Pratt, Morris (d. 1901)

Morris Pratt, the founder of the Morris Pratt Institute, currently the educational arm of the National Spiritualist Association of Churches, was a successful nineteenth-century businessman and Spiritualist. Little is known of his early life, but in 1851, just three years after Spiritualism emerged in the United States, he visited the Lake Mills (New York) Spiritualist Center. The visit launched his interest in psychic phenomena and he soon became a dedicated Spiritualist. Over the years he enjoyed provoking ministers with the phenomena of Spiritualism, and on at least one occasion was arrested and fined for his interruption of a church meeting to argue his position.

In the 1880s, an investment in the Ashland Mine at Iron-wood, Michigan, provided him with a large amount of cash. He had made the investment due to information that had come through a medium from an Indian spirit guide. True to a promise made earlier in his life, he dedicated part of that money to Spiritualism. He constructed a large mansion in Whitewater, Wisconsin, specifically designed to house gatherings for seances and lectures. Dedicated in 1889, the "Temple," as it was known, included classrooms, office space, and dormitories. The main lecture hall could comfortably seat 400 people.

The National Spiritualist Association (later the National Spiritualist Association of Churches ) was founded in 1893, the first national organization representative of Spiritualism's maturing into a religious community. In 1901, the aging Pratt offered the house and property in Whitewater to the association for the purpose of opening an educational institution modeled on the training school that Spiritualist teacher Moses Hull had led for several years in the mid-1890s in Ohio. The association felt financially unable to assume the responsibility, and Pratt incorporated the Morris Pratt Institute separately. Unfortunately, he died on December 2, 1902, before the school could open. Hull assumed control of the corporation the next year and operated the institute for the rest of his life. In spite of some shaky years following the Great Depression, the institute has continued to the present and now serves as the educational arm of the National Spiritualist Association of Churches.

Sources:

Morris Pratt Institute. http://www.morrispratt.org. April 25, 2000.