Photos to the right - After George Wesley Pratt died - Emily and family members
ABOUT EMILY
(To the right, you can see a picture of Emily when she was 100 years old and two items she made for her Granddaughter, Bessie Pratt Strunk)(To read more about these items, see the narratives I have added to the pictures).
Emily had the most eventfull life and history. She lived through floods, famine, grasshoppers, Indian attacks and diptheria to be 105 years old.
June 28, 1945, 'Dakota Republican' on Emily by James W. Fowler
VERMILLION TO FETE MRS. EMILY PRATT ON HER 102ND ANNIVERSARY SATURDAY
Pioneer Resident has unusual Mental Alertness as Well as Spry Physique --- Arrived in Dakota Territory When Elk Point had Three Familes. By James W. Fowler
Vermillion, S.D., June 28 - An entire community will pay homage to Mrs. Emily Pratt, who on the authority of State Historian Lawrence K. Fox is South Dakota's oldest resident on her 102nd birthday Saturday. "Yes, 102 years is a long time to live but to me its still a good world and everything is all right," That tells the philosophy of life of a grand woman.
Perhaps it does not in all account for her longevity but at least her habit of being happ and finding "everything is all right" has been no handicap to her in living more than a century.
One hundred and two years is a long time to live. When this venerable lady was born, John Adams had been dead but 12 year, Benjamin Franklin but 17, George Washington less than 40 years, and Abraham Lincoln had been born only 29 years earlier.
Has Seen Many Presidents - Born during Martin Van Buren's administration as the eighth President of the United States, she had successively seen the passing of the administrations of William Henry Harrison, John Tyler, James Knox Polk, Zachary Taylor, Millard Fillmore, Franklin Pierce, James Buchanan, Abraham Lincoln, Andrew Johnson, U. S. Grant, Rutherford B. Hayes, James A. Garfield, again, William McKinley, Theodore Roosevelt, William Howard Taft, and now the second administration of Franklin Delano Roosevelt. At the risk of being called old fashioned, she says she hopes Roosevelt doesn't get a third term.
Plenty More History - Yes, 102 is a long time to live. This remarkable woman was 12 years old before Howe invented the sewing machine or the war with Mexico broke out. She was 14 when Louis Phillippe was dethroned in France and the second republic was set up. And she's now lived to see France overrun by Hitler's mechanized hordes. It was in her 14th year of life that the fugitive slave law was passed and how well she remembers it. She was 16 when Commodore Perry opened China to the trade of the world and she was 21 when John Brown raided Harpers Ferry and was hanged for his trouble. That was the year the first sleeping car was run between Bloomington and Chicago and the Prince of Wales visited the United States and she remembers that was the year South Carolina seceded from this union.
She was a woman grown living in Dakota Territory when Alaska was purchased from Russia. She was approaching middle age, 38 when the battle of the Little Big Horn occurred and Custer and his Indian Fighting troopers were massacred; and that same year Alexander Graham Bell invented the telephone. "But it was a long time before I talked over one" says Mrs. Pratt.
Recalls Development - She had reached the age of 40 before Thomas Edison perfected the incandescent electric light. And so on through the most wonderful history in human progress. She vividly recollects it all. "And to me the most wonderful and the most useful things are matches with which to kindle fires and the modern cooking stove" declaires Mrs. Pratt. (In yet another article, Mrs. Pratt recalls how her father Lawrence Shriner used to start the fire by firing his muzzle loader into the fireplace, and yes I would think that in itself would make you appreciate matches.)
Yes, 102 years is a long time to live, so long, in truth, that Mrs. Pratt has outlived her husband and four of her children. She lives with her daughter, Miss Edna Pratt. Only recently tis aged mother and the unmarried daughter, who have always lived together here, commemorated the latter's 70th birthday, with the mother actively acting as the hostess.
Among First White Settler - The entire history, pain, deprivation, joy, and progress of South Dakota is enfolded within the memory and life of this pioneer of pioneers. She was one of the first white settlers of Dakota. She arrived in Clay County in 1860 and for 80 years she and her family have played an important part in all affairs of moment. More interesting than important is the part her folks have played in the enforcement of law. Her brother-in-law, the late A. A. Partridge, was the first sheriff of Clay County. His son, James Partridge, still a resident here, and the nephew of Mrs. Pratt, holds the record of being the only man to ever serve four terms of two years each as sheriff here. Her grandnephew, Bill Russell, who is now completing his second term as sheriff of the county. A nephew by marriage, the late William Gilchrist, served as sheriff of the west river country of Haakon.
