PRATT, WOLCOTT B.

PRATT, KINGSLEY, WAFFLE

Posted By: Jean Kramer (email)
Date: 10/6/2003 at 16:59:18

Biography reproduced from page 610 of Volume II of the History of Kossuth County written by Benjamin F. Reed and published in 1913:

Wolcott B. Pratt is a well known citizen of Kossuth county and was for almost twenty years a prosperous farmer and stockman of Plum Creek township, owning and operating a farm of three hundred and twenty acres. He was born in McHenry county, Illinois, January 5, 1847. His father, Samuel Danforth Pratt, was born in Massachusetts, near Springfield, in 1822, and after a period of residence in New York went to Illinois, where he located in the district, in which his son was born. There he married Miss Sarah N. Kingsley, a native of Connecticut, and maintained his residence in McHenry county until 1849. In that year he moved to Columbia county, Wisconsin, where he bought land and operated and improved a large farm for some years. He later went west to Oregon, locating in Albany, where he now resides in the ninetieth year of his age.

Wolcott B. Pratt is one of a family of two children. His brother Noah is now a resident of Albany, Oregon, where he is living with his father. Wolcott Pratt grew to manhood in Wisconsin and helped in the improvement and operation of his father’s homestead. He was married in 1869 and immediately afterward located on a farm in Columbia county, where he was active as an agriculturist for some years. He subsequently traded his farm in Wisconsin for land in Plum Creek township, Kossuth county, Iowa, and in 1883 moved upon his holdings, which were then in an undeveloped condition. He broke the soil, fenced his farm into fields and improved his property along modern and scientific lines. He planted large groves of timber and orchard trees, erected barns, granaries and other outbuildings, and built a comfortable and commodious home. Beside general farming he specialized in the raising of high-grade horses, cattle and hogs, and continued in the active operation of his farm for nineteen years. In 1902, renting his property, he purchased a town lot in Burt, and built upon it a beautiful and attractive residence. He has made his home in the village for the past eleven years but has not abandoned his activities along breeding and dealing in thoroughbred horses. For many years he has made a specialty of handling Percheron horses and at various times has owned three imported animals and is one of the well known breeders and dealers in Kossuth county.

In 1869 Mr. Pratt was united in marriage, in Columbia county, Wisconsin, to Miss Edwina E. Waffle, a daughter of Henry Waffle, who left Wisconsin for Kansas, where he was killed in the trouble previous to the Civil war. To Mr. and Mrs. Pratt have been born two sons: Danforth, who is married and resides in Burt; and Lee, who is an expert pharmacist and is carrying on a large drug business in Burt. Mr. Pratt is a prominent, progressive and influential citizen whose constructive work in farming has been a potent force in the development of the section.