Bio
John Bratt was born on August 9, 1842, in Leek, Staffordshire, England. He started his career as a merchant’s apprentice at age 12 and opened his own general store in Manchester by 18. At 21, Bratt immigrated to America, arriving in New York in 1864 and later moving to Chicago. That same year, he survived a shipwreck in the Gulf of Mexico, losing all his belongings.
In 1865, Bratt moved to Nebraska City, where he began working as a bullwhacker for an ox-team freighting company. Four years later, he became a bookkeeper for the Coe and Carter Cattle Company, which managed large herds in the Lincoln County area. Bratt quickly advanced, becoming the company’s general foreman. In 1870, he formed John Bratt and Company with Isaac Coe and Levi Carter, managing between 10,000 and 15,000 cattle across the Platte River region. His home ranch was near North Platte, Nebraska.
As homesteaders began settling on the open range, Bratt retired from ranching and shifted to running stockyards, buying and selling cattle, and operating a meat market in North Platte. In the early 1900s, he entered the real estate and insurance business with his son-in-law, E.R. Goodman. Bratt also served two terms as North Platte’s mayor and was a Frontier County commissioner in 1872.
His legacy is tied to his pioneering work in Nebraska’s cattle industry and civic leadership.
