James Ozro Pratt’s entry in the 1998 Pratt Directory542 (with square brackets in the original) reads as follows: “JAMES OZRO, 26 Feb 1812, prob. Barnard, Vt., s/o Samuel b. 1772 and Mary (Henry). M. 1837 Almira SLEEPER b. 8 Mar 1813, d/o John and Lydia (DODGE) of Francestown, NH. He d. 23 Aug 1841, age 29; on the same stone w/mother [‘M. H. P.’] at Brookside Cem’y, Chester, Vt. Wife poss. d. bef. 1850 also or her name omitted in fol’g note: ‘In 1850 Francestown (Hillsboro), NH, John and Lydia SLEEPER, both 60, b. NH. Res. w/them was Ellen PRATT, 12, b. NH, prob. d/o James O. and Almira.’”

Rupp’s chapter in the Henry Genealogy clearly reports that James and all his siblings were born in Sterling, not in Barnard, Vt. (as above). I find no entry for James O. Pratt in the published vital records of Sterling, but his siblings Mary Foster Pratt and Samuel Henry Pratt are both listed.543

In 1837 he was an assistant teacher at Hopkins Academy, Hadley, Massachusetts (History of the Hopkins Fund, Grammar School and Academy, in Hadley, p. 143), and may have also taught briefly at the New-Boston Public School in New Hampshire (New Hampshire Annual Register, 1837).. At the time of his early death, in 1841, he was principal of Chester Academy in Vermont (1814-1876) (Aldrich & Holmes, History of Windsor County, Vermont, pp. 681-682). Zadock Thompson's History of Vermont (Gazetteer section, Chester entry, p. 54): "An academy was incorporated, and a building 50 by 40 feet, three stories high, erected in 1814, in the south village. The school is now in a flourishing condition, under the instruction of James O. Pratt."

A testimonial letter under his name was printed in William Balch’s “A Grammar of the English Language (1841), declaring the value of that book in the program of Chester Academy. He is described there as “James O. Pratt, A.M., Principal of Chester (Vt.) Academy.”