My Genealogy Hound

WILLIAM FENNO PRATT, at one time a leading architect of Northampton, now living in retirement, was born here January 15, 1814, son of Thomas and Eunice (Parsons) Pratt. His father was born October 22, 1784, in Weymouth, Mass., son of Nehemiah and Ruth (Torrey) Pratt. Preceding Nehemiah was a Levi L. Pratt, of whom it is related that he was impressed by the British into their naval service and taken to a distant island. Nehemiah, grandfather of William Fenno Pratt, was a farmer in Weymouth. He and his wife had several children, of whom three daughters married wealthy men; namely, John Fenno, David Pulsifer, and Mr. Cutting.

Thomas Pratt was a well-known and famous architect and builder of this city. He erected many of its finest dwellings, some of which are: the Blodgett mansion, of Grecian Ionic architecture; the Dewey House, of Smith College; the John Hopkins house, now occupied by Father Rainsville; and the Whitney house, near by. He was a useful citizen, and represented his town in the State legislature. His first wife had seven sons and one daughter, as follows: Seth Parsons, who died in childhood; Thomas, a carpenter, who died in middle life, leaving a wife and two daughters, all of whom are deceased; Levi, superannuated editor of the Watertown Times, of Watertown, N. Y., who has a wife; Wales P., who died at the age of twenty-six years; Charles S., a resident of Northampton; Horace, who was a soldier in a Connecticut regiment, and died from the effects of army life; Mary Ann, who married Morris Thayer, and died leaving one son, Wales P. Thayer; and William Fenno, the subject of this notice.

William Fenno Pratt attended the public schools until he was sixteen years old, when he began to assist his father at the carpenter’s trade. He aided in building the Blodgett house; and subsequently he drew the plans for the Easthampton church, one of his earliest architectural works. The plans for St. Mary’s Parochial School were also his. Mr. Pratt continued in the business after his father’s death, and in the course of time accumulated a competency. Being one of the foremost men in his line of business in this section of the county, Mr. Pratt was always busy, his services being in demand by any one requiring fine and substantial workmanship.

On February 18, 1835, Mr. Pratt was united in marriage at St. James Church, in Greenfield, to Elizabeth Clapp, of Northampton, a daughter of Thomas and Nancy (Blackman) Clapp, and the grand-daughter, on her mother’s side, of David Strong, who well remembered many of the thrilling incidents of the Revolution, and died in 1857, at the advanced age of ninety-seven years. After enjoying nearly a half-century of happy wedded life, Mrs. Pratt died in 1884, in the sixty-ninth year of her age. She bore him eleven children, two of whom died in infancy. The others attained maturity, and were as follows: Harriet Fenno, wife of Robert Whitehouse, who died at the early age of twenty-one years, leaving one son; Henry, who was a soldier in the late Civil War, serving from 1862 until 1863 in the Twenty-seventh Massachusetts Volunteer Infantry, and died at the age of fifty years, leaving a wife and three children, of whom one is now living; Elizabeth Blackman, unmarried, who lives at home; Caroline A., the wife of S. B. Curtis, of Hartford, Conn., and mother of one son, who stands at the head of his classes in college; Anna L., wife of E. L Clapp, City Clerk; Julia Amy, an invalid, who lives at home; Sarah A., who died September 30, 1874, aged twenty-five years; William Fenno Pratt, Jr., an architect, who is unmarried and resides with his father, and is a man of unusual intelligence, with a phenomenal gift of memorizing, especially as regards dates; and Jennie C., Assistant City Clerk. Mr. Pratt is a strong adherent of the Democratic party, though in his younger years he was a Whig. Religiously, he is an esteemed member of the Episcopalian church, in which he has served as Vestryman, and in which he was the organist from 1832 until 1855. He has the distinction of being one of the oldest native-born citizens of Northampton; and, notwithstanding that he has passed the allotted threescore and ten years of life by a full decade, he has retained the mental and physical vigor of his youth to a remarkable degree, even retaining his natural teeth as firm and sound as in his youthful days. Throughout his long life Mr. Pratt has fulfilled his obligations as a loyal citizen in a most faithful manner, and is everywhere accorded the respect due him for his sterling integrity and upright manhood.