Charles Pratt

Charles Pratt (October 2, 1830 – May 4, 1891) was an American businessman and philanthropist.

Pratt was a pioneer of the U.S. petroleum industry, and established his kerosene refinery Astral Oil Works in Brooklyn, New York. He then lived with his growing family in Clinton Hill, Brooklyn. An advertising slogan was "The holy lamps of Tibet are primed with Astral Oil." He recruited Henry H. Rogers into his business, forming Charles Pratt and Company in 1867. Seven years later, Pratt and Rogers agreed to join John D. Rockefeller's Standard Oil.

An advocate of education, Pratt founded and endowed the Pratt Institute in Brooklyn, now a renowned art college. He and his children built country estates in Glen Cove, New York, developments in what became known as the Gold Coast in the 1920s on the North Shore of Long Island. In 1916, Standard Oil had a steamship tanker, first of its class, built at Newport News, Virginia and named it in honor of Pratt after his death.

Early life and education

Charles Pratt (disambiguation)

Charles Pratt (1830–1891) was an American businessman and philanthropist.

Charles Pratt may also refer to:

Charles Pratt (Askenootow)

Charles Cowley Pratt (1816–1888), also known as Askenootow which means Worker of the earth in Cree, was an interpreter at the Treaty 4 negotiations at Fort Qu'Appelle in 1874 and 1875.

Pratt was born in 1816 in the Qu'Appelle Valley, and was a member of a Cree-Assiniboine tribe. He attended the Church Missionary Society (CMS) school, which had been established by the Revd. John West in what was then known as the Red River Colony in what is now the province of Manitoba. He attended school with Henry Budd and James Settee. He was given the name Charles Pratt in 1823 after he was baptized into the Church of England. He then became a catechist and lay preacher for the Church of England. He also worked as a boatman for the Hudson's Bay Company.

Pratt went on to work as a school teacher on the Gordon Indian Reserve in 1876 until his death in 1888.

References

Charles Pratt (rower)

Charles Pratt (15 July 1911 – 24 February 1996) was a Canadian rower who competed in the 1932 Summer Olympics.

References