It's easy and trite to generalize and say that an elderly person has retained unequalled alertness of mind and spryness of physique. Even such superlatives fail to properly portray how kindly life has treated this centenarian.
Even as superlative generalizations fail to tell the story, so do explicity specifications. But his writer recalls calling on Mrs. Pratt as her 99th birthday approached to find her down on her knees in her garden, weeding the vegetables. That Fourth of July the Pratts enjoyed new potatoes and peas, planted, tended and cooked by Mother Pratt. On her 100th birthday, she prepared the meal for the family gathering which is ever a part of the natal day observation. She is bothered during the past year by rheumatism but she still does fancy work, knitting, crocheting, quilts, mends and reads her daily newspapers, her Bible, and books, and all without the use of glasses. She voted at the last city election, she's going to vote at the general fall election, and no on will tell her how to vote either.
Came in Covered Wagon - Yes, 102 years is a long time to live, and in the living there of Mrs. Pratt, already honored by chamber of commerce notice, pioneer societies, governors, state officials, everyone, has become beyond all question of doubt South Dakota's most amazing and beloved woman.
Perhaps a few highlights should be added. Mrs. Pratt was born in Barnsville, Ohio, June 29, 1838. The Pratt family arrived in Vermillion on July 5, 1860. The family arrived in a covered wagon and settled on a claim just outside of the present city boundaries. She was married in LaMoille, IL, on April 22, 1857. Her husband, George Pratt, was killed by lightening in 1889, the year South Dakota was admitted as a state.
Store Burned in 1875 - The Pratts crossed the Missouri River the morning of July 4, 1860 at Sioux City. They came on to what is now Burbank the next day proceeding further found only three families in Vermillion. There was a hotel and two houses and the pioneer McHenry store. Steamboats plying the Missouri docked here, as the river was then close to the Dakota territory bluffs. There was only one tree in the entire area above the bluffs. Mr. Pratt's store on the bottom lands in the village of Vermillion was destroyed by fire in 1875. Mrs. Pratt still has the key to that old store.
Steamboats brought freight regularly. The Pratt home was one of the few not swept away by the great flood of 1881 but the water reached four inches deep on the floors of rooms in the second story of the house. Mrs. Pratt attended church in the historic little school house in the glen, Dakota territory's first school building, which reminds her that the first minister to come to Vermillion rode with them from Sioux City in a covered wagon and the next Sunday held an open air meeting. They waited 12 years before the first railroad train arrived and at the time of their coming Sioux City had no railroad.
There is of course many more details of Emily's life which describe the Indian scares, the ravishing grasshoppers and so much more that only the above gives a reminiscence of her life.
Emily died at the Dakota Hospital on Monday, January 3, 1944. Her funeral was on Thursday, January 6, 1844 with the Reverend Raymond Neilson officiating. She was laid to rest in the family plot on the bluffs of the Big Muddy flood plains.
BURIED: Family Plot on the bluffs of the Big Muddy flood plain, SD
ABOUT EMILY
(To the right, you can see a picture of Emily when she was 100 years old and two items she made for her Granddaughter, Bessie Pratt Strunk)(To read more about these items, see the narratives I have added to the pictures).
Emily had the most eventfull life and history. She lived through floods, famine, grasshoppers, Indian attacks and diptheria to be 105 years old.
June 28, 1945, 'Dakota Republican' on Emily by James W. Fowler
VERMILLION TO FETE MRS. EMILY PRATT ON HER 102ND ANNIVERSARY SATURDAY
Pioneer Resident has unusual Mental Alertness as Well as Spry Physique --- Arrived in Dakota Territory When Elk Point had Three Familes. By James W. Fowler
Vermillion, S.D., June 28 - An entire community will pay homage to Mrs. Emily Pratt, who on the authority of State Historian Lawrence K. Fox is South Dakota's oldest resident on her 102nd birthday Saturday. "Yes, 102 years is a long time to live but to me its still a good world and everything is all right," That tells the philosophy of life of a grand woman.
