OVERVIEW
Location: Prattville, Autauga County, Alabama
Date Constructed/ Founded: ca. 1840
Associated Surnames: Pratt
Historical Notes:Daniel Pratt was the founder of Prattville, the first industrial town of the South. Daniel Pratt’s Gin Factory was the economic cornerstone on which Prattville was built. Profits from the Gin Factory financed the beginnings of other industries. The renowned Pratt Gin Company became the largest gin factory in the world, filling orders for gins from Russia, the British Empire, France, Cuba, Mexico, and Central and South America. Other industries Pratt established in his town before 1850 in which he owned part or whole were the sash, door and blind factory, machine and blacksmith shops, a wagon manufactory, a tin manufactory and a flouring mill. The Prattville Manufacturing Company became one of the most successful and well known of the cotton and woolen mills in the antebellum south.
Associated Pages: none
ASSOCIATED ENSLAVED PERSONS
1860: 107 slaves [1860 Federal Slave Schedule, Daniel Pratt, Prattville, Autauga Co., AL]
ASSOCIATED FREE PERSONS
Pratt family: Daniel Pratt (b.1799-d.?) – owner; cotton gin manufacturer & founder of Prattville, constructed a number of gins on General Elmore’s Plantation before settling at Prattville; Esther Ticknor Pratt – wife of D. Pratt (m.1827)
RESEARCH LEADS AND RECORDS
None noted yet
MISCELLANEOUS INFORMATION
None noted yet
REFERENCES
- Early Settlers of Autauga Co. http://www.alabamagenealogy.org/autauga/early_settlers_of_autauga_county.htm, primary ref. Alabama, her history, resources, war record, and public men: from 1540 to 1872, Brewer, Willis, Montgomery, Ala. Barrett & Brown, 1872.
- Prattville: History. http://www.prattville.com/Default.asp?ID=5
- 1860 Federal Slave Schedule
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