Ralph Joseph Pratt

Ralph Joseph Pratt.  Researched and written by Camille Arbogast.

Ralph Joseph Pratt was born in Sherbrooke, Quebec, Canada, the son of Peter Onesime and Lucy (Garand) Pratt. He used multiple birth dates during his life: December 18, 1892, December 14, 1893, and December 18, 1894. He had seven older siblings: Thomas Oliver, Anna, Arthur, Georginna, Veronica, Ursula, and Ida.

His oldest brother Thomas arrived in Boston first, in 1892. The rest of the family followed, arriving in the United States in April 1896. In the late 1890s the family lived on Buttonwood Street in Dorchester, at number 6 in 1898, and at 29 in 1899. Peter was a watchman; later he worked as a railroad brakeman. By 1900, the Pratts lived at 810 Dorchester Avenue, where Ralph spent the rest of his childhood. He attended one year of high school, according to the 1940 census. By 1917, he was a machinist with the S.A. Woods Machine Company of Damrell Street, South Boston, which made industrial woodworking machinery, such as planers and molders.

Ralph enlisted in the U. S. Navy Reserve on June 5, 1917, serving as a machinist mate 2nd class. He began active service on August 30, 1917, and was stationed on the USS Covington, a transport ship. It appears Ralph may have been injured or ill; on February 15, 1918, he entered the Navy Hospital in New York, where he remained until March 13, when he moved to the Chelsea Naval Hospital.

On May 9, 1918, Ralph returned to the Covington, resuming voyages between Hoboken, New Jersey, and Brest, France, delivering soldiers to Europe. On July 1, at 9:12 p.m., shortly after departing Brest, the ship was torpedoed. The German U-boat U-86 fired upon the ship without warning, striking “below her forward smokestack [blowing] open the ship’s forward boiler room.” Six men were killed. The ship was traveling in convoy and the rest of the crew, including Ralph, were able to board destroyers, which carried them back to port. On July 27, the Boston Globe carried a short notice that Ralph and two other Dorchester men who had served on the ship, were “safely in France, according to a letter received yesterday” by one sailor’s mother. “The boys were on the Covington at the time of the disaster, and the letter yesterday is the first news of their whereabouts.”

Though the Covington was scuttled on July 2, Ralph’s service record lists his service in the ship’s crew ending July 14. He was stationed on the patrol ship USS Carola until July 25, then on the destroyer USS Roe. On August 13, he entered Navy Base Hospital #5 in Brest, where he remained until August 21, when he returned to the Roe. On September 12 he was assigned to the destroyer tender USS Bridgeport, which was based at Brest until fall 1919, serving as a repair ship. Ralph was released from active duty on July 3, 1919, and given an honorable discharge on June 4, 1921. Later he was a member of the Disabled American Veterans, Chapter Number 44.

On June 4, 1919, Ralph married Mary Anita Snow, who went by Anita. Anita was the daughter of dry goods merchant Parke Snow, namesake of the 20th century Massachusetts department store chain. The Snows lived at 237 Savin Hill Avenue. Ralph and Anita were married by Reverend John J. Donegan at Saint William’s Church in Dorchester. They had six children: Ralph, Laura, Anita, Doris, George, and Leo.

Initially, they lived in Dorchester at 11 Rosemont Road Northwest (today’s Sermont Road) and Ralph continued working as a machinist. The 1922 Boston directory listed Ralph as a student. Afterwards, he was employed as a salesman, eventually with an optical company. In 1924, the Pratts moved to Quincy, where they lived first at 11 Linden Street, then, in 1927, at 67 Willow Avenue. By 1929, they had purchased 81 Willow Avenue, a home valued at $7,300. Ralph was possibly the Ralph J. Pratt, timekeeper, of Wollaston, who filed for bankruptcy in 1936. In 1940, the Pratts were living in Anita’s family home, 237 Savin Hill Avenue. Ralph had been out of work 90 weeks and had not worked at all in 1939, though he had income from other sources. He was employed again by 1942, working for General Electric in Lynn, Massachusetts.

Ralph died on December 19, 1948. A Solemn High Funeral Mass was celebrated for him at Saint William’s Church. He was buried on Grapevine Path in Mount Auburn Cemetery in Cambridge, Massachusetts.

Sources

World War I Selective Service System Draft Registration Cards, 1917-1918. Washington, D.C.: National Archives and Records Administration; Ancestry.com

Applications for Headstones, Records of the Office of the Quartermaster General, 1774–1985, National Archives and Records Administration, Washington, D.C; Ancestry.com

Selective Service Registration Cards, World War II: Fourth Registration. Records of the Selective Service System, National Archives and Records Administration; Ancestry.com

Family Tree; Ancestry.com

Naturalization Records, National Archives at Boston, Waltham, MA; Ancestry.com

1900, 1910, 1920, 1930, 1940 U.S. Federal Census; Ancestry.com

Service Record.

“USS Covington (ID-1409),” Wikipedia.org. Last edited 30 July 2020. <https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/USS_Covington_(ID-1409)>

“Sinking of the USS Covington (ID #1409),” Naval History and Heritage Command, U.S. Navy; History.Navy.Mil

“Huns Torpedo U.S. Transport Covington; American Fliers Down German Planes,” Washington Herald (Washington, D.C.), 6 July 1918: 1; Newspapers.com

“Dorchester District,” Boston Globe, 27 July 1918: 3; Newspapers.com

“USS Bridgeport,” Wikipedia.org, last edited 13 August 2020. <https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/USS_Bridgeport_(AD-10)>

Marriage Record, “Massachusetts State Vital Records, 1841-1920,” FamilySearch.org

“From Cracker Barrel to 11-Store Chain, Parke Snow Saga,” Boston Globe, 18 June 1958; Ancestry.com

Boston and Quincy, Massachusetts, directories, various years; Ancestry.com

[no headline], Boston Globe, 30 June 1936: 13; Newspapers.com

“United States, Veterans Administration Master Index, 1917-1940,” Military Service, NARA microfilm publication, St. Louis: National Archives and Records Administration, 1985, FamilySearch.org

Death Notices, Boston Globe, 20 December 1948: 14; Newspapers.com

Ralph Joseph Pratt, FindAGrave.com

 

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Posted on

April 9, 2022

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