Perhaps it does not in all account for her longevity but at least her habit of being happ and finding "everything is all right" has been no handicap to her in living more than a century.
One hundred and two years is a long time to live. When this venerable lady was born, John Adams had been dead but 12 year, Benjamin Franklin but 17, George Washington less than 40 years, and Abraham Lincoln had been born only 29 years earlier.
Has Seen Many Presidents - Born during Martin Van Buren's administration as the eighth President of the United States, she had successively seen the passing of the administrations of William Henry Harrison, John Tyler, James Knox Polk, Zachary Taylor, Millard Fillmore, Franklin Pierce, James Buchanan, Abraham Lincoln, Andrew Johnson, U. S. Grant, Rutherford B. Hayes, James A. Garfield, again, William McKinley, Theodore Roosevelt, William Howard Taft, and now the second administration of Franklin Delano Roosevelt. At the risk of being called old fashioned, she says she hopes Roosevelt doesn't get a third term.
Plenty More History - Yes, 102 is a long time to live. This remarkable woman was 12 years old before Howe invented the sewing machine or the war with Mexico broke out. She was 14 when Louis Phillippe was dethroned in France and the second republic was set up. And she's now lived to see France overrun by Hitler's mechanized hordes. It was in her 14th year of life that the fugitive slave law was passed and how well she remembers it. She was 16 when Commodore Perry opened China to the trade of the world and she was 21 when John Brown raided Harpers Ferry and was hanged for his trouble. That was the year the first sleeping car was run between Bloomington and Chicago and the Prince of Wales visited the United States and she remembers that was the year South Carolina seceded from this union.
She was a woman grown living in Dakota Territory when Alaska was purchased from Russia. She was approaching middle age, 38 when the battle of the Little Big Horn occurred and Custer and his Indian Fighting troopers were massacred; and that same year Alexander Graham Bell invented the telephone. "But it was a long time before I talked over one" says Mrs. Pratt.
Recalls Development - She had reached the age of 40 before Thomas Edison perfected the incandescent electric light. And so on through the most wonderful history in human progress. She vividly recollects it all. "And to me the most wonderful and the most useful things are matches with which to kindle fires and the modern cooking stove" declaires Mrs. Pratt. (In yet another article, Mrs. Pratt recalls how her father Lawrence Shriner used to start the fire by firing his muzzle loader into the fireplace, and yes I would think that in itself would make you appreciate matches.)
Yes, 102 years is a long time to live, so long, in truth, that Mrs. Pratt has outlived her husband and four of her children. She lives with her daughter, Miss Edna Pratt. Only recently tis aged mother and the unmarried daughter, who have always lived together here, commemorated the latter's 70th birthday, with the mother actively acting as the hostess.
Among First White Settler - The entire history, pain, deprivation, joy, and progress of South Dakota is enfolded within the memory and life of this pioneer of pioneers. She was one of the first white settlers of Dakota. She arrived in Clay County in 1860 and for 80 years she and her family have played an important part in all affairs of moment. More interesting than important is the part her folks have played in the enforcement of law. Her brother-in-law, the late A. A. Partridge, was the first sheriff of Clay County. His son, James Partridge, still a resident here, and the nephew of Mrs. Pratt, holds the record of being the only man to ever serve four terms of two years each as sheriff here. Her grandnephew, Bill Russell, who is now completing his second term as sheriff of the county. A nephew by marriage, the late William Gilchrist, served as sheriff of the west river country of Haakon.
It's easy and trite to generalize and say that an elderly person has retained unequalled alertness of mind and spryness of physique. Even such superlatives fail to properly portray how kindly life has treated this centenarian.
Even as superlative generalizations fail to tell the story, so do explicity specifications. But his writer recalls calling on Mrs. Pratt as her 99th birthday approached to find her down on her knees in her garden, weeding the vegetables. That Fourth of July the Pratts enjoyed new potatoes and peas, planted, tended and cooked by Mother Pratt. On her 100th birthday, she prepared the meal for the family gathering which is ever a part of the natal day observation. She is bothered during the past year by rheumatism but she still does fancy work, knitting, crocheting, quilts, mends and reads her daily newspapers, her Bible, and books, and all without the use of glasses. She voted at the last city election, she's going to vote at the general fall election, and no on will tell her how to vote either.
