Biography of Newell Kellogg Pratt NEWELL KELLOGG PRATT, superintendent of the Big Sandy Colliery of the Solvay Collieries Company at Big Sandy, McDowell County, has been in the employ of this industrial corporation since 1907, save for a period of some- what more than a year, during which he was in service with the Young Men's Christian Association in France in the World war. Mr. Pratt claims the old Empire State as the place of his nativity, his birth having occurred at Delphi Falls, New York, on the 27th of December, 1882. He is a son of Frank F. and Rose (Holbrook) Pratt. Frank P. Pratt has been associated with farm industry throughout his entire. active career, and resides with one of his sons on the fine old homestead farm near Cazenovia, Madison County, New York, he being sixty-five years of age at the time of this writing, in the winter of 1921-2. His wife died in 1913, at the age of fifty-five years. Of the two children the subject of this review is the younger, the older son, Ashley, having the active management of the old home farm. The Pratt family was one of prominence and influence in Madison County, New York, from the Colonial period, prior to the War of the Revolution, in which representatives of the name served as patriot soldiers, one having held the rank of lieutenant. Newell K. Pratt attended a private school in the City of Syracuse, New York, and thereafter continued his studies in a seminary at Cazenovia until he had attained to his legal majority. Thereafter he was associated for one year in the work and management of the home farm, and he then took a position in the receiving teller's department of the Irving National Bank, New York City. He thus remained in the national metropolis until 1907, when he came to West Virginia and became script clerk at Marytown for the Solvay Collieries Company. Six months later he was trans- ferred to the Big Sandy Colliery and advanced to the posi- tion of chief clerk. Later he returned to Marytown, and served as chief clerk to J. C. Rawn, general manager of the company, and of this position he continued the incumbent until 1917, when he was assigned to the purchasing depart- ment at Huntington. In 1918 he went to France as secre- tary of the Young Men's Christian Association, and was assigned to the position of accountant and financial secre- tary of the Vannes Area. He remained in France some- what more than a year, and in the meanwhile the armistice brought the war to a close. Upon his return he became chief clerk to the general superintendent of the Edgewater Coal Company, subsidiary company of the Solvay organization, at Hellier, Kentucky, and in August, 1920, returned to the Big Sandy Colliery, where he served as assistant superin- tendent until the 1st of the following December, when he was promoted to his present office, that of superintendent. He is affiliated with the lodge of Ancient Free and Accepted Masons at Welch, the county seat, and with the chapter of Royal Arch Masons at Northfork. He is a republican in political allegiance, and is a member of the Presbyterian Church, in the faith of which he was reared. From The History of West Virginia, Old and New, page 68 Submitted by Valerie F. Crook **************************************************************** USGENWEB NOTICE: These electronic pages may NOT be reproduced in any format for profit or presentation by any other organization or persons. Persons or organizations desiring to use this material, must obtain the written consent of the contributor, or the legal representative of the submitter, and contact the listed USGenWeb archivist with proof of this consent. Files may be printed or copied for personal use only. ****************************************************************