The Montgomery advertiser., 1905-05-14

the trip In generous mood gave nun
 back $25 so that he would have some
 thing to begin life with when he land
 ed in a new country. He was in Sa- vannah for two years, moving to Mil-
 ledgeville in 1921. From here he went
 to Clinton, Ga, to take charge or the
 gin manufactory of Samuel Grlswold'
 in which institution he was made a
 partner. This was in 1881. It was de-
 cided by the firm of Griswold ana
 Pratt to start a branch of their busi- ness in Alabama. MT. Griswold was
 afraid the venture would fail because
 of the presence of Indians in Alabama
 and withdrew from the enterprise. MT.
 Pratt was made of sterner stuff. He
 got together material for fifty gins.
 put it on a wagon train and with ms
 wife and two negro slaves strated on
 the long journey to Alabama. lie
 stopped first at Elmore's Mill. some
 distance from Wetumpka. Here he
 put up a temporary shop, set up the
 gins and disposed of the entire fifty
 with ease and profit. After spending
 one year at Elmore's Mill he moved
 over to McNeill's Mill on the Autauga
 Creek, q place now known as Mont
 gomery's Mill. He leased the water
 privileges of this place for term of
 five years and went to manufacturing
 gins.
 The business flourished from the
 outset. Mir. Pratt made good gins and
 he sold them at a fine profit. But as
 the lease expired there was difficulty
 in renewing it at a satisfactory figure.
 He determined to move. A site two
 and q half miles up the creek had caught his fancy. His discerning eye caught the great possibility of the water power at that place and not
 withstanding the swampy appearance
 of the land around about he bought a
 thousand acres and established Pratts
 Gin Works and the town of Prattville
 in the year of 1888.
 The enterprise Is said to have made
 fabulous returns iE it's early years.
 Those were opulent days for the South.
 Immense profits were being made out
 of the raising of cotton and the man
 who had good gins to sell could sell
 them almost at his own figure. But
 from the day on which the wheels were
 started on the creek at Prattville until
 this the industry has paid generous
 profits and from it have como many
 private fortunes.
 4 fine brick Academy, a handsome
 Methodist Church are only one or two
 instances of the generosity of the
 founder of Prattville. A northern man he was loyal to the South, but vigor- ously opposed secession. In public ad- dresses at this crisis he declared that defeat and disaster could only follow
 for the South if she appealed to arms without building a navy and equipplng an army. He was at the outbreak of
 of the war 60 years of age. but he gave literally of his means towards equip ping and strengthening the armies or Alabama. At one time he contributed
 the sum of $17.000 for the equipment of q single company
 On So firm a basis was the Pratt | h trrrla the cotton industry in Alabama and in the other Southern States was de-
 stroyed the enterprise lived through 1t all It has been estimated that be-
 cause of obligations of planters that could not be paid on account of the
 war the industry lost on notes alone half a million dollars. It has been es- timated, too, that directly and indirect
 ly the gin works sustained a loss of two million dollars.
 The rich and useful life of MT Pratt
 came to an end in 1873 when he was 72 years of age. His death was cause for mourning all over Alabama. He had before the war become deeply in terested in the possibilities of the iron ores in what Is now the Birmingham mineral district. be had assisted in the erection of ono of tho first ore furnaces in that district, furnace that
 was wrecked and destroyed by the fed | eral soldiers when they were in charge | in Alabama. After the war he visited | the wreck of the furnace, investigated | the mineral deposits and became con vinced that the section afforded great | opportunities for development and in- vestment. With H. F. DeBardeleben, an Autauga raised man, who had married his only surviving daughter, Mir. Pratt | invested heavily in property in that sec | tion In Pratt City, Pratt Mines, Mary | Pratt and Henry Ellen furnaces the l name and influence of the founder of the immense gin works is and will be perpetuated,
 In the meanwhile the gin works in
 the little city which he built have grown with each succeeding year. They are much more than twice as large as they were when MT. Pratt died and they have passed through many changes all for the better, and at all
 times they have remained the largest and perhaps the best gin works in the world.
 At the death of Mir. Pratt the gin works and the large Pratt estate de- seconded to Mrs. Henry DeBardeleben and Merrill F.. Pratt, a nephew of the founder, each having half of the valuable property. Merrill Pratt was brought by his uncle as a young man from New Hampshire and versed in the dtjdllS JI the lIlIllSlSe puSilSSS' AAe assumed charge of the large interest and later purchased tho half that had originally gone to Mir. Pratt's daughter. At his death the management Of the | great piece of property fell to his son, | the present Daniel Pratt, who directs | the big mill and occupies the magnifi- | cent old Pratt home, one of the hand | somcst private residences in all Of Ala | barna. The five children of MT. Merrill | Pratt have kept the estate practically | intact and it has increased in value with each year. In recent years the | capacity of the mill has been almost
 doubled. This had to be done because | competition had become so keen that | the output of the enterprise had to be | increased in order to make the heavy | expenses and meet the expenses ! The works have also become part l of the great Continental Gin Company, | the great combination of gin manu- | factories Of the South. The Pratt | works are, however, the largest of all | the plants united in the big company. l Although merged into the pig combi- nation Daniel Pratt manages and dl-
 reets the big plant here as if 1t had no | connection with the Continental Gin ! Company.
 Within the past ten years PrattVille | has maIe great stride forward, to | the srr.at benefit of the gin works. | Two railroads have gonc into Prattvillc. | It Is qlmnst inrOnCeiVahle that q manu- l fGctuting enterprise like the Pratt | Gin Works could have been conducted
 as a manufacturing institution for six | ty years and be located fourteen miles