The Pratt Surname and Homeopathy

The Pratt surname has given us five jobbing homeopaths; two Attending Surgeons at the Cook County Hospital and a Professor of Surgery, Anatomy & Clinics at the Hahnemann Medical College of Chicago; an Attending Surgeon at the Streeter Hospital Chicago and Instructor of Surgical Demonstrations and Surgery at the Chicago Homœopathic Medical College; an orthodox doctor who converted to homeopathy to become the President of the Illinois State Medical Association of Homœopathy and Chair of Clinical and Medical Surgery, Pathology and Diagnosis in the Hahnemann Medical College of Chicago; and a Military Civil War Surgeon at the General Hospital at Mound City and Chair of Anatomy in the Homœopathic Medical College of Missouri.

David Shepard Pratt 1826 - brother of Leonard Pratt** **

of Towanda, Pa., was born in Middletown Township, Susquehanna county, Pa., November 16th, 1826. He is the third son of Russell Pratt and younger brother of Professor Leonard Pratt, of Hahnemann Medical College of Chicago.

His boyhood was spent in agricultural pursuits, but his thirst for knowledge soon led him to aspire to a calling more congenial. In his leisure hours he devoted himself assiduously to study, and after having obtained a substantial academic education he determined to become a disciple of Hahnemann.

He had seen the wonderful cures under the new system, and was led to believe that it had for its foundation something more than mere chance. Under the instructions of his brother Leonard he completed his preliminary medical studies, graduated at the Homœopathic Medical College of Philadelphia, in 1851, and immediately settled in Towanda.

His brother Leonard shortly after removed to Illinois, leaving the subject of our sketch to contend alone with the bitter prejudice against homœopathy which at that time prevailed to such an extent that some of the pioneers of homœopathy were driven from their profession, and those who believed in it or supported it were subjected to bitter and sometimes violent persecution.

Dr. Pratt met this bigoted opposition manfully. By close attention to his studies and the duties of his profession, in a few years he became a physician of acknowledged skill and ability ; the gravest cases were entrusted to his care ; the feeling against the “little pills” was gradually removed, and now the doctor reckons among his staunchest friends and warmest supporters of the new school of medicine those who were his and its most active enemies at the outset of his career.

Surgery is a branch of his profession to which he has given great attention. This may be called his specialty. His large and successful experience as an operator entitles him to be reckoned among the first of the surgeons in the new school of medicine.

Davis R. Pratt

a native of Newtown, graduated at the Homeopathic Medical College of Pennsylvania in March, 1861, and practiced in his native place.

In 1863 he moved to Philadelphia, and subsequently to Trenton, N. J., where he remained until compelled by ill health to relinquish the duties of the profession. He died of bronchitis on Jan. 28, 1868.

Edwin Hartley Pratt 1849 - 1930 son of Leonard Pratt** **

of Evanston, Illinois, was born November 6, 1849, in Towanda, Bradford county, Pennsylvania, son of Leonard Pratt and Betsey Belding, his wife, both of English descent.

In boyhood he attended the district school at Rock Creek, Carroll county, Illinois, and in 1864 entered Mount Carroll Seminary, passing thence at the end of a year to Wheaton College.

The following year he matriculated at the University of Chicago, from which institution he graduated in 1871, and from which he subsequently received the degree of LL. D., having previously been made A. M.

He studied for his profession at Hahnemann Medical College of Chicago, and graduated in 1873 with the degree of M. D. He attended at the same time the spring term at Jefferson Medical College of Philadelphia, and the Keene School of Anatomy.

During the first ten years of his professional career, he was engaged in general practice but has since devoted himself to surgery and chronic cases. For twenty years he has been Attending Surgeon to the Cook County Hospital.

He is a member of the Illinois Homœopathic Association, of which body he was president in 1902, and also belongs to the Chicago Automobile Club and the Evanston Century Club.

He married, in 1877, Isadore Bailey, by whom he had two children, Isabel and Edward Pratt, both of whom are deceased. After the death of his wife he married in 1900, Charlotte Kelly.

Leonard Pratt, was Professor in the Homeopathic College of Chicago, & his son is now a Professor (of Surgery) and of Anatomy & Clinics in the same college. They reside in Wheaton, DuPage Co., IL, one of the numerous suburban villages of the Garden City, where they enjoy an extended & remunerative practice. Dr. D.S. Pratt is also a skillful & successful homeopathic physician in Towanda, & his son is in practice with him

…Pratt authored a lengthy monograph on orificial surgery (1887). The work was a tremendous success in that it provided his new branch of surgery with both direction and content.

A year later, Pratt and his acolytes organized the American Association of Orificial Surgeons. As Pratt’s proselytizing met with increasingly receptive audiences, he began to design and sell surgical instruments intended strictly for orificial operations.

By 1891, and becoming independently wealthy, Pratt began construction of his own private hospital known as the Lincoln Park Sanitarium in Chicago. With growing numbers of practitioners of orificial surgery nationwide, the necessity for its own specialty journal became paramount. In mid 1892 the Journal of Orificial Surgery commenced publication with Pratt as its editor-in-chief.

