Passport Land - Herbert Lee Pratt (1871-1945)

Biography

Herbert Lee Pratt (21 November 1871, Brooklyn, New York - 3 February 1945, New York, NY) was an American businessman and a leading figure in the United States oil industry.

Herbert L Pratt was the son of Mary Helen (née Richardson) and Standard Oil industrialist Charles Pratt. He was brother to Frederic B. Pratt, George Dupont Pratt, John Teele Pratt and Harold I. Pratt; and half-brother to Charles Millard Pratt.

Herbert L Pratt took a degree of Bachelor of Arts at Amherst College in 1895. His family estate, "The Braes", is now the Webb Institute of Naval Architecture. It was built in 1912-1914, the largest of the Pratt mansions at Glen Cove, and designed by James Brite in the neo-Jacobean style. In 1910, he bought the 9,000-acre Good Hope plantation and hunting lodge in South Carolina (about five miles from Ridgeland) from Harry B. Hollins, also of Long Island. He also owned a house at 217 Clinton Ave, Brooklyn, NY.

Herbert L Pratt was an art collector, particularly portraits and miniatures. When Rotherwas Court, Herefordshire, was dismantled and auctioned in 1913, Herbert L Pratt purchased the dining room for his neo-Jacobean mansion "The Braes," then under construction. His bequest to Amherst College included the Rotherwas Room and over eighty American portraits and miniatures, as well as an extensive collection of decorative arts. Rotherwas Room was incorporated into the Mead Art Museum when it was built at Amherst College in 1949.

He died in New York on 3 February 1945, aged 73. You can read more about him on Wikipedia.

On 28 April 1897, Herbert Lee Pratt married Florence Gibb (daughter of John Gibb and Harriet Balsdon). They had five children:

Edith Gibb Pratt (14 Sep 1898, New York, NY - 29 Dec 1956). On 20 Nov 1919, she married Allan McLane Jr (26 Oct 1894, Baltimore, MD - 6 Aug 1948, Santa Monica, CA), a stockbroker, son of Judge Allan McLane and Augusta James of Baltimore, MD. They had children: Edith Gibb McLane (29 Oct 1926, New York, NY-), Allan J McLane III (9 Oct 1928, New York, NY - 1980), Robert M McLane (2 Feb 1930, New York, NY-). On 9 May 1946, she married Howard W Maxwell (1896-1966).
Herbert Lee Pratt Jr (29 Aug 1900, Glen Cove, New York - 22 March 1974, Phoenix, Arizona). On 22 Dec 1926, he married Hope Gordon Winchester (26 Mar 1905, Baltimore, Maryland - 1979), daughter of Lycurgus Winchester & Katherine Griswold Pratt. They had children: Herbert L Pratt III (18 Nov 1930, New York, NY-) and Lycurgus Winchester Pratt (5 June 1933, New York, NY-). In 1938, they lived at Whitehall, Mill Neck, LI, NY.
Harriet Balsdon Pratt (13 Dec 1901, Brooklyn, NY - 10 Feb 1978). In July 1923, married (1) Lawrence Bell Van Ingen (18 Oct 1898, New York, NY - 31 Oct 1943) of Manhattan in 1923. They had two children: Lawrence Van Ingen (16 Aug 1924, New York, NY-), and Herbert Van Ingen (22 Apr 1926, New York, NY-). On 29 Oct 1938, married (2) Donald Fairfax Bush (31 Jan 1901 - 12 Aug 1985), president of Roosevelt Hospital 1956-1964, and they had one child.
Florence Gibb Pratt (27 Oct 1905, Glen Cove, NY - 14 Aug 1965). On 20 Jun 1927, she married Francis Edward Powell Jr (12 Sep 1900, Baltimore, MD - 1964) of Liverpool. They had four children: Edith Gibb Powell (17 July 1928, London, England - 1970), Florence Anne Powell (11 Nov 1929, London, England -), Sonia Mary Powell (2 Apr 1932, New York, NY - 1943), Jane Leigh Powell (1933/34-), Virginia Lois Powell (1936/37-). In 1930 and 1938, they lived at The Braes, Glen Cove, NY. By 1947, they were living at Rattling Spring, Glen Cove, NY.
Frederic Richardson Pratt (28 Jan 1908, Brooklyn, NY - 19 Apr 1966, Oregon), an executive with Mobil Corp. In 1930, he married Pauline Dixon Dodge (23 Feb 1908, New York, NY - 21 Oct 2003, Glen Cove, NY), daughter of Marshall Jewell Dodge and Priscilla Dixon Barnes. They had children: Robert Gibb Pratt, Arthur D Pratt, and Pauline "Polly" Pratt Brown. In 1969, Pauline Dodge Pratt married Richard K Webel (1900-2000), landscape architect.

