Friday, August 5, 2011

Walter Potter and Mary Elizabeth Pratt - Married August 5, 1904

Walter Herbert Potter, son of Augustus N. and Mary (Sampson) Potter, and Mary Elizabeth Pratt, daughter of Austin W. and Elizabeth (McArdell) Pratt, were married at the home of the groom's parents, in West Brookfield, on August 5, 1904 by Rev. Leonard L. Beeman.  The marriage was announced in the August 8, 1904 edition of the Springfield Daily Republican.

Walter worked for the Standard Fishing Rod Company at the time of the marriage and Mary was "at home." [probably with her grandmother Ruth Pratt]  A son Herman was born in 1909. 

Walter was a foreman in a toy factory by the time of the 1910 census and was still doing that work in 1920.  The 1930 census gives his occupation as a painter of buildings, and his 1942 World War II Draft Registration gives his employer as Mc Laurin Jones Company of Brookfield.  He conducted his own business as an interior decorator for 30 years and was a member of the West Brookfield Fire Department, according to his obituary published in 1968.

Mary died in January of 1982 according to the Massachusetts Death Index.  I have been unable to find an obituary.

A possible note of interest  - Mary's father, Austin Wellington Pratt, was also known as "Hobo Kelly."  Newspaper articles from the 1920's describe him as a colorful character and story teller who rode the rails across country and back, and was occasionally jailed or committed to state hospitals.