Preston County, West Virginia Biography of SAMUEL AUSTIN PRATT, M. D. This biography was submitted by Valerie Crook, E-mail address: ********************************************** ***The submitter does not have a connection*** ********to the subject of this sketch.******** ********************************************** This file may be freely copied by individuals and non-profit organizations for their private use. All other rights reserved. Any other use, including publication, storage in a retrieval system, or transmission by electronic, mechanical, or other means requires the written approval of the file's author. This file is part of the WVGenWeb Archives. If you arrived here inside a frame or from a link from somewhere else, our front door is at http://www.usgwarchives.net/wv/wvfiles.htm The History of West Virginia, Old and New Published 1923, The American Historical Society, Inc., Chicago and New York, Volume II, pg. 556-557 Preston SAMUEL AUSTIN PRATT, M. D. The oldest practicing physician in Preston County is Dr. Samuel Austin Pratt of Kingwood, who has been a resident of that city since 1876 and has been practicing medicine steadily for forty years. He has lived on the same spot of ground for more than a third of a century. Dr. Pratt was born on Pratt Run, nine miles from Middle- burn in Tyler County, West Virginia, August 13, 1849. His father, William Pratt, was born near Norfolk, Virginia, about 1793, and before his marriage moved to West Virginia and was a farmer in Tyler County. He died in 1858, and had served as a soldier during the Mexican war. William Pratt married Martha Underwood, one of the eight sons and three daughters of William W. and Hannah (Willis) Underwood, and she died in 1906, at the age of eighty-four. William W. Underwood was one of the most substantial farmers of Tyler County, and represented that district many terms in the Legislature. William and Martha Pratt had the following children: Ellis, William, John, Thomas, Samuel A., Eliza- beth Jane, Sarah E., Nancy and Leah. Four of these children intermarried with members of the Weekley family, the son William marrying Ethalinda Weekley. Elizabeth was the wife of Daniel Weekley and became the mother of Bishop Weekley of Parkersburg. Sarah was married to William Weekley. Nancy was three times married and her last husband was Bamberlidge Ash. Leah was the wife of Isaiah Weekley. Samuel Austin Pratt spent his boyhood and youth on the farm in Tyier County. He continued his education through high school and for a time was a teacher, being the youngest teacher in the county when he began the work. He had pupils from two different counties and from three different districts. After two terms as a teacher he became clerk at Wick Post Office and for several years was employed by J. B. Smith, a merchant at Shirley in that county. About this time he began the study of medicine, reading under the direction of Dr. Malloy at Middleburn. From there he went to West Union in Doddridge County, clerked in a drug store for Mr. Martin, and his employer, appreciating his industry and his ambition to become a physician, paid his expenses for one term in Starling Medical College in Ohio. In the meantime Mr. Martin removed to Kingwood and en- gaged in the drug business, and Dr. Pratt took charge of the business after Mr. Martin's death. He continued with the store until May 1, 1880, when he began the practice of medicine. He practiced as an undergraduate because he was without funds to continue his studies in college, and it was his intention to go on with his course after he had the money therefor. In 1882 the West Virginia Legislature passed the law requiring a physician to be a graduate of a reputable school of medicine or to have ten years continuous practice. To meet these requirements Dr. Pratt took the examination for his diploma at Grafton and was properly registered under the law. He has now practiced for more than forty years, and for a long time he did the heavy duty exacted of a country physician who is riding and driving almost continuously, but is now getting ready to retire from this heavy labor. Dr. Pratt early in his career was deprived of his patrimony and consequently had to earn his own living and the surplus needed for his education. Even when he began practice in Kingwood he had no surplus above a bare existence. His mother furnished him with some bedding, and he placed it upon boxes in his office for a bedstead, and in the morning put it away in the boxes out of sight of the public. He had to wait for business, and it came slowly. During this waiting period he wrote in the county clerk's office at night for the money to pay his board, and he also made money guarding a notorious prisoner to prevent his being taken from the jail by unfriendly hands. In time his abilities gained their proper recognition, and for many years Dr. Pratt has been one of the leaders in his profession. He was one of the examining surgeons of the Baltimore & Ohio Railway and for thirty years was examining surgeon for the United States Govern- ment. In addition to his profession Dr. Pratt has been interested in industrial development, and is a stockholder in the Francois Coal Company of Clarksburg and interested in the same com- pany at Lowesville, and is also interested in the Astor Mines at Flemington. Doctor Pratt has not been in politics, though always voting the republican ticket. He married in Preston County, August 13, 1884, Miss Jennie R. Wheeler, daughter of David and Jen- nie R. (Parsons) Wheeler. Mrs. Wheeler died at the birth of her daughter, Jennie, and the latter three days later was brought by Mrs. Bonafield from Tucker County to King- wood and placed in the home of her grandparents, Mr. and Mrs. James W. Parsons. Mrs. Pratt has therefore spent all her life in Kingwood, where she was educated. Dr. and Mrs. Pratt have a daughter, Martha, wife of James A. Haislip, of Clarksburg. Mr. Haislip is a civil engineer. The four grand- children of Doctor and Mrs. Pratt are Jane Rebecca, James A., Jr., Pattie and Bettie. Doctor Pratt says that "he is a physician by profession and a gun crank from choice." The sports of the field have fur- nished him an inexhaustible pleasure since early youth. His hunting expeditions have extended out to Wyoming and Mon- tana, and his collections of fine rifles and other weapons include an old time long barrel rifle of his grandfather Parsons. This gun was in its time a weapon of defense against Indians as well as an instrument in the slaying of the big game of the mountains. Mrs. Pratt also has a special hobby, and that is china decoration. She took up this art without any train- ing beyond her individual practice, and the shelves of her diningroom are laden with china ware showing her artistic talents and the possibilities of training native talent in this direction.