Malia Riggs
Elmore Autauga News
The Autauga County Heritage Association beat the rain and hosted the annual Founders Day celebration at Pratt Cemetery.
Daniel Pratt, the man and myth that shaped and paved the way for Prattville to become the city it is today. Pratt was one of the first to establish an industrial village in the state of Alabama, and the one who introduced the industrial revolution to Alabama and the southern U.S.
In addition to everything that Pratt established in Prattville, he also had created the largest cotton gin factory in the world by 1856, putting Prattville even further on the global map.
He and his company would ship across the world from Russia, Great Britain, France, Mexico and all through the Southern U.S.
Pratt’s legacy lives on, and even his descendants are still living in Prattville. This celebration honors Daniel Pratt, the man that put Prattville on the map and so much more.
“Prattville has a mindset that is unique. It is rare to find a place not only aware but deeply connected to its own history. We live in a city where it’s normal to hear the words, ‘oh I know your grandfather’ or ‘I can remember when this building was built.’ History is not often about textbooks and facts but personal connections to places that means something to us,” director of the Prattaugan Museum Jordan Scott said.
The festivities started with a wreath laying ceremony over Pratt’s headstone with descendants of Pratt.
“Daniel Pratt was such an extraordinary renaissance man, that not only did he impact so many lives in his time here on earth, it continues on even today. If you really think about it, all the hard work that he did, the foundations that he laid, the schools, the churches, the mill villages, and so many other things, the work ethic, everything that inspired him inspired others, and that’s the real reason why we’re here today,” Prattville Mayor Bill Gillespie said.
After the wreath laying ceremony, the celebration continued at the Prattaugan museum, where their Jewels collection is still ongoing
In closing, Scott read a quote from H.J Livingston’s Eulogy for Daniel Pratt, where she noted how beautiful and strikingly fitting it is for us to celebrate Pratt today.
“Let us turn over its leaves and examine the volume carefully, that perchance we may gather the mellow fruits of his labors, nor for ourselves alone, but for the use of generations yet unborn.”
Other members of the Pratt family and influential individuals to the history of Prattville are also buried at Pratt cemetery. To see an in depth look at who else is laid to rest within the Pratt Cemetery, the Autauga County Heritage Association posted a link from Find a Grave, Memorials in Pratt Family Cemetery – Find a Grave, to dive deeper into the Prattville and Autauga County History.