The orificial philosophy attracted a large following whose advocates were, in every sense of the word, surgeons. Their technical skills allowed Pratt’s followers to perform many formidable operations, including hysterectomy, repair of complicated cervical and perineal lacerations, and radical hemorrhoidectomy.

Edwin Hartley Pratt was present at the World’s Homeopathic Convention in 1876.

Edwin Hartley Pratt wrote Orificial Surgery and Its Application to the Treatment of Chronic Diseases, A Synthetic Clinic Including a Three Days’ Course in Orificial Surgery, The Composite Man as Comprehended in Fourteen Anatomical Impersonations, and he edited the Journal of Orificial Surgery, and several reports on instruction.

E J Pratt attended a Hahnemann Association dinner in 1895…

George Nathaniel Pratt 1876 -** **

of Chicago, Illinois, was born in that city, June 29, 1876, son of George Nathaniel and Martha Ellen (Fracker) Pratt.

He attended the Chicago public schools, the Michigan Military Academy for three years, the State University of Iowa one year, Cornell University one year, and was graduated from the Chicago Homœopathic Medical College, with valedictorian honors, in the class of 1897.

He pursued a course on anatomy and surgery in Post-Graduate Medical College, Chicago, in 1902 ; on pathology in Rush Medical College, Chicago, in 1903, and on pathology, surgery, gynecology in Northwestern University Medical College, Chicago, in 1904.

He is a member of the Surgical Attending Staff at Cook CountyHospital and Streeter Hospital Chicago; Instructor of Surgical Demonstrations upon the cadaver and Lecturer on Surgery in the Chicago Homœopathic Medical College.

Dr. Pratt is a member of the Illinois Homœopathic Medical Society, Germania Maennerchor and Illinois Athletic Club, of Chicago, and Phi Kappa Psi and Theta Nu Epsilon fraternities. While in Cornell he was commodore of the freshman navy, a member of freshmen football team and of the La Fruija Society.

He married, November 7, 1898, Florence Amy Lane, of Chicago, and they have two children, Frances Baker and Virginia Pratt.

John S. M. Pratt **son of John Wesley Pratt **

who also studied for the medical profession. He graduated from Hahnemann Medical College of Philadelphia in 1903, and since then has been engaged in practice with his father.

John Wesley Pratt

practicing physician of Coatesville, Pennsylvania, studied for his profession in the Hahnemann Medical College of Philadelphia, graduating in the class of 1873.

He is a member of the American Institute of Homœopathy, the Pennsylvania Tri-County Homœopathic Medical Society and of the Medical Council.

He married and had one son, John S. M. Pratt, who also studied for the medical profession. He graduated from Hahnemann Medical College of Philadelphia in 1903, and since then has been engaged in practice with his father.

Leonard Pratt

of Wheaton, Ills., was born in Rome, Bradford county, Pa., on December 26th, 1819. His parents and grand-parents were from Connecticut.

After the usual preparatory course of study, he entered Lafayette College, at Easton, Pa. On leaving school, he entered upon the study of medicine with Dr. L. C. Belding, in Le Raysville, Pa., and attended his first course of medical lectures in the Jefferson Medical College in Philadelphia, prosecuting his studies faithfully, during the sessions of 1842-‘43.

In this latter year, he united with Dr, Belding in experiments to test the utter insufficiency of the homœopathic system of medicine. He gave it a very thorough trial, and was impressed with the fact that the system worked marvelous cures.

He and his preceptor expected to prove homœopathy a fraud, and they came forth from the investigation converts to the system. Dr. Pratt then opened an office in Towanda, Pa., where he met with the bitter opposition of the old school advocates, until his success in his practice secured to himself and his adopted system the confidence of the community.

After attending a course of lectures in the Homœopathic Medical College of Pennsylvania, in Philadelphia, in 1852, and receiving a diploma, he left Towanda, went to Illinois, and settled in Lanark, on the line of the Western Union Railroad. From there he removed to Wheaton, in the same State.

He has served as Treasurer, Recording Secretary, and President of the Illinois State Medical Association of Homœopathy, and has contributed papers of much value to the medical journals.

In 1869, he received the appointment to the Chair of Clinical and Medical Surgery in the Hahnemann Medical College of Chicago, and, in 1870, to that of special Pathology and Diagnosis, which position he fills with credit to himself and the institution.

He has been a member of the American Institute of Homœopathy since 1867. For near eight and twenty years, Dr. Pratt has worked earnestly and effectively as an unflinching champion of homœopathy. He is a man of a liberal and essentially practical mind ; skilful and reliable, and possessing that power, which knowledge and experience give, of inspiring at once confidence and respect.

May E Pratt wife of S Milton Pratt

a lady of unusual mental powers and rare womanly qualities, has thoroughly qualified herself as a physician ; is now engaged with her husband in the practice of medicine, and has added materially to the popularity of homœopathy in the communities where they have resided.

