NJGenWeb ~ Morris County, New Jersey
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NJGenWeb ~ Morris County, New Jersey
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This is one of the oldest families in the country, the immigrant ancestor having been Richard PLATT. His history and that of his descendants is given in "The Platt Lineage." Richard PLATT came to this country in 1638 and landed at New Haven. He had eighty-four acres of land in and around New Haven, including portions of what is now the best part of the Elm City, on the south side of Chapel street. It did not occur to him that real estate in this part of New Haven would be of any particular value in 1914, so he threw in his lot with sixty-five others who set out to found a church and a township nine miles west of New Haven. This settlement received the name of Milford, and is still a quiet New England village, where the Platts have continued to serve as deacons in the church that "Deacon" Richard helped found. Among the coping stones of the memorial bridge built over the Wapawaug river at Milford is one stone that bears the name "Deacon Richard Platt, obit 1684. Mary his wife." We do not know very much about this deacon Richard, except that in his will he left to one heir a legacy "towards bring up his son to be a scholar," and also left by will a Bible to each of his nineteen grand-children. If we may judge from the family names that succeeded Richard we may infer that these Bibles were read, for the family tree bears on its branches such names as Epenetus, Jonas, Jeremiah, Zephaniah, Nathaniel, Daniel, Uriah, Levi, David, James, Zophar, Ebenezer; while Phebe, Ruth, Sarah, Hannah, Elizabeth, Rebecca grace the femine line. Later generations departed somewhat from this Biblical system of nomenclature and introduced such names as William Pitt, Isaac Watts, and Dorothea. Old family letters bear indications of the Puritan strain, and traces of the Puritan conscience still linger in his remoter descendants, who inherit none of his real estate. The subject of this sketch is Charles Davis PLATT, of Dover, New Jersey. He traces his line through Epenetus, Epenetus (2d), Zophar, Ebenezer, Isaac Watts, Ebenezer. This is known as "The Younger Huntington Branch," from Huntington, Long Island, headed by Dr. Zophar PLATT, physician, (1705-1792). Ebenezer PLATT (1754-1839), was the third son of Dr. Zophar. In 1794 he was appointed first judge of Suffolk county. In 1799 he removed to New York City, and was in the customs house many years. His son, Isaac Watt PLATT (1788-1858), graduated from Princeton College and Seminary and became a Presbyterian minister. In 1818 he set out under the auspices of the Young Men's Missionary Society of New York City and made a missionary tour on horseback through the southern states to Mobile, in "Alabama Territory," as it was then called. His manuscript account of this trip is in the possession of his grandson, Charles D. PLATT. On his return from this journey he received a call to the Presbyterian church at Charlton, near Saratoga, New York. He entered upon this charge in May, 1820, bringing with him his bride. It was Anna McCLURE, daughter of Captain James McCLURE, of Philadelphia, whom he asked to share the fortunes and misfortunes of a country parson. Through her a Cincinnati certificate has descended to her grandson. It bears witness to the fact that Captain McCLURE was an officer in the American army "at the period of its dissolution." It is dated October 31, 1785. Another old parchment proclaims the fact that James McCLURE is a regular registered Free Mason of Lodge No. 2, of the Province of Pennsylvania, dated August 16, 1777. It is made out in Latin, French and English. Bibles, old parchments, old letters, old books—such is the heritage left by these ancestors—and a good name. The successive pastorates of Rev. Isaac W. PLATT were as follows :— Chariton, New York, 1820-25: Athens, Pennsylvania, 1825-1831; Bath, New York, 1831-1844; West Farms, New York (now the Bronx), 1847-1858. The children of Rev. I. W. PLATT and Anna McCLURE were:
Rev. James McClure PLATT, D. D., served as pastor in Zanesville, Ohio; in Leetsdale, Pennsylvania, and in Bath, New York. His son, William Alexander PLATT, journalist, served for many years on The Mail and Express, New York City, and later became editor of The Colorado Springs Gazette, Colorado; he is now living at Denver, Colorado; he has two sons—
