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DAISY M. PRATT
Vol. 3, p. 1880-1881

Oklahoma is a vigorous young commonwealth of large things, and in
nothing has its bigness been more effectively manifested than the
merited recognition it has given to its womenfolk in connection with
governmental and educational affairs in its various counties.  The
intellectual attainments and executive ability of Miss Daisy Maud
PRATT have thus brought her prominently forward in the domain of
practical educational work and have given her the distinction of
being chosen to her present office, that of county superintendent of
schools for Blaine County, an exalting position in which she is
giving a most able and progressive administration.

Miss Pratt is a representative of a sterling pioneer family of the
fine old Hoosier State, which she claims as the place of her
nativity.  On her father's farm in Ripley County, Indiana, she was
born on the 19th of May, 1885, and that she has imbibed fully the
inspiration and progressive spirit of the great West is not to be
held a matter of wonderment, for in the year succeeding that of her
birth her parents removed to Kansas, a few years later finding them
numbered among the pioneer settlers in what is now the State of
Oklahoma.  Miss Pratt is a daughter of John Diah and Almira C.
(SHELDON) Pratt, the former of whom was born in Prattsburg, Ripley
County, Indiana, and the latter in Iowa.  Prattsburg was named in
honor of the Pratt family.  The paternal grandfather of Miss Pratt
was a native of Maine and a scion of a sterling colonial family of
New England, where the original American progenitors settled upon
their emigration from England.  The grandfather of Miss Pratt, who
was born in Maine March 12, 1808, became a pioneer in Ripley County,
Indiana, where he was owner of some large sawmills.  He died while a
passenger on a Mississippi River packet-boat, which was near the City
of New Orleans at the time, he having been about fifty years old at
the time of his demise.  He was buried at Prattsburg, Indiana.  His
wife, Nancy HUNTER Pratt, survived him by a number of years, and died
at Rago, Kingman County, Kansas.  His father, Jonathan Pratt, served
as a messenger for General Washington in the War of the Revolution.

Miss Pratt's father's grandfather on his mother's side was John
Hunter, of Strong, Massachusetts.  On April 15, 1805, he was
appointed under Caleb STRONG, governor of Massachusetts, as "captain
of a company in the Fifth Regiment of the Second Brigade, Eighth
Division of the Militia of this commonwealth."  This paper is signed
by John Strong, secretary.  This same John Hunter was appointed by
Christopher GORE, governor of Massachusetts, as justice of the peace
of the County of Somerset, Massachusetts.  This appointment was made
February 19, 1810.  Signed by William TUDOR, secretary commonwealth.

The authentic record of this patriotic service makes Miss Pratt
eligible for membership in the Society of the Daughters of the
American Revolution.  The founders of the Pratt family in America
were three brothers of the name who came from England in the colonial
era of our national history and who became pioneer settlers of Maine,
the historic Pine Tree State.

On the maternal side Miss Pratt is a descendant of George Niles
Sheldon who came from Canada to York State in 1812.  He was a
Methodist preacher.  His son, Robert Palmer Sheldon, was born in
Canada in 1806, and in `1824 he was married to Lucy Amy MARSH.  He
was also a Methodist preacher, and worked as a missionary among the
Indians in Michigan in an early day.  In the magnificent new
Methodist Episcopal Church at Mount Pleasant, Michigan, one whole
window is inscribed to the memory of Rev. Robert P. Sheldon.

The grandfather of Miss Pratt, Ancile Lorenzo Sheldon, was born in
Courtland County, New York, January 21, 1826, and lived in Ohio,
Indiana, Iowa, Oklahoma and Nebraska.  He was married in 1848 to Mary
Jane RICHARDSON and they had three children:  Harmon Palmer, Almira
C. and Wilber Clarence.  Mrs. Sheldon died in 1865 and several years
after her death Mr. Sheldon was married to Mary R. SUTTON.  To them
two daughters were born, Maud S. and Clara.  Mrs. Mary Sutton Sheldon
died of typhoid fever, and in 1877 Ancile L. Sheldon married Georgia
EDWARDS of Page County, Iowa, who survived him and is now living in
Omaha, Nebraska.  Mr. Sheldon was a devout Christian and a devout
member of the Methodist Episcopal Church.  His early life was spent
in farming and in after years he owned and kept a large hotel, and
later owned and operated grain elevators.  His last days were spent
with his daughter, Mrs. Almira Pratt of Darrow, Oklahoma.

