Biography of John Gill Pratt Excerpted from "Collections of the Kansas State Historical Society, 1911-1912", Edited by Geo. W. Martin, Secretary. Vol XII., State Printing Office, Topeka, Kansas 1912. submitted by Teresa Lindquist (merope@radix.net); (copyright) 2001 by Teresa Lindquist ----------------------------------------------------------------------- KSGENWEB INTERNET GENEALOGICAL SOCIETY COPYRIGHT NOTICE: In keeping with the KSGenWeb policy of providing free information on the Internet, this data may be used by non-commercial entities, as long as this message remains on all copied material. These electronic pages cannot be reproduced in any format for profit or other gain. Copying of the files within by non-commercial individuals and libraries is encouraged. 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. ----------------------------------------------------------------------- JOHN GILL PRATT was born at Hingham, Mass., September 9, 1814, and died at his home near Piper, Wyandotte county, Kansas, April 23, 1900. Mr. Pratt was educated in the academy at Wakefield, Mass., and at Andover Seminary, graduating in 1836. At Andover he was licensed to preach, and was immediately employed by the Baptist Missionary Society for work in the Indian Territory. March 29, 1837, he married Olivia Evans, and two weeks later they left Boston on their journey west, where they were to labor among the Shawnee Indians at the Shawnee Baptist Mission, in Johnson county. They arrived there May 14, 1837. Mr. Pratt had learned the trade of printing at the University Press, Cambridge, Mass, and on his arrival at the Shawnee Mission took charge of the printing office, the Rev, Jotham Meeker then being engaged in establishing the mission among the Ottawas on the Marais des Cygnes. At this printing office were printed, for the use of the Indians, primary textbooks, translations from the Gospels, hymns and other books, in the Delaware, Shawnee, Iowa, Ottawa and other Indian tongues. A newspaper, the Shawanoe Sun, was published here from 1836 to 1842. Mr. Pratt was associated with the Stockbridge Indians for a time, going to them in 1844 and having charge of the mission situated near where the National SoldiersŐ Home at Leavenworth now stands. In 1848 he took charge of the Delaware Baptist Mission. It was at this mission that Mr. Pratt was ordained to the ministry, November 19, 1843. In 1864 Mr. Pratt succeeded Maj. F. Johnson as United States Indian agent to the Delawares, serving the tribe in that capacity until they moved to the Indian Territory. Mrs. Pratt shared all the hardships and privations of her husband's lot. She instructed the Indian girls in the rudiments of domestic economy, and had always the burden of a large household on her shoulders, In the early days at the mission she did all of the cooking and sewing herself. She was often obliged to sew until late into the night, for the Indian children had no other clothing than the garments in which they came to the school, and these were always laid aside and the mission clothes worn while the child remained there. Mrs. Pratt was a woman of very prepossessing appearance--a round face, with black, sparkling eyes, a clear complexion and black hair worn in ringlets. Her keen sense of humor did her good service in her wild, rough home, and helped her through situations which would have dismayed a less wholesome woman. The cabin to which she was brought as a bride consisted of four walls and a roof, all of logs, and built as children build corn-cob houses, with projecting ends. The "chinking" was done with sod and mud, and the chimney was built of the same material. There were no windows, only holes cut in the log walls. The floor was of rough lumber, and it is said that Mrs. Pratt became accustomed to removing splinters from her own hands as she washed up the floor, but that later on it was harder to take them from the tiny hands of her babies as they crept about the room. Often in cold weather four or five Indians would gather around her fireplace before she was dressed in the morning. In such weather her feet would freeze as she worked about the room, and coffee left in the cups on the table would freeze while she was clearing away the food; and that, too, with the table standing on the hearth. Mrs. Pratt had seven children, and she had no medical attention at such times except such as Mr. Pratt could give her, and no nurse but an Indian woman. At one time her Indian nurse could neither speak nor understand a word of English, and Mr. Pratt's range of the Indian language was inadequate to the occasion; so an Indian man who could understand some English was stationed on the doorstep and interpreted Mr. Pratt's directions to the "nurse." Of the many discomforts and the loneliness which Mrs. Pratt endured she once said: "The sacrifices and inconveniences were forgotten by us when we considered the great object for which we lived and labored--the conversion of the Indians and their advancement to civilization." Mrs. Pratt was born in 1814, being one month her husband's senior, and survived him a little time.