“Bill Pratt also had a new interest besides teaching, and that was Louise Johnson. Edward Johnson [Louise’s father] the current head of the family, had earned a fortune in railroad financing and construction and then turned to banking in Belfast…After returning to Annapolis, [Bill] began an epistolary campaign to win her. Little did he know that he was commencing a seven-year siege.”
Louise was “…a tiny woman, she danced well, was a good conversationalist, and possessed a sense of humor. She had been well enough educated in private schools to know how to interest a wide range of men. She carried on a very proper correspondence…”
“At leave’s end, Bill Pratt returned to Annapolis with a singing heart – he would marry Louise in the spring.” They were married in April. The photographs in this collection were taken by Henry L. Rand when Louise had been married a year and was visiting her family at the “Homestead” on Primrose Hill in Belfast, Maine.
“Admiral William Veazie Pratt, U.S. Navy: A Sailor’s Life” by Gerald E. Wheeler, Published by Naval History Division, Department of the Navy, Washington, D.C., p. 28-29, 44, 56, Chapter, “Primrose Hill” p. 377-419, 1974. A lively account of what it was like to rise in the United States Navy at the beginning of the twentieth century. Louise Miller (Johnson) Pratt is mentioned many times in the book as is her family and their homes on Primrose Hill in Belfast.
William’s naval career took Louise and William Pratt all over the world. They entertained for the navy and led a cosmopolitan life, but their home base was in Belfast at one or another of the Johnson houses on Church and High Streets.