Came in Covered Wagon - Yes, 102 years is a long time to live, and in the living there of Mrs. Pratt, already honored by chamber of commerce notice, pioneer societies, governors, state officials, everyone, has become beyond all question of doubt South Dakota's most amazing and beloved woman.
Perhaps a few highlights should be added. Mrs. Pratt was born in Barnsville, Ohio, June 29, 1838. The Pratt family arrived in Vermillion on July 5, 1860. The family arrived in a covered wagon and settled on a claim just outside of the present city boundaries. She was married in LaMoille, IL, on April 22, 1857. Her husband, George Pratt, was killed by lightening in 1889, the year South Dakota was admitted as a state.
Store Burned in 1875 - The Pratts crossed the Missouri River the morning of July 4, 1860 at Sioux City. They came on to what is now Burbank the next day proceeding further found only three families in Vermillion. There was a hotel and two houses and the pioneer McHenry store. Steamboats plying the Missouri docked here, as the river was then close to the Dakota territory bluffs. There was only one tree in the entire area above the bluffs. Mr. Pratt's store on the bottom lands in the village of Vermillion was destroyed by fire in 1875. Mrs. Pratt still has the key to that old store.
Steamboats brought freight regularly. The Pratt home was one of the few not swept away by the great flood of 1881 but the water reached four inches deep on the floors of rooms in the second story of the house. Mrs. Pratt attended church in the historic little school house in the glen, Dakota territory's first school building, which reminds her that the first minister to come to Vermillion rode with them from Sioux City in a covered wagon and the next Sunday held an open air meeting. They waited 12 years before the first railroad train arrived and at the time of their coming Sioux City had no railroad.
There is of course many more details of Emily's life which describe the Indian scares, the ravishing grasshoppers and so much more that only the above gives a reminiscence of her life.
Emily died at the Dakota Hospital on Monday, January 3, 1944. Her funeral was on Thursday, January 6, 1844 with the Reverend Raymond Neilson officiating. She was laid to rest in the family plot on the bluffs of the Big Muddy flood plains.
BURIED: Family Plot on the bluffs of the Big Muddy flood plain, SD
Photos to the right - After George Wesley Pratt died - Emily and family members
ABOUT EMILY
(To the right, you can see a picture of Emily when she was 100 years old and two items she made for her Granddaughter, Bessie Pratt Strunk)(To read more about these items, see the narratives I have added to the pictures).
Emily had the most eventfull life and history. She lived through floods, famine, grasshoppers, Indian attacks and diptheria to be 105 years old.
June 28, 1945, 'Dakota Republican' on Emily by James W. Fowler
VERMILLION TO FETE MRS. EMILY PRATT ON HER 102ND ANNIVERSARY SATURDAY
Pioneer Resident has unusual Mental Alertness as Well as Spry Physique --- Arrived in Dakota Territory When Elk Point had Three Familes. By James W. Fowler
Vermillion, S.D., June 28 - An entire community will pay homage to Mrs. Emily Pratt, who on the authority of State Historian Lawrence K. Fox is South Dakota's oldest resident on her 102nd birthday Saturday. "Yes, 102 years is a long time to live but to me its still a good world and everything is all right," That tells the philosophy of life of a grand woman.
Perhaps it does not in all account for her longevity but at least her habit of being happ and finding "everything is all right" has been no handicap to her in living more than a century.
One hundred and two years is a long time to live. When this venerable lady was born, John Adams had been dead but 12 year, Benjamin Franklin but 17, George Washington less than 40 years, and Abraham Lincoln had been born only 29 years earlier.
Has Seen Many Presidents - Born during Martin Van Buren's administration as the eighth President of the United States, she had successively seen the passing of the administrations of William Henry Harrison, John Tyler, James Knox Polk, Zachary Taylor, Millard Fillmore, Franklin Pierce, James Buchanan, Abraham Lincoln, Andrew Johnson, U. S. Grant, Rutherford B. Hayes, James A. Garfield, again, William McKinley, Theodore Roosevelt, William Howard Taft, and now the second administration of Franklin Delano Roosevelt. At the risk of being called old fashioned, she says she hopes Roosevelt doesn't get a third term.