Mildred Pratt nurse Homeopathic Hosital.

S Milton Pratt 1835 -

of Hiawatha, Kan., was born at Waterbury, Vt., on December 2nd, 1835, and is descended from old New England families that came over in the Mayflower. When he was ten years old, his parents removed to Bureau county, Ills., where his preliminary education was completed, and the study of languages commenced under the superintendence of a private tutor.

In 1849, homœopathy was first introduced in that section by Dr. Z. B. Nichols, now of Faribault, Minn., and his parents, who had always entertained an antipathy to the old system of medicine, were among the first to embrace the new faith.

In 1853, his parents again emigrated, going further West, and settling in River Falls, Wis., of the Academy of which place the subject of this sketch at once became a student. He therefore enjoyed remarkably good educational privileges.

In the fall of 1857, he commenced the acquisition of a knowledge of medicine under the guidance of his uncle, the late Dr. R. B. Clarke, at Racine, Wis. Having under this physician’s care sufficiently prepared himself for attending lectures, he matriculated at the Homœopathic Medical College of Missouri, becoming the student of Professor William Todd Helmuth.

Under the inspiration of that brilliant and enthusiastic teacher he gave special attention to the study of anatomy, and attained singular proficiency as an anatomist. He graduated with marked distinction in March, 1861, and at once commenced practice at Dover, Bureau county, Ills. In June of the following year, he entered the service of the United States as Assistant Surgeon at the General Hospital at Mound City, then under the charge of Professor E. C. Franklin. He resigned in the ensuing November, and returned to private practice.

In August, 1864, he was married to May E., daughter of William Martin, one of the earliest and best known residents of Northern Illinois. Since marriage, Mrs. Pratt, a lady of unusual mental powers and rare womanly qualities, has thoroughly qualified herself as a physician ; is now engaged with her husband in the practice of medicine, and has added materially to the popularity of homœopathy in the communities where they have resided.

In the fall of 1870, Dr. Pratt, whose success as an anatomist while a student indicated his peculiar fitness for the position, was offered the Chair of Anatomy in the Homœopathic Medical College of Missouri, and, although contemplating a removal to Kansas, he accepted the appointment for one session, during which he afforded ample evidence of its judiciousness. His lectures proved of great value and interest, while with both the faculty and the students he won popularity and respect.

The removal to Kansas occurred in the ensuing spring, and with his most efficient helpmeet, Dr. Pratt settled at Hiawatha, where he still resides, where he has acquired considerable landed interests, and where he and Mrs. Pratt have a large and growing practice.

Trimble Pratt 1844 -

of Media, Pennsylvania, was born May 27, 1844, in Chester county, Pennsylvania, son of Enos Lewis and Lydia (Trimble) Pratt.

His literary education was received at the West Chester Academy, under the principalship of Dr. Wires. He was graduated from Eastman’s Business College of Poughkeepsie, New York, in business forms and penmanship, after which he taught in public school prior to commencing his medical studies.

He was trained for the practice of his profession at Hahnemann Medical College of Philadelphia, graduating from that institution in 1870 with the degree of M. D. Dr. Pratt is a member of the American Institute of Homœopathy, the Tri-County Homœopathic Medical Society, the Delaware County Homœopathic, Medical Society and the Organon Club of Chester, Pennsylvania.

William Madison Pratt 1831 -** **

[of New York, was born at Fabius, Onondaga county, N. Y., on July 4th,

1831. He was raised on a farm, to which circumstance he attributes the constitution which has enabled him to endure](http://homeoint.org/history/bio/p/prattwm.htm), without injury to his health, the arduous duties and severe exposures incident to the life of a physician.

He received a sound, even liberal education, partly at Pompey Academy, New York, and partly at the Eclectic Institute, Hiram, O. He began life by teaching in the public schools in central New York, for three years, after which, in 1854, he entered the office of Dr. Lewis McCarty, of Throopsville, Cayuga county, N. Y. With that physician he remained for three years, acquiring a valuable insight into the theory and practice of medicine, and giving promise of future excellence in his chosen profession.

He removed to New York city, in 1857, and continued his studies in the office of Dr. E. M. Kellogg for one year, attending, at the same time, a course of lectures, at the New York Medical College (allopathic).

In 1858, he accepted an offer from Dr. J. T. Evans, of New York, to become his assistant in a very large and lucrative practice. He remained with him, enjoying the benefits of his wide experience and valuable clinical instruction, till he graduated at the New York Homœopathic Medical College, in 1861.

After graduating, he began practice on his own account, and has gradually worked up in the great metropolis, where he still continues to reside, an extensive and remunerative practice.

Such a fact speaks volumes for Dr. Pratt’s attainments and skill. It is very seldom that an inferior physician succeeds in securing any considerable patronage in a city like New York. Dr. Pratt has been a very successful practitioner, and his gentlemanly hearing, pleasant manners and general culture make him popular alike with patients and general society.

He was married to Frances H. Smith, of New York, in 1861.