FOUNDING BROTHERS
According to Lodge records, the first regular communication of Prattville Lodge
No. 89 took place on March 13, 1848. Present at this regular communication were
the following, L. Spigener (WM), J.P. Parham (SW), Amos Smith (JW), and C. Krout
(Secretary). These brothers met under dispensation from The Most Worshipful
Grand Lodge of Free and Accepted Masons of Alabama. The dispensation was granted
to Llewellyn Spigener, Caseman Krout, E. Woodruff, Josiah C. Richards, Amos
Smith, William Camack, Daniel Pratt, and Jesse P. Parham. The dispensation was
signed on December 9, 1847 by R. Greene (Grand Master), Amand P. Pfister (Grand
Secretary).
The following are brief biographies of some the brothers who were granted
dispensation, and later a charter, for Prattville Lodge No. 89.
It is not my intent to give a detailed account of the lives of each of these
men; only to introduce the reader, through a brief synopsis of each, to who
these brethren were and what type of men founded our lodge. This information
comes from various sources, such as, Lodge records, the Prattville-Autauga
Library Alabama Room, Census data, the Internet, and files from the Autauga
County Historical Society; all of which were compiled by me and various other
people. I have taken mine and their extensive research and compiled these brief
biographies.
SPIGENER SMITH PRATT
KROUT RICHARDS CAMACK
PARHAM
LLEWELLYN SPIGENER
Llewellyn Spigener was born near Columbia, South Carolina, in 1812. His wife was
Mary Elvira Ramsey and she was born near La Grange, Georgia. Llewellyn Spigener
served an apprenticeship of four years to a wheelwright at Columbia, S. C., and
soon after reaching his majority came to Alabama and engaged at his business in
Washington (Autauga County) where he lived until Prattville was founded when he
moved to a new town and in conjunction with his trade, carried on farming. Later
he became traveling agent for the Pratt Gin company. He filled that position
both before and after the war.
According to the 1850 Census of Alabama, Llewellyn (who is listed as Huelyn) was
a 38 year old carriage maker, who lived in the Washington Beat, Autauga County,
along with his wife Mary (25) and their new born son George C (0). According to
the 1860 Census of Alabama, Llewellyn lived in the Kingston Beat, and is listed
as a Farmer along with his wife, two sons (George, 11, and Leulen, 8) and his
two daughters (Mary, 9, and Helen, 6).
Llewellyn was once town marshal and, during the period of hostilities, was tax
assessor of the county. Llewellyn was elected the very First Worshipful Master
of Prattville Lodge of No. 89 on December 11, 1848 at the lodge�s regular
communication. He was installed as the Worshipful Master on December 25, 1848.
Llewellyn Spigener was also a Royal Arch Mason. He served as Worshipful Master
of Prattville Lodge No. 89 in 1848-1850, 1852-1855, 1861-1864, 1866-1867, 1873,
1877-1878, and finally 1881-1883. He died on September 25, 1887.
Llewellyn Spigener had three brothers, Samuel, Joel and William, who lived and
died in Coosa County. His son George Cook Spigener (born in 1849) was sheriff of
Autauga County (1880-84) and (1892). George is also a Past Master of Prattville
Lodge No. 89. George served as Worshipful Master in 1884, 1886, and finally
1902-1906. Lodge records also show that his brothers were active participants in
the lodge serving in different capacities as Pro Tem officers and as visitors.
AMOS SMITH
According to lodge records, Amos Smith was one of the original eight Master
Masons granted dispensation by the Grand Lodge of Alabama, on December 9, 1847,
to form Prattville Lodge No. 89. Amos Smith is listed in the Lodge�s very first
regular communication, dated March 13, 1848, as the Junior Warden. Amos is even
present on December 11, 1848, the first time Prattville Lodge is opened under
charter from the Grand Lodge and where the first elected officers of the lodge
where chosen.
