| Notes |
- William lived in Pulaski Co., KY. for 15 yrs. then move with his family to
Saliue Co., Mo. in Sept. of 1851.
In May of 1861 he enlisted in the Confed. Army as 1st. Lieut. State Guards of
Mo. under the command of Capt. Gordon, in Col. Graves Reg.
He fought in the battles of Carthage, Lexington, and Oak Hills.
He then went into the Regular Army (Confed.) in Capt. Taylors Co., 6th Reg.
Mo. Infantry as 2nd. Lieut.
He then fought in other battles such as Corinth and Vicksburg.
He was wounded in the left leg, and taken prisoner. The Union Army surgeons
amputated his leg at a hospital at Vicksburg.
It is said in the family that he moved to Dallas Texas because he was no
longer welcome in Mo.
A history of Dallas Texas, "Dallas Yesterday", has the following written about
him and his son Hugh E. Prather:
The development of Highland Park (Dallas, TX.) began in 1907 and was completed
with the opening of Highland Park West in 1924.
The Prather family had the most continueing role, beginning with Capt. William
Harrison Prather (nick named "Shorty" due to the loss of the lower part of one
leg) and continued by his son Hugh E. Prather.
William H. Prather was an early-day Dallas real estate man from Columbia, Mo.
who arrived toward the close of the Civil War as a wounded Confed. veteran.
He shortly married Anne Elizabeth Edmondson, daughter of William Terry
Edmondson who had brought his family by covered wagon from Tennessee and in
1851 installed a grist mill in what was then the town of Cedar Springs
(present Oak Lawn addition of Dallas, Tx.). The grist mill stone was made in
and imported from France.
When Capt. William H. Prather arrived in the small town of Dallas, he had been
seriously wounded in battle in Miss. The Union Army surgeons amputated a
mangled leg in a hospital in Vicksburg. When released as a disabled veteran,
Capt. Prather made his way to Texas in a buggy drawn by two horses. He drove
up before a well-known boarding house of the day on North Akard (Dallas,Tx.)
where the proprietress, a large, rawboned woman, appeared on the second-story
front balcony. From the buggy seat he asked for board and lodging.
"Young man", said the proprietress rather pointedly, "here in the South a
gentlaman always stands when speaking to a lady". The figure in the
Confederate uniform made no answer except to draw back the lap robe disclosing
his wounded condition, whereupon the boarding house lady came out to the buggy
and carried the young soldier in her arms into the house where he was accorded
full hospitality.
Between the opening of the first 100-acre section of Highland Park and the
opening of Highland Park West in 1924, Highland Park was incorporated (in
1913), grew much to its present population of more than 20.000 and with
University Park formed one of the best public school systems in the nation.
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The Dallas Bride, a historic bridge which spanned the Brazos at Waco, had
several personalities identified with its building.
The best remembered, of course, was the principal backer of the project, the
remarkable woman capitalist Sarah Horton Cockrell, the widow of Alexander
Cockrell, who ranks with John Neely Bryan as one of the real founders of
Dallas.
Mrs. Cockrell was granted a charter by the Texas Legislature on Feb. 9, 1860,
to form the Dallas Bridge Company, but it was not until 5 years after the
Civil War that the Corporation was able to set the project in motion. Mrs.
Cockrell did not even serve on the board of directors.
Her officers were Dr. J. W. Crowdus, President, and George M. Swink secretary,
with John Neely bryan, A.C. Camp and William H. Prather as other directors.
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Prater/Prather Genealogy* 120,000+ Family Members
1836 - 1893 (56 years)