Cherokee County AlArchives Biographies.....Pratt, John Jonathan April 14, 1831 - June 24, 1905
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File contributed for use in USGenWeb Archives by:
David Norton http://www.genrecords.net/emailregistry/vols/00025.html#0006057 June 4, 2008, 2:09 pm

Author: David Norton


John J. Pratt was born in Union County, South Carolina, in 1831, and died in
Chattanooga, Hamilton County, Tennessee in 1905. He is buried in Pratt Family 
Cemetery, now known as Pratt Memorial Park, at Centre, Cherokee County, 
Alabama. This site was formerly the family burial ground located on the Pratt 
plantation, "Pine Knoll," however, today it is a public park.

Pratt is credited with having invented the first practical typewriter.

John Jonathan Pratt came to Alabama with his father's family during his early 
adult years wherein he "read law" under a Judge B.F. Porter in Greenville, 
Alabama. Eventually he married Julia Porter, the Judge's daughter, and 
relocated to the city of Centre in Cherokee County, Alabama. He was a school 
teacher, a lawyer, editor of a newspaper in Cherokee County, and an 'ad hoc' 
advisor on events of his time. While in Centre he conceived the idea of a 
mechanical writing machine. After many efforts he obtained a patent for 
his "pterotype" in London, England, in 1866. It was the first practical 
typewriter, made, sold, and used on a commercial basis. The very first such 
machine was sold in London and cost $15.00. In the US it was called "the 
Hammond Typewriter." Mr. Pratt's writing machine (which Pratt referred to as 
a "pterotype"), was highlighted in _Scientific American_ an issue dated July 6, 
1867; a mechanic living in Milwaukee, Mr. C.L. Sholes-- by name, constructed a 
similar machine on which Sholes took out a US patent in 1868. The Sholes 
machine later became styled "the Remington" typewriter, but the distinction of 
being first to invent, patent, build, sell, etc., the first pratical typewriter 
is held for JJ Pratt.

Some of his early examples are found in museums such as the the Albert in 
London and the National Museum in the US. 
  
Burial: Pratt Cemetery, Centre, Cherokee County, Alabama, USA
 


Additional Comments:
Pratt Cemetery is a public park in Centre, Alabama. It is located on the four-
laned New 411 Highway, going towards the West, located on a hilltop just north 
of Clayton & Kelley Auto Parts, Inc., at 2240 411 Highway, West (old two-laned 
411 Highway) which is behind Garrett Tractor and the Sonic Drive-In.

File at: http://files.usgwarchives.net/al/cherokee/bios/pratt769gbs.txt

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