| Daniel Pratt was born in Colchester, Conn., March, 1806. His
minority was mostly spent at home, where he learned of his father, Daniel
Ransom Pratt, the cloth-dressing business, which subsequently became his
chief business, and in which he was pecuniarily successful.
At the age of twenty, in connection with his brother Ransom, -who was
next younger, -he assumed full control of the business previously carried
on by his father. The two young men continued their business for
some two years, and in the year 1828 came to the town of Catharine, Schuyler
Co., N. Y., where they followed their business.
They spent some three years in Burdett, and the elder Pratt afterwards
four years on a farm, while the younger still worked at his trade.
In 1837 they again went into partnership in Havana, established a woolen-mill
and carried on business for five years, when, in the year 1842, believing
Elmira a better place for their operations, removed to that place, where
they at once established the woolen-mills at the foot of Water-Cure
Hill, where their energies were successfully concentrated for very many
years. They were business men of the most thorough and enterprising
kind, quick to conceive and rapid in the execution of their plans.
They were among the original incorporators of the Second National Bank
of Elmira, and continued to be large stockholders to the time of their
decease, and Daniel Pratt was a director from its organization.
At the time of the decease of Daniel Pratt, January, 1877, he was senior
member of the wholesale hardware house of Pratt & Co. He was
a man of great energy of character, having few equals as a sagacious capitalist
and business man. He was a consistent Christian, and through life,
in public or private relations, honorably met and fulfilled his obligations.
In the year 1828 he married Harriet, daughter of Joseph Carrier, of
the town of Marlborough, Conn. She was born in 1806, and survives
her husband, together with an only son, Daniel R. Pratt, who is president
of the Second National Bank of Elmira. |
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