Mary
(McKnight) Pratton
(1875-1961)
Mary Catherine
'Mollie' (McKnight) Pratton was born on Aug. 23,
1875 in Fayette City, PA, the daughter of Henry
and Martha (Nutt) McKnight.
On Christmas Eve 1895, Mollie married Joseph Benjamin Pratton Jr. at Brownsville, Fayette County. A native of England, he was the son of Joseph B. and Martha (Badman) Pratten. (The spelling of 'Pratton' and 'Pratten' alternates in this branch.)
They had 11 children -- Alice Hogg Christoff, Joseph Henry Pratten, John Wilgus Pratten, Dora Constance Kimmel-Beadling, Theodore Roosevelt Pratten, Gertrude Stevenson Boyd, Eleanor Coulter White, Edward Freeman Pratten, Elizabeth Valerie Beust, Mary 'Viola' Uram and William Quinton Pratton.
Seen
at right, Mollie sits in the front row, at far left, with her elderly mother
and 4 sisters in an undated studio portrait. Front row, left to right: Mollie
Pratton, Martha (Nutt) McKnight and Adeline
Radcliffe. Back row, left to right: Anna
Seddon, Viola 'Grace' Soules
and Laura Horstman.
The Prattons lived at Fayette City, Fayette County, PA. Later they moved to Canonsburg, Washington County, PA, in about 1913. Joseph was employed at the Budke mill, and they were members of the St. Thomas Episcopal Church of Canonsburg.
During World War I, Molly suffered through the tragic death of her brother William, killed in a railroad accident in France, and the devastating poison-gas wounding of her brother Charles. When brother Charles returned stateside, he sent Mollie a letter from a convalescent hospital in New Jersey, writing: "I done my best, but I will never be able to do another day's work."
Son
William served in the US Marines in the South Pacific Theatre in World War II.
He was pictured (2nd from left) in a newspaper article, seen here, saying his
"assault group landed on the western Okinawa coast, close on the heels of
the Infantry, and moved 1,200 yards inland where they established operations on
the site of the former Jap bomber strip at Yontan airport."
Joseph died on March 8, 1944. Afterward, Mollie moved into the home of her daughter Viola Uram in Strabane and then Canonsburg, PA. When she became ill in the 1950s, she moved in with daughter Eleanor White in Wampum, Lawrence County, PA, though she enjoyed returning to Canonsburg for visits. She died at the Whites' home on Jan. 12, 1961, and is buried near her husband at Oak Spring Cemetery, Canonsburg.
Nursing runs in this family. Daughter Viola also was a nurse, working at Canonsburg General Hospital and later at the Washington County Health Center. Viola also served as a Democratic committeewoman for the Third Ward of Canonsburg.
Daughter
Eleanor Coulter (Pratton) White,
seen here, graduated from Canonsburg General's School of Nursing in 1931. She worked as a
registered nurse in Canonsburg and after marriage did some part time nursing,
and then in 1949 went back to work full time at the Ellwood City Hospital.
Eleanor retired in 1975 as a nursing supervisor with 26 years of service.
Daughter in law Evelyn (Wooliscroft) Pratton, a graduate of the first class of Canonsburg General's nursing school, was a nurse at Canonsburg General and was the school nurse in the Canonsburg school system.
Son Theodore Pratton married Evelyn Wooliscroft. They had five children -- Theodore Roy "Bub" Pratten, Ronald Pratten, Freeda Greer, Marlene Kelly and Carol Fetkenhour.
Son
John Wilgus Pratten Sr. was a college teacher and painter whose work decorates Sea World's entrance
in Florida. He married Daisy Bruce in Canonsburg in 1924, and they moved
to the Hudson Valley, NY in 1929, settling in Poughkeepsie. They were very
active in the Duchess County Art Association, and he worked creating display
advertising, and teaching portrait and landscape painting. During the 1940s and
early '50s, they managed the Wayman Adams summer art school in Elizabethtown,
NY, in the heart of the Adirondack Mountains. They later moved to St. Augustine,
FL, where John conducted art classes and was active in local art association. In 1955, he authored the book Portrait Painting for Beginners.
It was reprinted at least twice. In July 2000, a search of the Internet identified six booksellers in the
US and Canada who had this rare volume, seen at left, on their shelves.
Grandson John W. Pratten Jr. (1925-2005) married Marjorie Benschoten. He served in the US Navy during World War II as a gummer on the destroyer Hulsey Powell. After the war, in 1956, they moved to Rochester, NY. He worked for IBM in Rochester for 43 years. He was active in the Boy Scouts, Kiwanis and Big Brothers Big Sisters. He also sang in the IBM Male Chorus and in barbershop quartet groups.
Granddaughter Freeda Pratten married Lawrence "Bus" Greer (1924-2008) on April 30, 1948. Lawrence was a U.S. Army Air Force veteran of World War II, and as a tail-gunner on B-17 aircraft was shot down three times. Said the Washington Observer-Reporter, he was "a truck driver for Railway Express for 25 years and, prior to his retirement, was a dispatcher for Grief Brothers for 10 years. He was last employed at Thompson Hardware in Washington Crown Center." Freeda and Lawrence lived in Canonsburg had three children -- Lawrence F. Greer, David W. Greer and Kristine Manfredi. Lawrence died at the age of 83 on Jan. 16, 2008, and was laid to rest in Forest Lawn Gardens in McMurray.
Grandson Theodore Pratten (1929-2006) married Beverly (?) and resided in San Jose, CA. He was the 1947 senior class president of Canonsburg High School, and a chemical engineering graduate of the University of Pittsburgh. The Observer-Reporter said that he "was a pilot in the U.S. Army Air Corps from 1947 to 1949. He retired from Underwriters Lab, San Jose, in 1994." He passed away on May 30, 2006, and was laid to rest at Mission City Memorial Park in Santa Clara, CA.
Great grandson Lawrence Frederick Greer, a
Marine seen at right, of North Strabane, Washington County, was killed
in action in Quang Tri Province, Vietnam, on Feb. 2, 1969. His remains were returned stateside, and
he is buried in Canonsburg, PA. Over the years, he has been named and pictured
in Washington Observer-Reporter articles about the war. The most recent
was on Memorial Day 2005, when a photograph was printed showing a close-in view
of his name on the Vietnam War Memorial
in Washington, DC.
For more information, contact granddaughter Susan Patterson.
Copyright © 2000, 2002, 2005-2006, 2008 Mark A. Miner