Zadock Pratt

Zadock Pratt Jr. ( born October 30, 1790 in Stephentown, Rensselaer County, New York, † April 6, 1871 in Bergen, New Jersey ) was an American politician. Between 1837 and 1845 he represented two-time New York State in the U.S. House of Representatives.

Career

Zadock Pratt received only a limited education. Later he went into the Gerber Commercial. In Greene County, he ran one of the largest tanneries worldwide. He also founded the city of Prattville. Between 1819 and 1823 he was a member of the militia of the State of New York. In 1824, he worked in his home as a justice of the peace. In 1827 he was mayor ( Town Supervisor) in Windham. Politically, he joined the Democratic Party. In 1830 he was a member of the Senate from New York.

In the congressional elections of 1836 Pratt was the first seat in the eighth electoral district of New York in the U.S. House of Representatives in Washington DC chosen, where he took up his new mandate on March 4, 1837. Until March 3, 1839, he was able to complete a term in Congress. In the 1842 elections, he was elected to the U.S. House of Representatives again in the eleventh district of his state, where he could spend another term of between 4 March 1843 to 3 March 1845. During this time he was chairman of the Committee on public properties. This period was characterized by the tensions between President John Tyler and the Whigs. It was also at that time already been discussed about a possible annexation of the independent Republic of Texas since 1836 by Mexico. These debates led immediately after Pratt's retirement from Congress for Mexican-American War.

After the end of his time in the U.S. House of Representatives Zadock Pratt worked again in the tanning trade. He also went into the banking industry. In addition, he was also involved in agriculture. In June 1852 he was a delegate to the Democratic National Convention in part in Baltimore, was nominated on the Franklin Pierce as a presidential candidate. In the later large-scale entrepreneur Jay Gould began working for him in one of his tanneries. For some time the two were business partners. In 1860, Pratt retired from the business. He died on 6 April 1871 in Bergen. Overall, he was married five times, but only had two children from a marriage.