Zadock Pratt
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| Zadock Pratt | |
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| In office 1837 - 1839 and 1843 - 1845 |
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| Preceded by | Aaron Vanderpoel & Archibald L. Linn |
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| Succeeded by | Aaron Vanderpoel & John F. Collin |
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| Born | October 30, 1790 Stephentown, New York |
| Died | April 5, 1871 Bergen,New Jersey |
| Political party | Democratic |
| Spouse | Beda Dickerman, Esther Dickerman, Abigail P. Watson, Mary Watson, Susie A. Grimm |
Zadock Pratt (October 30, 1790 – April 5, 1871) was a tanner, banker, and Congressman in the United States House of Representatives. He was born in Stephentown, New York. He moved with his parents to Windham (later Jewett), Greene County, in 1802; there he received a limited schooling. He engaged in tanning leather in Greene County, where he established and planned a town called Prattsville. Pratt built a tannery larger than any other in the world at the time; he also founded the Prattsville Bank. He became a member of the New York State Militia 1819-1823; Justice of the Peace in 1824; supervisor of the town of Windham in 1827; member of the State Senate in 1830; elected as a Democrat to the Twenty-fifth Congress (March 4, 1837-March 3, 1839); elected to the Twenty-eighth Congress (March 4, 1843-March 3, 1845); chairman, Committee on Public Buildings and Grounds (Twenty-eighth Congress). He resumed his former business activities, engaging in banking and agricultural pursuits in Prattsville. Pratt was a delegate to the Democratic National Convention in 1852, and then retired from active business pursuits in 1860. He died in Bergen, New Jersey, on April 6, 1871. While Pratt and his wife were visiting relatives in Bergen, Zadock was taken ill with a fever. While recovering he fell downstairs, broke his thigh and died in consequence. He is buried in the City Cemetery in Prattsville.
[edit] Legacy as a Congressman
As a congressman, Pratt pushed for legislation.
- Reduce the cost of postage from $.25 to $.05 in 1838.
- Create the Bureau of Engraving and Patents
- Construct public buildings in Washington, DC, of marble or granite, not sandstone.
- Construct the Dry Dock in Brooklyn.
- Initiate first survey for the Transcontinental Railroad 1844.
- While in Congress he began a movement to complete the Washington Monument, and he also started a practice of hanging the Presidential Portraits in the Rotunda.
The epitaph on Pratt's gravestone reads:
WHILE MEMBER OF CONGRESS
MOVED THE REDUCTION OF POSTAGE
A.D. 1838
AND THE SURVEY FOR A RAILROAD
TO THE PACIFIC A.D. 1844
[edit] Zadock Pratt's Wives
Pratt had five wives throughout his life. His first wife was Beda Dickerman, who he married in 1818. She died of tuberculosis seven months later. In 1821 Pratt married his first wife's sister, Esther Dickerman. Esther died two and a half years later, also from tuberculosis. Pratt married his third wife, Abigail P. Watson of Rensselaerville, on January 12, 1829. Pratt had his only children with Abigail, a boy and a girl. George Watson Pratt was born on April 18, 1831. Three years later Julia P. Pratt was born on January 26, 1834. On February 5, 1834 Abigail, Pratt's third wife, died at twenty-eight years old from complications from the birth of her daughter. Some time later, Pratt married Abigail's sister Mary. They were married until July 17, 1868 when Mary died of unknown causes. One year later Pratt married his fifth wife, Susie A. Grimm of Brooklyn, October 16, 1869. They were married in Grace Episcopal Church, Prattsville; Zadock had given the land and half the money to build the church. They were married until Zadock's death.
