Pratt-Kirk Company

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Pratt-Kirk veneer and lumber manufacturers at Essex and Indiana streets in 1904.
The Pratt-Kirk Company, or Pratt & Montgomery Co. as it was originally known, was a wood-milling and lumber-manufacturing firm in Licking County in the late nineteenth and early twentieth centuries. The primary force behind the company was Perry L. Pratt, a native of Granville. At its height, the company filled orders across the eastern half of the country from Chicago to New York, a testament to it superior quality veneers. [1]

The Pratt family had generational ties to the lumber industry; Moses Pratt, P.L Pratt's grandfather, moved to Ohio from Vermont and built a sawmill. His father, George, owned a sawmill and lumber business, but expanded into furniture manufacturing. Perry would carry on the family tradition. [2] The company was originally known as the Pratt & Montgomery of Granville, Ohio by 1894 when Wesley Montgomery was Pratt's partner. In Granville, the firm had a very positive reputation for its timely completion of work and high-quality products. [3] Citing a lack of suitable facilities sin Granville, the company relocated to Newark in 1896, but, like other companies such as the E.T. Rugg Company, it was enticed to Newark in part by the city's Board of Trade [4]

The company moved to a site in the Heisey addition of East Newark at the corner of Indiana and Essex. The facility covered 21,300 square feet and employed up to 75 workers. [5] Montgomery and Pratt dissolved their partnership in January 1904 when Wesley Montgomery retired. The company rebranded as the Pratt-Kirk Company with H.L Kirk serving as the general manager and Perry Pratt as President. [6] The company specialized in wood veneers and finishes for office spaces, especially veneered doors. [7] Perry Pratt left the company in May 1910 to work at a larger firm in Pittsburgh. [8]

Pratt-Kirk Company in 1911 when the firm's fortunes began to decline.

The company did not prove as successful without Pratt at the helm; Pratt-Kirk had closed by July 1915 as the Newark Board of Trade looked for replacement firms to use its space. [9]

J.G.

References

  1. ↑ Photographic History of Newark and Licking County, (1904); Newark Daily Advocate, Aug. 11, 1900, 12.
  2. ↑ Brister, E., Centennial History of the City of Newark and Licking County, Ohio, (1909), 621
  3. ↑ Brister, E., Centennial History of the City of Newark and Licking County, Ohio, (1909), 622; Granville Times, (Apr. 16, 1896), 5.
  4. ↑ "Municipal Enterprises," Granville Times, Nov. 21, 1895
  5. ↑ Newark Daily Advocate, Aug. 11, 1900, 1.
  6. ↑ The Newark Advocate, Jan. 11, 1904, 2; Photographic History of Newark and Licking County, (1904)
  7. ↑ Spencer, C. "industrial Newark," The Ohio magazine. (1907), 55
  8. ↑ Granville Times, May 12, 1910, 2
  9. ↑ The Newark Advocate, Jul. 15, 1915, 2
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