Background
He was born on July 20, 1799 in Temple, New Hampshire, United States, the fourth son of Edward Pratt, a typical Yankee farmer, and Asenath (Flint) Pratt.
He was born on July 20, 1799 in Temple, New Hampshire, United States, the fourth son of Edward Pratt, a typical Yankee farmer, and Asenath (Flint) Pratt.
After attending school for a short time, Daniel served an apprenticeship as a carpenter.
The University of Alabama in 1846 conferred on him the degree of master of mechanic and useful arts.
At the age of twenty he sailed for Savannah, Georgia. Leaving there in 1821, he went to Milledgeville, then the capital of the state, where for ten years he worked at his trade. He then moved to Clinton, Georgia, and took charge of a cotton-gin factory belonging to Samuel Griswold, a year later becoming a partner.
He went to Autauga County, where in 1838 he established himself twelve miles north of Montgomery, the settlement being named Prattville. He first erected a grist mill and a lumber and shingle mill; to these he soon added a cotton-gin plant, which gained such a reputation that its product was exhibited in England. The business shortly increased to such an extent as to warrant a warehouse in New Orleans. Subsequently Pratt built a cotton mill of 2, 800 spindles and a hundred looms, a woolen mill, a foundry, a carriage factory, a tinshop, and a mercantile establishment. In 1858 these properties were capitalized at more than $519, 000.
He was elected to the state House of Representatives in 1860 and he served throughout the Civil War. He took a great interest in railroads and became a director of the North & South railway, now a portion of the Louisville & Nashville system.
Through Henry F. De Bardeleben, who married his second daughter, Ellen, Pratt, the year before his death, invested in the Red Mountain Iron & Coal Company and controlled the Oxmoor iron furnaces in the new Birmingham industrial district. He furnished most of the money for the enterprise and De Bardeleben became its superintendent. In his honor the great vein of coal west of the new town of Birmingham was named the Pratt Seam. His plants were the pride and admiration of all.
He died just as the Birmingham district was developing and left his son-in-law the capital which made him the most imposing figure in Alabama's iron and coal history.
Although a New Englander and opposed to secession he was an ardent Southerner in sympathies, organizing and equipping the "Prattville Dragoons" for the Confederate service.
He married Esther Ticknor, also of New England, by whom he had three daughters.