Ancestry

His father was Standard Oil industrialist Charles Pratt, (2 Oct 1830, Watertown, MA - 4 May 1891, New York, NY) oil industry pioneer, head of Charles Pratt and Company, and a director of Standard Oil. Married 9 Sep 1863, Belmont, MA.

His mother was Mary Helen Richardson (31 Jan 1839, Belmont, MA - 20 Jan 1907).

Charles Pratt married (1) Lydia Ann Richardson (13 Dec 1835, Belmont, MA - 5 Aug 1861, NY), Mary Helen Richardson's sister, on 5 Dec 1854, and had two children:

Charles Millard Pratt (2 Nov 1855, Brooklyn, NY - 1935). Company Secretary of Standard Oil, President of Pratt Institute, director of various other companies. Married Mary Seymour Morris, daughter of Governor Luzon B Morris, and they had five children: Morris Pratt (1885–1910), Theodore Pratt (1887-1977), Margaret Richardson Pratt (1889–1919), Katherine Eugenia Pratt (1891–1981), and Richardson Pratt (1894–1959).
Lydia Richardson Pratt (1858, Brooklyn, NY - 26 Jun 1904). On 18 Feb 1886, she married Frank Lusk Babbott (1854-1933), multimillionaire jute merchant, art collector, patron, and philanthropist. They had four children: Mary Babbott, Frank Lusk Babbott Jr (1891-1970), Lydia Pratt Babbott and Helen L Babbott.

Charles Pratt married (2) Mary Helen Richardson, Lydia Ann Richardson's sister, on 9 Sep 1863, and had six children:

Frederic Bayley Pratt (22 Feb 1865, Brooklyn, NY - 3 May 1945). President of the Pratt Institute from 1893-1937. President of American Olympic Committee in 1910. Married Caroline Ames Ladd (1861-1946), on 17 Oct 1889, and had three children: Charles Pratt (1892-), President of Pratt Institute, 1937-1953, Mary Caroline Pratt (1895-1980) who married Secretary of State Christian Herter, and Helen Ladd Pratt (1899-).
Helen Folsom Pratt (9 Jul 1867, Brooklyn, NY - 21 Dec 1949, Brookline, MA). She married Ernest Blaney Dane (1868-1942), President of Brookline Savings and Trust (10 servants in 1920), and they had two children:Ernest Blaney Dane Jr (1905-1975), and Edward Dane (1907-1982).
George Dupont Pratt (16 Aug 1869, Brooklyn, NY - 20 Jan 1935, Brooklyn, NY). Sportsman, conservationist, philanthropist. He married Helen Deming Sherman (1869-1920) in 1897, and they had five children: George Dupont Pratt Jr (1898-), Sherman Pratt (1900-1964), founder of Marineland of Florida,Eliot Deming Pratt (1903-1969), Constance Pratt (1906-), and Dorothy Deming Pratt (1909-).
Herbert Lee Pratt (21 Nov 1871 - 3 Feb 1945, New York, NY), oil industrialist, art collector and philanthropist. On 28 Apr 1897, he married Florence Gibb and had five children: Edith Gibb Pratt (1898-1956), Herbert Lee Pratt Jr (1900-1974), Harriet Balsdon Pratt (1901-1978), Florence Gibb Pratt (1905-1965), and Frederic Richardson Pratt (1908-1966).
John Teele Pratt (25 December 1873, Brooklyn, NY - 17 June 1927) was an American corporate attorney, philanthropist, music impresario, and financier, and the largest single stockholder in Standard Oil of NY. He married Congresswoman Ruth Sears Baker (1877-1965), and they had five children: John Teele Pratt Jr (1903-1969), Virginia Pratt (1905-1979), Sally Sears Pratt (1908-1973), Phyllis Pratt (1912-1987), and Edwin Howard Baker Pratt (1913-1975).
Harold Irving Pratt (1 Feb 1877, Brooklyn, NY - 29 May 1939). Director of Standard Oil of New Jersey (now Exxon), etc. He married Harriet L Barnes (1879-1969), and they had children: Harold Irving Pratt Jr (1904-1975), Eleanor Pratt (1908-), and Barbara Pratt (1913-).

His grandparents were:

Asa Pratt (1 Mar 1794, Malden, MA - 8 Nov 1878, Watertown, MA), was a carpenter and cabinet maker, mostly in Andover, Maine. Married 19 Aug 1819, Boston, MA, and had 11 children.
Elizabeth Stone (11 Jun 1795, Watertown, MA - )
Thomas Richardson (13 Jun 1807, Watertown, MA - 3 Jun 1875), Farmer of Watertown, MA.
Lydia Teele (13 Jun 1805, Bedford, MA - 19 Sep 1873)

Passport

Herbert Lee Pratt's US passport was issued on 23 July 1929.

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