Austin Wellington Pratt -AKA Hobo Kelly

One of the six known children of James M. and Ruth (Chickering) Pratt was Austin Wellington Pratt, a tramp known as "Hobo Kelly." He traveled across the county by rail and was arrested many times for vagrancy and/or intoxication.  He was sometimes considered to be insane and was committed to state hospitals in Northampton and Bridgewater a number of times. He claimed to have traveled in other countries throughout the world, and to have made the acquaintance of many powerful political figures, An article published on page 4 of the Springfield Daily Republican of December 2 , 1925  after an arrest at Union Station,  describes this character as possessing a "colorful flow of oratory" and an adeptness at clog dancing.

Austin Wellington Pratt, was born May 4, 1861 in West Brookfield, MA.  He married Elizabeth McArdell in Ware, MA in 1881 and the couple had a son James who died before his fifth birthday, and a daughter Mary Elizabeth, who grew up to marry Walter Potter.  Records also show that a second wife Lizzie Hickie died in 1889 on the same day she gave birth to a stillborn daughter. It is likely that Austin is the Austin W. Pratt who died in Bridgewater in 1934 according to the Massachusetts Death Index, 1901-1980 found on Ancestry.com

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.