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[[File:Pratt kirk 1904.jpg|thumb| 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.  <ref> ''Photographic History of Newark and Licking County'', (1904); ''Newark Daily Advocate'', Aug. 11, 1900, 12. </ref> 

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.
<ref> Brister, E., ''Centennial History of the City of Newark and Licking County, Ohio'', (1909), 621 </ref> 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.  <ref> Brister, E., ''Centennial History of the City of Newark and Licking County, Ohio'', (1909), 622; ''Granville Times'', (Apr. 16, 1896), 5. </ref>  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 <ref> "Municipal Enterprises," ''Granville Times'', Nov. 21, 1895 </ref>  
 
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.  <ref> ''Newark Daily Advocate'', Aug. 11, 1900, 1. </ref> 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. <ref> ''The Newark Advocate'', Jan. 11, 1904, 2; ''Photographic History of Newark and Licking County'', (1904) </ref> The company specialized in wood veneers and finishes for office spaces, especially veneered doors. <ref> Spencer, C. "industrial Newark," ''The Ohio magazine''. (1907), 55 </ref>  
Perry Pratt left the company in May 1910 to work at a larger firm in Pittsburgh. <ref> ''Granville Times'', May 12, 1910, 2 </ref> 
[[File:Pratt kirk 1911.jpg|thumb| 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. <ref> ''The Newark Advocate'', Jul. 15, 1915, 2 </ref>

J.G.

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