Plenty More History - Yes, 102 is a long time to live. This remarkable woman was 12 years old before Howe invented the sewing machine or the war with Mexico broke out. She was 14 when Louis Phillippe was dethroned in France and the second republic was set up. And she's now lived to see France overrun by Hitler's mechanized hordes. It was in her 14th year of life that the fugitive slave law was passed and how well she remembers it. She was 16 when Commodore Perry opened China to the trade of the world and she was 21 when John Brown raided Harpers Ferry and was hanged for his trouble. That was the year the first sleeping car was run between Bloomington and Chicago and the Prince of Wales visited the United States and she remembers that was the year South Carolina seceded from this union.
She was a woman grown living in Dakota Territory when Alaska was purchased from Russia. She was approaching middle age, 38 when the battle of the Little Big Horn occurred and Custer and his Indian Fighting troopers were massacred; and that same year Alexander Graham Bell invented the telephone. "But it was a long time before I talked over one" says Mrs. Pratt.
Recalls Development - She had reached the age of 40 before Thomas Edison perfected the incandescent electric light. And so on through the most wonderful history in human progress. She vividly recollects it all. "And to me the most wonderful and the most useful things are matches with which to kindle fires and the modern cooking stove" declaires Mrs. Pratt. (In yet another article, Mrs. Pratt recalls how her father Lawrence Shriner used to start the fire by firing his muzzle loader into the fireplace, and yes I would think that in itself would make you appreciate matches.)
Yes, 102 years is a long time to live, so long, in truth, that Mrs. Pratt has outlived her husband and four of her children. She lives with her daughter, Miss Edna Pratt. Only recently tis aged mother and the unmarried daughter, who have always lived together here, commemorated the latter's 70th birthday, with the mother actively acting as the hostess.
Among First White Settler - The entire history, pain, deprivation, joy, and progress of South Dakota is enfolded within the memory and life of this pioneer of pioneers. She was one of the first white settlers of Dakota. She arrived in Clay County in 1860 and for 80 years she and her family have played an important part in all affairs of moment. More interesting than important is the part her folks have played in the enforcement of law. Her brother-in-law, the late A. A. Partridge, was the first sheriff of Clay County. His son, James Partridge, still a resident here, and the nephew of Mrs. Pratt, holds the record of being the only man to ever serve four terms of two years each as sheriff here. Her grandnephew, Bill Russell, who is now completing his second term as sheriff of the county. A nephew by marriage, the late William Gilchrist, served as sheriff of the west river country of Haakon.
It's easy and trite to generalize and say that an elderly person has retained unequalled alertness of mind and spryness of physique. Even such superlatives fail to properly portray how kindly life has treated this centenarian.
Even as superlative generalizations fail to tell the story, so do explicity specifications. But his writer recalls calling on Mrs. Pratt as her 99th birthday approached to find her down on her knees in her garden, weeding the vegetables. That Fourth of July the Pratts enjoyed new potatoes and peas, planted, tended and cooked by Mother Pratt. On her 100th birthday, she prepared the meal for the family gathering which is ever a part of the natal day observation. She is bothered during the past year by rheumatism but she still does fancy work, knitting, crocheting, quilts, mends and reads her daily newspapers, her Bible, and books, and all without the use of glasses. She voted at the last city election, she's going to vote at the general fall election, and no on will tell her how to vote either.
Came in Covered Wagon - Yes, 102 years is a long time to live, and in the living there of Mrs. Pratt, already honored by chamber of commerce notice, pioneer societies, governors, state officials, everyone, has become beyond all question of doubt South Dakota's most amazing and beloved woman.
Perhaps a few highlights should be added. Mrs. Pratt was born in Barnsville, Ohio, June 29, 1838. The Pratt family arrived in Vermillion on July 5, 1860. The family arrived in a covered wagon and settled on a claim just outside of the present city boundaries. She was married in LaMoille, IL, on April 22, 1857. Her husband, George Pratt, was killed by lightening in 1889, the year South Dakota was admitted as a state.
Store Burned in 1875 - The Pratts crossed the Missouri River the morning of July 4, 1860 at Sioux City. They came on to what is now Burbank the next day proceeding further found only three families in Vermillion. There was a hotel and two houses and the pioneer McHenry store. Steamboats plying the Missouri docked here, as the river was then close to the Dakota territory bluffs. There was only one tree in the entire area above the bluffs. Mr. Pratt's store on the bottom lands in the village of Vermillion was destroyed by fire in 1875. Mrs. Pratt still has the key to that old store.
