in Iowa County he was on the grand jury that met at an Indian trading point. This was before the admission of Iowa as a State. When he went to attend that Court he found the County Clerk making shingles, on the site of the present city of Marengo.

In 1859 Mr. Pratt went to Douglas County, Kan., and there remained from October to the following May. While there his wife died, and was buried at Bloomington, Kan. In May, 1860, he came to Washington County and leased a farm for four years. During this time he bought a farm of 160 acres on section 1, Marion Township, to which he moved on the expiration of his lease, and where he has since continued to reside. He was first married in 1842 in Athens County, Ohio, to Amanda Roberts, a native of Ohio, and daughter of Amos and Mary Roberts. By that union there were eight children: Jasper N. died at the age of twenty-two years; Lavinna Frances, the wife of Solomon White, of Crawfordsville, Iowa; Sarah Jane married A.F. Bentley, and died in Ringgold County, Iowa, in 1884; Mary Eliza, the widow of John Nichols, who died in Ringgold County, Iowa; Melissa Emeline, now the wife of John White, of Ringgold County, Iowa; Cynthia is now the wife of Blanchard Nevill, of Ringgold County, Iowa; Viola married George R. Black, a mail clerk on the route between Burlington, Iowa, and Albert Lee [sic], Minn.; Sophia is the wife of M.T. Benson, Postmaster at Goshen, Iowa.

Mr. Pratt contracted a second marriage in 1864, with Mrs. Mary F. Benson, the widow of J.C. Benson. She was a native of Pennsylvania. By this union there are five children: Margaret A., the wife of I.M. Lewis, of this county; Ephraim Porter died Aug. 12, 1886, aged eighteen years; Norman N. resides at home; Olive L. died at the age of two years, and Alva B. is at home. Mr. Pratt has thirty-four grandchildren and two great-grandchildren, all in good health and smart. He feels a just pride in the fact that all his daughters have married good men. Mr. Pratt is a member of the Methodist Episcopal Church. In politics, he is a Republican. Mrs. Pratt died Jan. 6, 1887.

Commencing life in limited circumstances, Mr. P. has by close attention to business, good management and economy, acquired a competency. He is a man well respected by all who know him. A representative citizen of Washington County, his portrait propery adorns the pages of this volume.