Sereno Stansbury Pratt

Background

He was born on March 12, 1858 at Westmoreland, Herkimer County, New York, United States. His father was Enfield Loring Pratt, a Vermonter, and his mother, Mary E. Jessup of Honesdale. Pratt grew to manhood in Burlington, Vermont.

Education

In Burlington, Vermont he graduated from high school and at sixteen matriculated at the University of Vermont. Here he remained two years gaining honors in English but left in 1876.

Career

He joined the staff of the St. Albans (Vermont) Advertiser in 1876, was soon made its editor, and then became political reporter of the Montpelier Argus and Patriot. In 1878 he obtained a position with the New York Daily Commercial Bulletin and also wrote articles for the New York Journal of Commerce. From this time dated his interest in financial and economic questions.

Later, he became the Wall Street reporter for the New York World; in 1885 New York correspondent of the Baltimore Sun; from 1887 to 1902 manager of the New York office of the Philadelphia Public Ledger; and in 1903 financial editor of the New York Times. Later in 1903 he was made associate editor of the Wall Street Journal and from 1905 to 1908 he was its editor-in-chief.

In December 1908 he was elected to the secretaryship of the Chamber of Commerce of the state of New York. This position, which he filled until the time of his death, he regarded as the culminating point in his career. He worked unceasingly to enlarge the scope of the Chamber's activities.

His fame as a writer rests upon his book, The Work of Wall Street, which appeared in January 1903. He also wrote several magazine articles chiefly on banking and financial topics, which appeared in the World's Work (1903 - 07) and in the Independent (1904 - 05).

He died in 1915 at Troy, New York.

Achievements

• Sereno Stansbury Pratt was well-known as the secretar Chamber of Commerce of the state of New York, where he started the publication of its monthly Bulletin in May 1909, brought about the appointment of its Committee on Arbitration. He also was the author of The Work of Wall Street, it was immediately acclaimed in economic circles as the best description of the functioning of the New York stock and money market and continued to be regarded as the most authoritative treatise of its kind.

Works

More photos

• book

  • The Work of Wall Street, an Account of the Functions, Methods and History of the New York Money and Stock Markets;

    ( This work has been selected by scholars as being cultur...)

  • Finance and Commerce, Their Relation to International Good Will: International Conciliation, No. 50, January, 1912

    (Additional Contributors Are Thomas F. Woodlock And George...)

Religion

Pratt was an Episcopalian and a member of the Masonic order.

Views

Pratt did not attempt to defend or criticize the Wall-Street system but confined himself to an impartial statement of fact concerning its modus operandi.

Personality

He was a tall, lean man with black hair and a serious scholarly face. Genial in disposition, he had great tact and courtly manners. His conspicuous fairness made him popular with the leading financiers of the day.

Quotes from others about the person

• Henry Clews termed him "the most honest man in Wall Street. "

Connections

On October 19, 1882, he married Ada Stuart Bryden of Wellsboro, who bore him a son and two daughters.

Father:

Enfield Loring Pratt

Mother:

Mary E. Jessup

Spouse:

Ada Stuart Bryden