Prather, Henry

Born: 1802-11-26 Montgomery County, Maryland

Died: 1869-08-30 Decatur, Illinois

In November 1826, Prather married Elizabeth Ratcliff in Montgomery County, Maryland. Prather was engaged in mercantile pursuits in Philadelphia and Washington, DC, before removing his family to Illinois in 1834. They originally settled in Macoupin County. Elizabeth died in 1835 and two years later, Prather moved to Macon County, where he commenced work as a surveyor and land agent. In September 1838, he remarried to Amanda Oglesby. Two months later, Prather was an unsuccessful Democratic candidate for a special election to the Illinois House of Representatives. Prather went into the meat packing business with J. J. Peddecord, a partnership that lasted until 1849, when Prather joined a company of Macon County residents who went to prospect for gold in California. He remained in California for two years, although the 1850 census lists him back in Macon County, working as a merchant and owning real estate worth $1,000. In 1852, he won election to the Illinois House of Representatives, serving from January 1853 to March 1854. After his term in the House of Representatives, Prather engaged in the hardware trade, entering a partnership with J. R. Gorin. The partnership lasted until 1858, when Prather sold his interest in the venture. In 1860, Prather was working as a pork packer, and had amassed $40,000 in real property and a personal estate valued at $10,000. He died from injuries sustained as a result of being thrown from his buggy.

Obituary, Decatur Republican (IL), 2 September 1869, 7:5; Maryland, U.S., Compiled Marriages, 1655-1850, 29 November 1826, Montgomery County (Provo, UT: Ancestry.com Operations, 2004); Elizabeth Prather Gravestone, Conlee Cemetery, Waverly, IL; Mabel E. Richmond, comp., Centennial History of Decatur and Macon County (Decatur, IL: Decatur Review, 1930), 143, 153; Illinois Statewide Marriage Index, Macon County, 19 September 1838, Illinois State Archives, Springfield, IL; Theodore C. Pease, ed., Illinois Election Returns, 1818-1848, vol. 18 of Collections of the Illinois State Historical Library (Springfield: Illinois State Historical Library, 1923), 326; U.S. Census Office, Seventh Census of the United States (1850), Macon County, IL, 159; John Clayton, comp., The Illinois Fact Book and Historical Almanac, 1673-1968 (Carbondale: Southern Illinois University Press, 1970), 218-19; U.S. Census Office, Eighth Census of the United States (1860), Ward 2, Decatur, Macon County, IL, 56.