[Gordon Pratt > Kenneth H Pratt > Herbert A Pratt > couple 17]
John Madison Pratt
BIRTH: 1 December 1828, Weathersfield, Windsor, Vermont, United States
DEATH: 19 February 1920, Gardner, Worcester, Massachusetts, United States
Sarah Flagg Ward
BIRTH: 4 December 1831, Ashburnham, Worcester, Mass, United States
DEATH: 13 July 1912
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| Ashburnham Countryside |
John M Pratt
John Madison Pratt was born in Weathersfield, Windsor, Vermont on 1 December 1828 to John Pratt and Eliza French. His parents had moved from Gardner to Vermont soon after their 1824 marriage to try their hand at farming in the north where their children were born. Unfortunately, John and Eliza passed away young, John about 43 in 1847, and Eliza about 36 in 1840, leaving their boys orphaned before they were 20. John Madison probably moved back to Worcester County, MA to be looked after by relatives.
Siblings of John M Pratt
1. John M Pratt (1828-1920) m. 1853 Sarah Flagg Ward (1831-1921)
2. Warren F Pratt (1831-1906) m. 1856 Sarah J Hinds (1836-1909)
Sarah F Ward
Sarah Flagg Ward was born in Ashburnham, Worcester County in 1831 to Silas Ward and Diadamia Mosman. She was the youngest of 3 known children. They farmed around Winchendon/Ashburnham their whole lives, from their birth to death.
Siblings of Sara Ward
1. Susanna Farmer Ward (1816-1856)
2. Horace H Ward (1824-1849)
3. Sarah Flagg Ward (1831-1912) m. 1853 John Madison Pratt (1828-1920)
John Pratt married Sarah Flagg Ward on 15 September, 1853 in Winchendon, Worcester, MA.
Life Together
Sarah and John married in Winchendon, Worcester County, in 1853.
In 1860, they were set up living in a shared household with household of Valentine Johnson in Ashburnham.
1870 Census
John (42) and Sarah (39) are still working with baskets and keeping house, while taking care of Albert (10), and Herbert Ashton (3). It seems that Albert may be a nephew or cousin's child, because he disappears from the record and Sarah doesn't claim him as her own child on later census records.
Herbert Ashton was born in South Ashburnham, Massachusetts, on 28 Mar 1867. He would later marry Ella Frances Edwards (1874-1957) in 1891.
1880 Census
John (51) and Sarah (47) are living in Ashburnham, while their son Herbert (13) is still a school boy. John is employed as a basket manufacturer. At the same time, they also housed Laura J McQuestion, a neice (14), and Silas Ward (88), Sarah's father.
A different Albert Pratt (20) (Son of Otis and Alvira, also of Ashburnham) had moved to Fitchburg to work in a chair shop and was living in the household of Lydia Carpenter (b. 1829). By the later information of the 1910 Census, we presume that Albert must have passed away sometime between 1860-1910.
During his career, John was a basket maker (according to his death certificate)
1900 Census
Still working as a basket maker at age 71, after 47 years of marriage. The census seems to indicate that Sarah had only been mother to 1 child, who was still living.
1910 Census
The 1910 Census says that Sarah F (78) and John M (81) were married 56 years, and had one child, who was still living.
Sarah F Pratt died at age 80 in 1912 of apoplexy (cerbral hemorrhage or stroke). Her son, Herbert A. Pratt of 178 Woodland Ave, Gardner was the informant.
John died on 19 February, 1920 in Gardner at the State Colony for the Insane. He was a 91 year old widower. His cause of death is listed as chronic myocarditis, as well as his senile debility., with hypostatic pneumonia contributing.
In the same cemetery in Ashburnham, we have recorded burials of
Ashton John Pratt (1932-1997)\
Ella Frances Edwards Pratt (1874-1957),
Harold Edwards Pratt Sr (1895-1970)
Herbert Ashton Pratt (1867-1956)
John M Pratt (1829-1920)
Mary A Stevens Pratt (1897-1977)
Sarah F Ward Pratt (1831-1912)
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