Harry Pratt

HARRY PRATT. A great many interests claim the time and attention of Harry Pratt of Studley. He has lived in Sheridan County since he was a boy of ten years, though with frequent excursions to other parts of the United States. He has been variously identified with ranching, a business to which he was trained under the eye of his father, one of the most prominent of the old time ranchers and cattlemen of Sheridan County. He has also been engaged in business of different kinds and is now giving his time chiefly to the lumber business at Studley.

Mr. Pratt was born in Yorkshire, England, October 9, 1872. His father, the late George Herbert Pratt, was born in the same shire of England in 1835. He grew up and married there and was a cattle buyer in England. In the spring of 1882 he brought his family to the United States and located in Sheridan County, Kansas. He was one of the early comers there, and homesteaded 160 acres, and took a timber claim and a pre-emption of 160 acres as well. With this 480 acres as a nucleus he developed extensive interests as a cattle man, though his life was terminated too soon for him to realize all the benefits of his enterprise. As a private citizen he voted with the democratic party and was a member of the Episcopal Church. George H. Pratt married Sarah Ann Lister, born in Yorkshire and died in Sheridan County, Kansas. The oldest of their children, Thomas L., whose home is near Hoxie, is regarded as one of the biggest stockmen in Western Kansas, handling 1,300 head of cattle in a single season and sometimes even more. George, the second son, lives on the family pre-emption of 160 acres and also has extensive cattle raising interests. Annie married Charles A. Taylor, of Hoxie, a retired rancher. Mary Elizabeth was a professional nurse, contracted disease while on duty and died in New Mexico. Gertrude is a resident of Hoxie. The next in age is Harry. Mabel first married Walter White, and is now the wife of Frank Langley, foreman on a large cattle ranch at Creston, Colorado.

Harry Pratt was ten years of age when brought to America. He completed his education in the rural schools of Sheridan County, and after his father's death, being then about seventeen years of age, he went to Butte, Montana, and was employed in the office of the county engineer and surveyor 2 1/2 years. Returning to the home farm, he worked there awhile, and then had three years of interesting and not unprofitable experience as a hunter and trapper in Northern Minnesota above Lake Itasca. Soon after his return to Kansas from this trip Mr. Pratt entered the State Agricultural College at Manhattan, and was a student in various technical departments in that institution 2 1/2 years. He left Manhattan College in the spring of 1898 to join the American army for service in the Spanish-American war. He went with his regiment to Camp Alger, near Washington, D. C., and there lay in camp and in training until mustered out November 5, 1898. After his return home from the army Mr. Pratt spent five years on the ranch with his brother Thomas, but in September, 1904, he bought out G. W. Stober's lumber yard at Studley. He still owns and operates that, the only lumber business in Studley, and he also has a yard at Tasco, Kansas. Mr. Pratt owns a farm of 160 acres near Studley and a share in his father's estate, and is a stockholder in the Studley State Bank.

In 1916 he was honored by election to the office of treasurer of Valley Township and was re-elected in 1918. He is an independent republican, a member of the Episcopal Church, and is affiliated with Hoxie Camp, Modern Woodmen of America.

Mr. Pratt has always been deeply interested in military affairs. His experience as a soldier in the Spanish-American war enabled him to encourage and help train some of the volunteer soldiers that went from Sheridan County for the great European war. He raised and recruited a company of Kansas State Guards, the only company in Sheridan County, and brought its quota up to 114 men. He holds a captain's commission from the Government. In the fall of 1918, before the armistice was signed, he passed a physical examination and was ready to report for the infantry officers' training camp at Camp Fremont, California.

September 8, 1908, in Hill City, Kansas, Mr. Pratt married Miss Stella Davis, daughter of James L. and Matilda Davis. Her parents reside at Studley, where her father is a hardware merchant and is also a large farm owner. Mr. and Mrs. Pratt have four children: Albert, Gladys Ann, Edwin Donald and Harry, Jr.

Pages 2262-2263.