Steamboats brought freight regularly. The Pratt home was one of the few not swept away by the great flood of 1881 but the water reached four inches deep on the floors of rooms in the second story of the house. Mrs. Pratt attended church in the historic little school house in the glen, Dakota territory's first school building, which reminds her that the first minister to come to Vermillion rode with them from Sioux City in a covered wagon and the next Sunday held an open air meeting. They waited 12 years before the first railroad train arrived and at the time of their coming Sioux City had no railroad.
There is of course many more details of Emily's life which describe the Indian scares, the ravishing grasshoppers and so much more that only the above gives a reminiscence of her life.
Emily died at the Dakota Hospital on Monday, January 3, 1944. Her funeral was on Thursday, January 6, 1844 with the Reverend Raymond Neilson officiating. She was laid to rest in the family plot on the bluffs of the Big Muddy flood plains.
BURIED: Family Plot on the bluffs of the Big Muddy flood plain, SD
ABOUT EMILY
(To the right, you can see a picture of Emily when she was 100 years old and two items she made for her Granddaughter, Bessie Pratt Strunk)(To read more about these items, see the narratives I have added to the pictures).
Emily had the most eventfull life and history. She lived through floods, famine, grasshoppers, Indian attacks and diptheria to be 105 years old.
June 28, 1945, 'Dakota Republican' on Emily by James W. Fowler
VERMILLION TO FETE MRS. EMILY PRATT ON HER 102ND ANNIVERSARY SATURDAY
Pioneer Resident has unusual Mental Alertness as Well as Spry Physique --- Arrived in Dakota Territory When Elk Point had Three Familes. By James W. Fowler
Vermillion, S.D., June 28 - An entire community will pay homage to Mrs. Emily Pratt, who on the authority of State Historian Lawrence K. Fox is South Dakota's oldest resident on her 102nd birthday Saturday. "Yes, 102 years is a long time to live but to me its still a good world and everything is all right," That tells the philosophy of life of a grand woman.
Perhaps it does not in all account for her longevity but at least her habit of being happ and finding "everything is all right" has been no handicap to her in living more than a century.
One hundred and two years is a long time to live. When this venerable lady was born, John Adams had been dead but 12 year, Benjamin Franklin but 17, George Washington less than 40 years, and Abraham Lincoln had been born only 29 years earlier.
Has Seen Many Presidents - Born during Martin Van Buren's administration as the eighth President of the United States, she had successively seen the passing of the administrations of William Henry Harrison, John Tyler, James Knox Polk, Zachary Taylor, Millard Fillmore, Franklin Pierce, James Buchanan, Abraham Lincoln, Andrew Johnson, U. S. Grant, Rutherford B. Hayes, James A. Garfield, again, William McKinley, Theodore Roosevelt, William Howard Taft, and now the second administration of Franklin Delano Roosevelt. At the risk of being called old fashioned, she says she hopes Roosevelt doesn't get a third term.
Plenty More History - Yes, 102 is a long time to live. This remarkable woman was 12 years old before Howe invented the sewing machine or the war with Mexico broke out. She was 14 when Louis Phillippe was dethroned in France and the second republic was set up. And she's now lived to see France overrun by Hitler's mechanized hordes. It was in her 14th year of life that the fugitive slave law was passed and how well she remembers it. She was 16 when Commodore Perry opened China to the trade of the world and she was 21 when John Brown raided Harpers Ferry and was hanged for his trouble. That was the year the first sleeping car was run between Bloomington and Chicago and the Prince of Wales visited the United States and she remembers that was the year South Carolina seceded from this union.
She was a woman grown living in Dakota Territory when Alaska was purchased from Russia. She was approaching middle age, 38 when the battle of the Little Big Horn occurred and Custer and his Indian Fighting troopers were massacred; and that same year Alexander Graham Bell invented the telephone. "But it was a long time before I talked over one" says Mrs. Pratt.
