Doris Pratt

Every once in a while, when you least expect it, a genealogy event falls from the sky and into your lap. In 2016, I was truly blessed to have the opportunity to visit the three wonderful portraits of John, Sarah and Elvira Pratt Jolley owned by and displayed at my distant cousin's home. Her graciousness was overwhelming. These paintings were beautifully lit and well placed in areas all to themselves. There was a reverence to the experience. Maybe that's because of the way John and Sarah lived their lives.

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    As we continue on this ancestral path, my next forebear was       John (1778-1869). Born in Braintree, and the second son of Matthew Jr. and second wife Sarah, he was a young child when the family move to Shutesbury, Massachusetts in what was then Hampshire County. Census records of 1790 for Shutesbury show the Pratt household with 14 people. As John grew up there he probably learned carpentry and other building trades. An area of  Shutesbury named "Pratt Corner," which may have been settled by the unrelated long-lived Ephrain Pratt and other Pratts, seems to have inspired John's pioneer spirit in future endeavors. In 1788, John's father Matthew Jr. was listed as a Shutesbury town selectman.

    We next find John at age 22 in the 1800 census in Vergennes, Vermont (Addison County) near his older brother Sevea Pratt (1776-1826). By then, both men had married and had small families. John married Sarah Barton (1780-1867) possibly from Vergennes, Vermont, in 1797; in total they raised eleven children.    

    John is found next in Madison County, N.Y. where he and his brother Matthew (1780-1837) settled Pratt's Hollow. Numerous accounts of their settling the town have been published. John was known there as a gifted carpenter, and they built a grist mill, distillery, tavern, store, chapel and numerous houses. They prospered for a while, but after several setbacks, lost money and dissolved their partnership. The remnants of Pratt's Hollow still stand today. New York State has deemed Pratt's Hollow the geographical center of the state. Other members of the family moved westward to Illinois, Indiana, Michigan and Wisconsin.

   

    John and Sarah moved west again to Port Gibson, N.Y. (Ontario County) on the Erie Canal. He is listed in the 1850 census as a carpenter. His oldest son Orsamus (1798-1866), probably born in Vermont, was listed as a mason in the 1860 census. Orsamus was married three times: first to Maria Spencer (no dates), Sarah Stocking (d. 1849) and lastly Asenath (1795-1866). Asenath died one day before Orsamus died, intestate, in 1866. Orsamus, Sarah and Asenath are buried in Port Gibson Cemetery. Interestingly, yet another section of a town where Pratts settled, this one in Port Gibson, was referred to as "Pratt Corners." 

   

    Nelson Lorenzo DeForest, (1821-1866) Orsamus' oldest son, was born in Pratt's Hollow, N.Y. Nelson was a grocer/merchant with a store on the Erie Canal called "Nelt's Grocery" or "Towpath Grocery" at Port Gibson. Nelson is buried in Port Gibson.

    Nelson was married first to Helen Luther (1833-1857) and then to Rhoda Jane Amelia Seely (1839-1913). Even though we'd never met, "Jennie" is a genealogy muse for me, and I made the trip to Long Beach, California to see her gravesite.   

    Nelson's younger brother Leonard Seely Pratt was also in the food business as a  butcher in nearby Newark, N.Y., and moved to Palmyra, NY to open a grocery. They may have worked together.

 

    My grandfather, Lorenzo Seely (1860-1917), second son of Nelson, was born in Port Gibson, and was called "Seely." He married two women, both named Lucy: first was Lucy Goble in 1882 in Brooklyn, N.Y., and the second was Lucy Jane Cox (1865-1940) from Morville in Shropshire, England. It seems this marriage was ill-fated; as an engineer, Seely left his family to work on the "new" California railroad in Shasta County with his oldest son Lorenzo. Seely died there in 1917.

    Seely had one son with Lucy 1, the above Lorenzo, and four more sons with Lucy 2. In Part Three, I'll introduce you to the last four, including my Dad and Mom. 

 

 

 

    It's interesting to me how the given names change over the centuries, as parents got more creative with each generation. I hope I've given you a good snapshot of my ancestors, without boring you to tears.

    Maybe you'll shed a tear as you see how proud I am of my pioneer family. And maybe my ancestors are proud of me too.

    As I said earlier, genealogy is addicting.

 

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