Amos Smith was born on December 16, 1797 in Brentwood, New Hampshire. He
attended school in Brentwood and Exeter and helped around the family farm. At an
early age he realized his interest in machinery and went to Meridian, New
Hampshire to work. There he met his wife Eliza Littlefield and married her. They
had five children: Elizabeth Smith, George L. Smith, Mary Smith, Sarah Smith,
and Daniel Smith.
Amos became expert in making mechanical things work, and he was soon delivering
and setting in operation machines of all kinds. Many times he went to La Grange
and Chilton Georgia, to New Orleans and Mobile, Alabama. In January of 1837, he
came to Autauga County to deliver a machine for sawing shingles to Mr. Elba N.
Coe. It was at this time that he me Daniel Pratt, who was planning to build a
grist mill. Daniel Pratt was impressed with Amos� ability and ordered machinery
to be installed in his new mill. Daniel Pratt was so pleased that Mr. Pratt
asked Amos to take charge of the mill for a year. The business was located at
the NcNeil placed, but was soon moved to a new location, recently purchased by
Mr. Pratt. Amos immediately had the distance measured to the little town of
Washington on the Alabama River, and arranged to have milepost placed along the
way. The place had been called Pratt�s Mill and William Ormsby was about to
letter the posts when Amos suggested �Prattville� would be more appropriate.
William Ormsby conferred with Mr. Pratt, who agreed and that is how Prattville
got its name.
At the end of the year, Mr. Pratt proposed to Amos a partnership with him and
his two brothers-in-law, the Messers and the Tickners to last five years
commencing on January 1840. At the end of that time they agreed on five more
years. This is when Amos Smith finally moved his family to Prattville to Mulbry
-Mulberry- Cottage (which is now the home of the Autauga County Heritage
Association next to City Hall.) In January of 1848, Amos purchased the
plantation home 1 15/16 miles from the Pratt Gin Shop from Mr. Steven Sheldon.
After repairs from a tornado and many additions, the family moved into the home
on December 28, 1848. Eliza, his wife, called the location of the home Mt. Airy.
Amos� family, along with many others from Prattville, did much traveling north
since most of them came from eastern states. The usual trip was made to Savannah
by carriage, by stage and by �the cars�, then by ship to Philadelphia and then
by ship to New York and Boston.
On January 26, 1857, Amos and Eliza, with daughter Sarah and son Daniel, moved
to Philadelphia, Pennsylvania, leaving daughter Libby and her family, son George
and his family. The Amos family was happy living in Philadelphia, first on
Targara Street, while Amos conducted business in Morristown. Later they moved to
Melrose Park. On May 5, 1897, just seven months before his 100th birthday, Amos
Smith died at his home. Amos was a member of Bethlehem Presbyterian Church,
where he was, according to the minister, �the oldest member of the Sunday school
in the United States.�
DANIEL PRATT
Daniel Pratt was born in Temple, New Hampshire in 1799. He was an architect and
builder by trade. He had moved to Georgia in 1819, eventually winding up in
Clinton, Georgia where he managed Samuel Griswold's Gin Factory in 1831. It was
here that Pratt learned the manufacture and sales of cotton gins.
In 1832 he persuaded Griswold to build a branch of the factory in central
Alabama. However, Griswold changed his mind due to Indian uprisings in the area.
Pratt was determined to carry out the plan and purchased material for fifty gins
and in 1833 he, his wife and two servants began their journey to Alabama. He
settled temporarily on Mortar Creek where he assembled and painted the fifty
gins he had brought from Georgia. They sold very quickly to the local planters
and Pratt began to look for a more permanent location. He leased a waterpower
site on Autauga Creek near Washington, known as McNeil's Mill for five years.
For the next five years Pratt produced an average of two hundred gins annually.
Daniel Pratt was determined to expand his facilities, so in the fall of 1835, he
purchased, from Joseph May, the present site of Prattville. The two deciding
factors in the selection were the availability of waterpower for the mills and
the abundance of yellow heart pine for the manufacture of the gins.
