Notes for William "Skipjack" PRATHER
The Following notes by Gary Benton Prather :
Judge William Prather was born in Frederick County, Maryland. He served in the War of 1812 . He moved from Iredell County, N.C. with others in his family and allied families to Clarks Grant (Clark County,Indiana). He was a school teacher in North Carolina.
He was listed as a Major in the Clark County, Indiana Militia in 1808.
William owned a Mill on Six Mile Creek, 3 miles below Schwarrts. The style of the mill was undershot; it was used for grinding corn. After several ownerships, the mill was operated by John Prather. He made various changes in the old structure. He also added a sawmill; for a number of years, he did a large business. In 1816, William and his family moved to Jennings County, Indiana. There he served as County Judge for 7 years. William was a member of the Methodist-Episcopal Church. The first Methodist sermon preached in Jennings County, Indiana was at Prather's log cabin in 1816 by J. Chitwood, a local preacher. Shortly there after, Russell Bigelow of Ohio organized a church at his house and named Brother Prather as leader. In 1830, William Prather lost his vision.
The information on William's marriages came from Dewey Prather, a grandson, and is related in his family genealogy, which was collected by Sandy Prather Merritt of Barington, Illinois ( circa 1980).
Dewey Prather: Early 1900's (Note: Only part of the following is proven !!)
When William left North Carolina in 1799, after his first two children were born, he traveled to Indiana with Basil, his father and his wife's family, the McCarroll's. Somewhere along the Kentucky and Indiana borders, he took a horse and "slipped away". He went to Breckinridge County (now lower Meade County) and soon "married", possibly his childhood sweetheart, Lucinda Ashcraft. They had a son, Robert ("Bob"), born in 1800 in Kentucky. Lucinda died shortly after and is buried in Ashcraft Cemetery in Brandenburg. William went back to the McCarroll family, with his son Bob (born of Lucinda Ashcraft) at Prather, Indiana, in Clark County, Indiana. He stayed with his wife McCarroll and had several children -- John, Peggy, Cynthia , Rachel, Hiram, Susan, Mary, Bertha, Lettice and William. Around 1832, he started having family problems and left. William and son, Bob and Bob's wife Elizabeth Pleasant went to Magnet , Indiana, which is in Perry County. There William "married" Rebecca VanMeter. He was scalped at English near Magnet, Indiana, but survived. Then William and Rebecca ("Becky") and son Bob and Bob's family canoed up river and up Wolf Creek to Caseyville, now Paynesville, Kentucky. They went about 4 miles below and bought land. He was a farmer and Methodist preacher . He had a son, William Jennings "Bill Jenkins" Prather (born 1833) and Nanny Sue (born 1835) . William was last seen on a boat at Brandenburg, Kentucky, with a load of mules bound for New Orleans. Word got back to Magnet, Indiana, to his wife, Rebecca VanMeter and son Bob that William had jumped boat and was met by two sons from North Vernon, which were his sons by his wife, Lettice McCarroll. Mid-January of 1858, word came that he was seriously ill from expo sure. Later, word came that he had died and for the families to meet the corpse at the boat in Brandenburg, Kentucky, to go to Jeffersonville, Indiana and Prather, Indiana for burial . When the families arrived at Jeffersonville, they learned that the grave hadn't been dug at Prather ,Indiana, so they had a short service at the Livery Stable and told the families they could go home, that they would take his body back to North Vernon, Indiana for burial. I'm sure there must have been some family differences about where should be buried.
In 1863, Lettice McCarroll Prather died and was buried next to William. This is probably what has confused some researchers since husband and wife are buried next to each other. It was probably assumed that no other "wives" existed and, in fact, there legally might have been no other "wives". There is no mention of divorce from Lettice McCarroll and I don't know if dates of "marriages" to Lucinda Ashcraft and Rebecca VanMeter exist in the court houses or if, in fact, they were simply not legally married.
An interesting fact is that William became known as a "Skipjack" around Indiana, which is a word used to describe fish that leap in and out of the water or play on the surface of the water.
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