History of Macon County, Illinois.  With Illustrations Descriptive Of 
Its Scenery, and Biographical Sketches of some of its Prominent Men and 
Pioneers.  Published by Brink, McDonough & Co., Phildelphia, 1880.  
Reproduced through efforts of The Decatur Genealogical Society, 1972. 
pp. 176-177 [Bourbon County].

THOMAS A. PRITCHETT.  Among the gentlemen who have been most prominently 
identified with the interests of the western part of the county, is 
Thomas A. Pritchett, of Niantic.  He is a native of Kentucky, and was 
born in Bourbon county, in the heart of the celebrated blue grass 
region, seven miles from Paris and nine from Lexington, on May 23d, 
1830.  The Pritchett family were early settlers of the state of 
Kentucky.  Esquire Pritchett's father, Wm. Pritchett, was born in one of 
the southern counties, and married Lydia Wilson, a native of Fayette 
county, of the same place.  
        The Wilsons were among the pioneer settlers of the state.  They 
were originally from Maryland, and at an early day located near Bryant's 
Station - the scene of many of bloody conflict between the white 
pioneers and the hostile savages. 
        Thomas A. Pritchett was the seventh of a family of nine children.  
Of these, one died in infancy; the others grew to be men and women.  He 
now has one brother and two sisters living.  His father was a farmer in 
good circumstances, and owned abut three hundred acres of choice land.  
When he was about twelve or fourteen his father died.  The part of 
Kentucky in which he lived was well settled, and for that day had good 
schools. He lived at home until he was about twenty-one, during which 
time he acquired the substantial elements of an education.  On the 
twenty-first of June, 1851, he married Mary E. Ingles, daughter of Wm. 
Ingles, who was born and raised in Bourbon County.  He learned the trade 
of a saddle and harness maker, and from 1853 to 1856 carried on a 
harness and saddle shop at Paris, the county-seat of Bourbon county.  He 
concluded to remove to Illinois, and in May 1856 arrived at Springfield, 
where he remained about a year.  In the spring of 1857 he purchased Sec. 
298 T. 17, R. 1 W., from the Illinois Central railroad company, and at 
once began the work of bringing it under cultivation.
        At that time there were few settlements on the prairie in Niantic 
township.  Improvements had been made along the timber, but the prairie 
lay open and uncultivated.  The Wabash railway had recently been put in 
operation through the western part of the county, and the town of 
Niantic had just begun its growth.
        In 1864 he entered into the mercantile business, which he has 
carried on ever since.  He first started in the business of selling dry 
goods, with which he has since been more or less connected.  He has been 
in business as long a time, consecutively, as any other business man now 
in Niantic.
        He has had nine children, of whom five are now living.  The oldest 
daughter, Clara B., is the wife of James H. Chamberlain.  The others now 
living are - James H., Mamie, Nettie C., and Ada S.  The remaining four 
died in infancy.
        Esquire Pritchett is a man with whom the citizens of his part of 
the county have entrusted with several public positions. He was elected 
justice of the peace in 1860, and has filled that office from that time 
to the present with the exception of a few months, during which time he 
laid down the office voluntarily.  He has made an acceptable magistrate.  
He posseses a thorough knowledge of the legal points usually arising in 
the jurisdiction of a justice of the peace, and has enough ability and 
fairness to apply the law in justice to all parties.
        For the last eight years he has also acted as notary public.  
After the adoption of township organization, he was elected the second 
member of the board of supervisors from Niantic township, filling the 
position during 1862.  He has filled several other offices in the 
township.
        In his political opinions, like most Kentuckians, he was 
originally a member of the Whig party.  After the Whig party went to 
pieces, he became a democrat, voted for Douglas in 1860, the first vote 
for President he cast in this state, ans has been a democrat ever since.  
He is not, however, so strongly devoted to party that he can see no 
excellence in men of opposing views, and in local elections has 
generally cast his vote for the candidate whom he considered best 
qualified for the position.  He is a man whose private character, and 
reputation for honesty and integrity have been above reproach. He has 
been connected with the Christian church for a number of years, and has 
served the church of that denomination at Niantic in the capacity of 
elder.  He is now among the old residents of Niantic township, and with 
its business affairs has probably been as closely connected as any man 
in that part of the country.  He is now carrying on a hardware and 
agricultural store at Niantic, a view of which appears among our 
illustrations of Niantic on another page.

Chamberlain Ingles Pritchett Wilson
=
Lexington-Fayette-KY MD Niatic-Macon-IL Springfield-Sangamon-IL

http://www.rootsweb.com/~kygenweb/kybiog/bourbon/pritchett.ta.txt