My Genealogy Hound

Melville S. Pratt, a member of one of the old pioneer families of Michigan, and the owner of a fine farm of 149 acres, located in section 32, Commerce township, Oakland County, was born in 1868, in Wayne County, Michigan, and is a son of James and Mary Jane (Sibley) Pratt, both of whom were born in the State of Michigan.

The founder of the Pratt family in Michigan was our subject’s grandfather, who was born in 1806 and came to Michigan in 1825, covering the distance to Detroit on foot. He was in search of a favorable location and selected the site of the present City Hall in Detroit, which was at that time but a small Indian trading post. Later he gave up the selected land on account of its being too swampy, and permanently located in Plymouth township, Wayne County, where his son James was born. He had three other children, namely: Valentine and Daniel, both deceased; and Mrs. Jennie Youker, who resides at Traverse City, Michigan.

James Pratt was married to Mary Jane Sibley, who is a daughter of Alonzo Sibley, whose sketch will be found in this volume. She now resides at Lansing, Michigan, her husband having died in April, 1903, in his 68th year. Our subject is the eldest of their three children, the others being: Maude E., who married E. A. Holden, an insurance agent of Lansing, Michigan, and has one son, Harold Pratt, born in 1894; and Judson E., who resides with his mother in Lansing.

Melville S. Pratt had excellent educational advantages at Northville and at Traverse City and is one of the most intelligent and wide awake young farmers of Commerce township. After his marriage, he located first on an 80-acre tract in Traverse City, which he later sold and came to the present fine property, known as the Alonzo Sibley farm. In 1893 he was married to Ellen N. Price, who is a daughter of Thomas and Eliza (Williams) Price, the former of whom was born at Flintshire, England, and came to America in 1870. He took up land in Commerce township and two years later sent to the old home for the lady he desired to marry, and Miss Williams reached Commerce township so that the marriage took place October 5, 1872. Mrs. Pratt is the eldest of their children, the others being: Charles, who was married to Minnie Major, and has one child, born in 1903; William G., married to Etta Burch; and Lottie, who married Perry Johnson, of Commerce township. Mrs. Price died October 14, 1903.

Mr. and Mrs. Pratt have three bright, intelligent children, Howard Francis, Florence Evelyn and Bertha Maude. In political sympathy Mr. Pratt is a Prohibitionist. Religiously, he is connected with the Free Will Baptists.