The Pratt Migration IV-Asa (Sr)

Asa Pratt (Sr) was my greatx3 grandfather (Moses, Henry, Aaron, Phineas) who was born in Needham, Massachusetts Bay Colony in March of 1757 (baptized 7 May 1758). He was the second of ten children, six of whom were born in Needham.. His family (father Moses, mother Jemima) moved first to nearby Natick, where they had four more children.  They then moved on to Dublin, New Hampshire, about 1770 when Asa would have been about thirteen.

 

He grew to maturity at Dublin. He served as a soldier in the Revolutionary War in 1776, 1777 and 1780. I will cover that service at length in later messages. 

 

At some point he moved from Dublin to Plymouth, Vermont, I don't know why or when. Perhaps it had something to do with his military service. 

 

Asa had three wives, the first being Betty Stanford whom he married in Vermont in October of 1782. They had four children but the first died as an infant. She died in November 1787 when their youngest was but 6 months old.

 

In 1789 Asa went back to Dublin where he married Sarah Bond, daughter of Isaac Bond and Abigail Greenwood of Sherborn, Massachusetts. Sherborn is near Needham and Nantick. Betty was also from Sherborn so they probably knew each other in their Massachusetts days. 

 

 The newlyweds returned to Vermont where Sarah took charge of Betty's three orphans and where she and Asa had three children of their own, including our ancestor Asa (Jr), born in 1798. 

 

The Pratt family lived in a valley in the northern part of the township known as Pinney Hollow. The road that runs along Pinney Hollow Brook through that valley is now called Vermont Route 100A. Just a few miles back up that road is the Coolidge homestead at Plymouth Notch where Vice President Calvin Coolidge got word of President Harding's death and where his father, a notary, administered the Presidential Oath of Office.

 

Sarah died in 1815 (Asa Jr would have been about 12). Later Asa married a woman named Mabel, last name unknown. I know of no children. Asa Sr, Sarah and Mabel are all buried in Plymouth's Five Corners Cemetery.

 

I have looked at the Plymouth area via Google and MicrosoftTerraServer. The sattellite imagery is very poor but the USGS topographic map shows the Five Corners Cemetery nicely. It is in extremely hilly terrain.

 

I can't travel to cemeteries to find the graves of our ancesors like I used to in the '70's, but thanks to the magic of the internet I can visit them today if I can find out where they were buried.

 

NEXT: Asa the soldier.

Emailed Oct.12