Pratt moved the Gin Factory to its present location in 1839 and began to build a
town modeled after New England mill towns. The Pratt Gin Company became the
largest Gin Factory in the world and the demand was so great that in 1854 a new
brick factory was built which had the capacity of 1500 gins annually.
Pratt once stated that his objective was, ��to give employment to as many
operatives as means can justify, and to furnish them with educational and
religious advantages.� He was a man of his word. He built small, comfortable
homes for his workers and provided them with gardens so that they could grow
their own food. He built a Methodist church building at a personal cost of
$20,000 and was responsible for the 1858 construction of the Prattville Male and
Female Academy.
Other industries established in Prattville prior to 1850 that were connected to
Pratt were the sash, door and blind factory, a horse mills factory, machine and
blacksmith shops, a tin manufactory, a wagon manufactory, and a flouring mill.
The sash, door and blind factory supplied articles for the many fine homes in
central and south Alabama. The wagon manufactory became widely known
manufacturing wagons, carts, drays, carriages, and buggies. The horse mills
factory made mills for grinding corn. The tin manufactory made tin roofs,
gutters, cooking utensils and any other kind of tin ware. The flouring mill was
built in 1840 and had the finest machinery available at that time.
The Prattville Manufacturing Company was, next to the gin factory, the most
important factory. It was organized by Pratt and incorporated in 1846. It was to
become one of the most successful cotton and woolen mills in the Antebellum
South. A wooden plank road was built from the site of the new village to the
docks of Washington on the Alabama River. When it came time to erect signs
directing travelers to the new site, the sign painter was about to list the name
as "Pratt's Mill", but Amos Smith suggested the name "Prattville" as more
appropriate for the emerging town. Daniel Pratt agreed and the town had its
name. By 1868 Prattville had long since become the real center of wealth,
population, and business activity in the county. That year the legislature named
it the county seat, leaving Kingston to become nothing more than a ghost town.
Daniel Pratt was unanimously elected the growing town's first mayor, and he
served in that office until his death in 1873.
He was not only Alabama's first industrialist and a member of the Alabama Hall
of Fame; Daniel Pratt was also a Freemason. The lodge's records do not show
where or when Daniel Pratt was first initiated into the Mysteries of Masonry,
but they do show that he was involved in the formation of Prattville Lodge No.
89.
Daniel Pratt was the first elected Treasurer of Prattville Lodge No. 89 when the
very first election was held on December 11, 1848, after the lodge received its
charter from The Most Worshipful Grand Lodge of Free and Accepted Masons of
Alabama on that date. He was installed as the first Treasurer of the lodge on
December 25, 1848.
CASEMAN KROUT
Caseman Krout was a Turpentine Manufacturer who was born in Germany in 1817. He
lived in the Huddleston Beat of Autauga county. Jacob Krout, believed to be his
brother, was also one of the first members of the lodge. Jacob was a Merchant
who was born in Germany in 1820. Jacob's wife was named Nancy, who was born in
South Carolina in 1821. They had a daughter named Mary E., who was born in 1848.
Jacob and Nancy lived in the Pine Flat Beat of Autauga County.
JOSIAH C. RICHARDS
Josiah C. Richards was born in 1797 in North Carolina. He was a Farmer in the
Huddleston Beat of Autauga County. His wife was named Elizabeth. She was also
born in North Carolina in 1797.
WILLIAM CAMACK
William Camack was a Manufacturer who was from New York where he was born in
1806. He lived in the Autaugaville Beat of Autauga County with Mary E. Camack,
who was born in Maryland in 1833, and Susan A. Camack who was born in New York
in 1836.
JESSE P. PARHAM
Jesse P. Parham was a Miller from New Hampshire. He was born in New Hampshire in
1821. He lived in the Vernon Beat of Autauga County with his wife Mary A. from
New Hampshire where she was born in 1819.