California Biographies, San Joaquin Valley

Transcribed by Peggy Hooper

This file is part of the California Genealogy & History Archives
http://www.rootsweb.ancestry.com/~cagha/index.htm

Source:
History of the state of California and biographical record of the San Joaquin 
Valley, California. An historical story of the state's marvelous growth from 
its earliest settlement to the present time.
Prof. James Miller Guinn , A. M.
The Chapman Publishing Co., Chicago 1905
Notes: Missing Page: 865-866,983-984,1175-1176


 SAMUEL PRATT. Prominent among the well-to-do and prosperous agriculturists of Stanislaus 
county is Samuel Pratt, an extensive land owner and stock raiser, and a business man of 
unquestioned ability and integrity. Self-supporting from his boyhood days, he has been in very 
truth the architect of his own fortunes, attaining his present assured position in the industrial -
world by persevering toil, good judgment and keen foresight. His home ranch, lying six miles 
southeast of Oakdale, is one of the best in its appointments and improvements of any in the 
locality, giving to the passer-by visible evidence of the thrift and wise management of its 
proprietor. A son of Samuel and Priscilla (Denford) Pratt, he was born April 6, 1854, in 
Devonshire, England, where he received a very limited education. 

Leaving His native land when ten years old, Samuel Pratt came alone to the United States, and 
for two years thereafter lived with friends in Brown county, Kans. In 1869 he migrated to 
California, and in June, 1873, took up his residence in Stanislaus county. For about six years Mr. 
Pratt worked as a farm laborer in the vicinity of Oakdale and Modesto, and with characteristic 
economy and prudence saved the larger part of his wages. Buying land near Modesto in 1879, 
he carried on farming for several years, as a grain raiser meeting with satisfactory pecuniary 
results. In 1895 he bought his present home ranch of eight hundred and eighty acres, and has 
since been actively and profitably employed in general farming, raising hay, grain and stock, 
keeping on an average five hundred head of cattle. He has other real estate of value, owning 
three thousand acres of land in Stanislaus county. Public-spirited and progressive, he has ever 
evinced a warm interest in local advancement and improvements, and heartily endorses all 
enterprises calculated to benefit the town or county. Politically he supports the Republican 
party. 

Mr. Pratt has been married twice. He married first, in California, Elizabeth Cobb, who died in 
early womanhood, leaving two children, Edwin W. and Charles S. His second wife was formerly 
Jennie Sage.