Town Beginnings 1813 – 1850

The first white man to live in what is now Prattsburgh was a hunter and a trapper. His cabin was built on the Charles Babcock Farm. He came here in 1799 and left a few years later for Ohio.

Captain Joel Pratt came from Columbia County to Prattsburgh in the early 1800′s. The first actual settlers in 1801 came here when it was a part of Pulteney. It was Jared Pratt and his wife. They cleared land and built a log cabin on the land where David Snyderwine now lives. This home was the site of the first church service in Prattsburgh. The next one to come was Israel Van Housen who built a cabin on the property of Putnam farm (to see what the early settlers lived in, see the picture to the right).

Captain Joel Pratt brought his family by four-ox team and carts filled with supplies. The area was heavily forest and no roads, just a path that the others had made. he purchased land from Sir William Putleney estate and organized the town in 1813 which was named after him. He brought with him five sons and one daughter. He had many families coming here and sold land to them at $2.50-$3.50 an acre. Being a religious and scholarly man he got Rev. John Niles to come here to start a church. He setup a rule that anyone buying land had to pay 15 cents an acre to go to church.

Also at this time Robert Porter came to Prattsburgh and purchased 35 acres. Some of the land he sold to the school and the Presbyterian Church and he donated the green for children to have a place to play. On the right side of Mechanic Street many factories were setup. This made Prattsburgh nearly self-supporting in the early days.