Recalls Development - She had reached the age of 40 before Thomas Edison perfected the incandescent electric light. And so on through the most wonderful history in human progress. She vividly recollects it all. "And to me the most wonderful and the most useful things are matches with which to kindle fires and the modern cooking stove" declaires Mrs. Pratt. (In yet another article, Mrs. Pratt recalls how her father Lawrence Shriner used to start the fire by firing his muzzle loader into the fireplace, and yes I would think that in itself would make you appreciate matches.)
Yes, 102 years is a long time to live, so long, in truth, that Mrs. Pratt has outlived her husband and four of her children. She lives with her daughter, Miss Edna Pratt. Only recently tis aged mother and the unmarried daughter, who have always lived together here, commemorated the latter's 70th birthday, with the mother actively acting as the hostess.
Among First White Settler - The entire history, pain, deprivation, joy, and progress of South Dakota is enfolded within the memory and life of this pioneer of pioneers. She was one of the first white settlers of Dakota. She arrived in Clay County in 1860 and for 80 years she and her family have played an important part in all affairs of moment. More interesting than important is the part her folks have played in the enforcement of law. Her brother-in-law, the late A. A. Partridge, was the first sheriff of Clay County. His son, James Partridge, still a resident here, and the nephew of Mrs. Pratt, holds the record of being the only man to ever serve four terms of two years each as sheriff here. Her grandnephew, Bill Russell, who is now completing his second term as sheriff of the county. A nephew by marriage, the late William Gilchrist, served as sheriff of the west river country of Haakon.
It's easy and trite to generalize and say that an elderly person has retained unequalled alertness of mind and spryness of physique. Even such superlatives fail to properly portray how kindly life has treated this centenarian.
Even as superlative generalizations fail to tell the story, so do explicity specifications. But his writer recalls calling on Mrs. Pratt as her 99th birthday approached to find her down on her knees in her garden, weeding the vegetables. That Fourth of July the Pratts enjoyed new potatoes and peas, planted, tended and cooked by Mother Pratt. On her 100th birthday, she prepared the meal for the family gathering which is ever a part of the natal day observation. She is bothered during the past year by rheumatism but she still does fancy work, knitting, crocheting, quilts, mends and reads her daily newspapers, her Bible, and books, and all without the use of glasses. She voted at the last city election, she's going to vote at the general fall election, and no on will tell her how to vote either.
Came in Covered Wagon - Yes, 102 years is a long time to live, and in the living there of Mrs. Pratt, already honored by chamber of commerce notice, pioneer societies, governors, state officials, everyone, has become beyond all question of doubt South Dakota's most amazing and beloved woman.
Perhaps a few highlights should be added. Mrs. Pratt was born in Barnsville, Ohio, June 29, 1838. The Pratt family arrived in Vermillion on July 5, 1860. The family arrived in a covered wagon and settled on a claim just outside of the present city boundaries. She was married in LaMoille, IL, on April 22, 1857. Her husband, George Pratt, was killed by lightening in 1889, the year South Dakota was admitted as a state.
Store Burned in 1875 - The Pratts crossed the Missouri River the morning of July 4, 1860 at Sioux City. They came on to what is now Burbank the next day proceeding further found only three families in Vermillion. There was a hotel and two houses and the pioneer McHenry store. Steamboats plying the Missouri docked here, as the river was then close to the Dakota territory bluffs. There was only one tree in the entire area above the bluffs. Mr. Pratt's store on the bottom lands in the village of Vermillion was destroyed by fire in 1875. Mrs. Pratt still has the key to that old store.
Steamboats brought freight regularly. The Pratt home was one of the few not swept away by the great flood of 1881 but the water reached four inches deep on the floors of rooms in the second story of the house. Mrs. Pratt attended church in the historic little school house in the glen, Dakota territory's first school building, which reminds her that the first minister to come to Vermillion rode with them from Sioux City in a covered wagon and the next Sunday held an open air meeting. They waited 12 years before the first railroad train arrived and at the time of their coming Sioux City had no railroad.
There is of course many more details of Emily's life which describe the Indian scares, the ravishing grasshoppers and so much more that only the above gives a reminiscence of her life.
Emily died at the Dakota Hospital on Monday, January 3, 1944. Her funeral was on Thursday, January 6, 1844 with the Reverend Raymond Neilson officiating. She was laid to rest in the family plot on the bluffs of the Big Muddy flood plains.
BURIED: Family Plot on the bluffs of the Big Muddy flood plain, SD
Family Members
Siblings