John D. Pratt, father of the popular superintendent of schools in
Blaine County, Oklahoma, was born in Ripley County, Indiana, in the
year 1852.  In 1886 he disposed of his farm property in his native
state and removed with his family to Kingman County, Kansas, in the
second tier of counties above the Oklahoma State line.  There he
continued his operations as an agriculturist and stock-grower until
1891, when he came to the newly organized Territory of Oklahoma, took
part in the "run" made by ambitious settlers at the opening of the
territory to settlement and obtained a tract of land in Kingfisher
County, as at present constituted.  He did not, however, perfect his
title to this government claim, but in April, 1892, at the Cheyenne
and Arapahoe opening, he "made the run" into this new district and
entered claim to a homestead of 160 acres in the northern part of
what is now Blaine County.  He improved this property, developed the
same into a productive and valuable farm and it is still owned by the
family, the place being eligibly situated three miles west of the
town of Homestead.  He subsequently rented the farm and moved to
Homestead.  At the time of the platting and upbuilding of the new
town of Darow Mr. Pratt removed to the new town, and there he
continued to maintain his home until his death, which occured August
7, 1914, his widow still residing in the attractive homestead which
he there provided.

Mr. Pratt was a man of strong mentality, broad information and well
fortified convictions, the while his life was guided and governed by
the highest principles of integrity and honor.  He manifested a
specially lively interest in public affairs and, after his removal to
Oklahoma, did all in his power to further the development and
progress of both the territory and the state, was unswerving in his
allegiance to the republican party, and was influential in political
and other civic affairs.  He served many years as a member of the
school board and held also the offices of justice of the peace and
notary public.  He was a republican committeeman for years and
delegate to many conventions.

She whose name initiates this review was the fourth in order of
birth in a family of seven children, and concerning the others the
following brief data are available.  Nella, a young woman of gracious
personality and high attainments, died on the 13th of June, 1906, at
the age of thirty-two years, she having been the wife of Clifford
Drum THAXTON and having served as county superintendent of schools of
Blaine County for some time prior to her death.  Mr. Thaxton is now
superintendent of the schools of Port Hill, Idaho.  Lola W., the
second daughter, is principal of the Central School of Watonga, the
judicial center of Blaine County.  Diah Sheldon resides at Duncan,
Stephens County, and is one of the representative farmers of that
section of Oklahoma.  Florence Mabel is the wife of Earl A.
SCHRE??LER, a blacksmith at Homestead, Blaine County.   Cary A.
remains with his widowed mother at Darrow and has the supervision of
the old homestead farm.  Delphine Almira, a graduate of the Oklahoma
State Normal School at Alva, is the wife of Rolla T. Hoberecht, who
holds an executive position in the First National Bank at Watonga.

Miss Daisy M. Pratt was about six years of age at the time of the
family removal to Oklahoma Territory, and she was reared to adult age
in Blaine County, to whose public schools she is indebted for her
early educational discipline.  Later she attended the Southwestern
Oklahoma State Normal School, at Weatherford, and she has continued
an ambitious student, has made marked advancement in the higher
planes of academic learning, and has proved also a most successful
and popular teacher, as well as a strong executive in the directing
of educational affairs of important order.  In 1901 Miss Pratt served
her pedagogic novitiate by serving as teacher in the rural school of
District No. 74, Blaine County, and here she brought, through
consideration of kindliness, combined with insistent discipline, the
best of order and most efficient work in a school that had previously
been known for its unruliness.  After teaching two terms in this
district Miss Pratt taught one year, 1903, in the primary department
of the village school of Homestead, and during the following year she
held the position of principal.  In 1905-6 she was a valued and
popular teacher in the public schools of Watonga, the county seat of
Blaine County, where, in her official and private capacity, she now
maintains her home.  In 1907 she became principal of the schools at
Darrow, where she continued her effective labors until 1910, when
there came a most gratifying popular recognition of her ability and
successful achievement, in that she was elected to her present
responsible office of superintendent of schools of Blaine County,--
this preferment, in view of her having maintained her home in the
county since her childhood, setting at naught the application of the
conditions implied in the scriptural aphorism that "a prophet is not
without honor save in his own country."

Miss Pratt assumed her official duties as county superintendent of
schools in January, 1911, and the best voucher for the admirable way
in which she has administered the affairs of the office is that
offered by her re-election in November, 1912, and again in November,
1914, so that she is now serving her third consecutive term.  Within
her jurisdiction are 111 schools; 158 teachers are employed; and the
enrollment of pupils shows a total of 5,006.  Miss Pratt has made an
excellent record as one of the admirably qualified and specially
successful county superintendents of Oklahoma and is enthusiastic and
active in all matters pertaining to educational work in the state.
She holds membership in the Methodist Episcopal Church and is a
popular teacher in the Sunday School.  In a fraternal way she is
affiliated with the Royal Neighbors and the Daughters of Rebekah.
She is a popular factor in the social life of her home county,
throughout which her circle of friends is virtually coincident with
that of her acquaintances.

Transcribed for OKGenWeb by Dorothy M. Tenaza, August 1, 1999.

SOURCE: Thoburn, Joseph B., A Standard History of Oklahoma, An
Authentic Narrative of its Development, 5 v. (Chicago, New York: The
American Historical Society, 1916)