Lester Oliver Pratt

PRATT

Posted By: Connie Swearingen (email)
Date: 10/13/2010 at 22:39:10

History of Woodbury County, Iowa 1985

L O Pratt
By L O Pratt

Lester Oliver Pratt, also known as L O Pratt, son of John Oliver Pratt, also known as J O Pratt, and Bertha Alice (Cliff McCartney) Pratt, has three brothers and three sisters. One brother and one sister died in infancy; also one brother, Merlin Albert, passed away in 1976. One brother, Kenneth J, and one sister, Gladys Mildred (Pratt) Bauler, now reside in Mesa, Arizona; and one sister, Thelma Bertha (Pratt) Howe, resides at Hotchkiss, Colorado.

All the children of the J O Pratt family were born in the farm home in the NW ½ of the NE ¼, Section 9, Elkhorn Township, Plymouth County, Iowa. This farm remains to this date of writing (1983) in the Pratt family, now having the distinction of having been in the family for more than 100 years.

Lester was one of the original attendants of the first Pratt-Bainbridge family reunion held at Gordon’s Gulch, southwest, approximately three miles, of Kingsley, Iowa, which he remembers very well. This annual family reunion has been held each year following 1921 in the Kingsley vicinity; the 63rd was held this year, 1983.

Ancestors of Lester are well documented in the three books: Volume I & II, History of Plymouth County, Iowa and History of the Counties of Woodbury and Plymouth Iowa, all found in the public library, LeMars, Iowa.

Maternal side: Great great grandfather Nicholas McCartney was born in Ireland. William McCartner, great great grandfather and father of Mary Ann McCartney) Cliff; Volume I, p 151, 222 and 223; volume II, p 282, 283, 775 and 776; History of Woodbury and Plymouth Counties, pages 528 and 583. Mary Ann, Lester’s grandmother was the first school teacher in Henry Township, Plymouth County. William McCartney and brother, James McCartney homesteaded in Union Township, Plymouth County. Uncle Jim, as Lester knew him, was a Civil War veteran wounded three times in one hour under General Grant at Vicksburg, page 283. The bullet removed from his stomach remains in the possession of Lester’s sister as of this writing.

Paternal side: Volume I, page 118; Volume II pages 372-374 & 374. Thomas Pratt, great great grandfather, was born in north central England and Grandfather J W Pratt was born in Lafayette County, Wisconsin. Grandmother Pratt was of the Bainbridge family that came from north central England and sailed to America, arriving in Lafayette County, Wisconsin via New Orleans and the Mississippi River. These two families, Pratt-Bainbridge, settled in the Kingsley area prior to and after the railroad was extended to these parts in the late years of the 1870’s and early years of the 1880’s.

Lester, following graduation from Union Township Consolidated High School, attended trade school in Chicago, covered various correspondence courses, and obtained First Class Radio Telegraph operators license using International Morse Code. On December 6, 1941 (next day was Pearl Harbor Day 1941) he completed the US Maritime Service Officers Training at the Former Coast Guard Academy New London, Connecticut, with a 97 average grade. This was followed with service as an Officer of Maritime Tankers, carrying War supplies and aviation gasoline throughout World War II covering the Atlantic, Pacific, Mediterranean and Gulf of Mexico areas.

Obtaining a Lieutenant Commander Rating of the U S Maritime Service and having been torpedoed once, with some extreme experiences in navigation and conducting the operation of a vessel under War conditions. Lester returned to Iowa with no physical disabilities, although one of each seven lost their lives in his phase of the massive operations that took place.

Returning to Iowa, Lester purchased a 240 acre farm east of Sioux City where he now resides in Concord Township, Section 35, adjacent to Big Whiskey Creek and new US Highway 20. There have been additions to the farming operation a business was started and remains in operation thirty years later to the date of this writing. Six substantial windbreaks, the largest more than three acres, having been planted and developed. A few years back, upon interest in real estate. Lester obtained an Iowa Real Estate Brokers License. This year he added more acres along Highway 20 of his farm to zonings now recorded as: Light Industrial, Highway Service, Commercial and Suburban Residential. Previous requests have shown and recent additions indicate this area to be developed in the future.

Also of interest, in addition to the above development, will be the continuation, if any, of the project completed this year of 1983 at the Big Whiskey Creek Highway 20 bridge that divides the Pratt’s farm.

The US Highway Department placed 380 three-foot cubes of concrete in the stream bead and shoulders, forming a creek dam and waterfall, to raise the creek bed five feet with siltation, to protect the bridge concrete and piling supports. These supports were being undermined, with pilings expose, due to the deepening of the creek the last 20 to 25 years, which in turn was caused by the dredging and straightening of the formerly meandering Big Whiskey Creek. Farmers throughout the area have been conducting this procedure of creek straightening to enhance their crop farming operations. One hundred years from 1983 will be very interesting, I am sure.