Elizabeth PLATT, daughter of Rev. I. W. PLATT, lived for many years with her brother, Rev. James M. PLATT, and spent the latter part of her life in Elizabeth, New Jersey. Ebenezer PLATT, son of Rev. I. W. PLATT, came to New York City as a young man. He was for a time connected with the Ocean Bank of that city. He resided in Elizabeth, New Jersey, after his marriage in 1855 to Anna Matilda DAVIS, daughter of Dr. Charles DAVIS, a leading physician of that town. In Dr. DAVIS we find a scion of an old colonial family of Bloomfield, New Jersey. He was the son of Deacon Joseph Bruen DAVIS and Anna (CRANE) DAVIS, of Bloomfield. He attended Princeton College and after graduating taught school in Newton, New Jersey, (1817), and in Gettysburg, Pennsylvania,. (1818-1819). At the same time he studied medicine with the local doctor to prepare himself for his profession. He completed his medical studies in New York City and began the practice of his profession in Elizabeth, New Jersey. In 1825 he married Mary WILSON, daughter of a prominent merchant of that town. Their children were Anna Matilda and Mary Augusta. The latter married Benjamin HAINES, Jr., of Elizabeth. The former married Ebenezer PLATT. After the death of Mary WILSON, Dr. DAVIS married Caroline GILDERSLEEVE, daughter of Rev. Cyrus GILDERSLEEVE, of Bloomfield, New Jersey. Dr. DAVIS served for many years as physician in Elizabeth. When his health failed he bought a farm (for his sons) at Phillipsburg, New Jersey, and later removed to Easton, Pennsylvania, where he died in 1865. He was family physician to General Winfield SCOTT, when General SCOTT was living at his home on Scott Place, Elizabeth. The children of Caroline GILDERSLEEVE removed with Dr. DAVIS to Phillipsburg and Easton, where their descendants may still be found. The children of Ebenezer PLATT and Anna M. DAVIS are:
Charles Davis PLATT, their oldest son, was born in Elizabeth, New Jersey, March 18, 1856. His earliest schooling was received from his mother, at home. At the age of eight he entered the private school of Miss Eliza and Miss Caroline MITCHELL, on Scott place. At the age of twelve he entered the school of Rev. John F. PINGRY, on Mechanic street, Elizabeth. He wishes to bear testimony to the excellence of the instruction that he received at these two schools. It was thorough and scholarly and the personal influence of the teachers was kindly and ennobling. It is due to such teachers that their work and their worth should be cherished with grateful appreciation. From the home school to the distant college was a great step in experience and in education. Williams College was then small in numbers, but was manned by a group of able and experienced professors. Eminent among whom was the venerable ex-President Mark HOPKINS, then still teaching in his department of moral philosophy. In the faculty were men of notable personality— President Chadbourne, Professors Bascom, Perry, Dodd, Griffin, Fernald, Remsen, Tenney, Gilson, Safford, Pratt, and Raymond. After graduating in 1877, a call from Dr. PINGRY to assist him in the home school at Elizabeth started Mr. PLATT upon the career of a teacher, in which he has continued for thirty-seven years. For six years he taught Greek, Latin and other subjects in the Pingry school. In 1883 he became principal of Morris Academy, then a small private school where boys were prepared for college. In February, 1901, he became principal of the Wallingford High School, Wallingford, Connecticut. In 1903 he came to the Dover High School, of which he is now principal (1914) and teacher of German. 1914—By Charles D. Platt At this point we quote from a friend who has known Mr. PLATT intimately for twenty-five years: Who’s that riding on the gallop, The rendering of Bret HARTE has neither more spirit nor poetry than these lines express. And this is only one out of a hundred illustrations that might be given of how Mr. PLATT has gripped the meaning and expressed the spirit of other and similar incidents. Some day New Jersey will recognize what Mr. PLATT has done for the heroes and heroines of the Revolution belonging to our own soil and history, and will place the laurel on his brow. With regard to the Ballads as a whole, the writer of this article had this to say of them at the time of their publication, and the years since then have brought no inclination to change a line of what was then written. "Great liberality has always been accorded to the ballad in the matter of its rhymes. It is the spirit of the ballad rather than its form that has determined its right to permanence. The quaintness of its rhythm has always been one of its charms. I think Mr. PLATT has shown himself to be a master in this matter. The ballads are conspicuous in their historical realism, but they are not for that wanting in poetic insight. The movement of almost every incident presented is most pleasing, many of them exceptionally fine poetry. The book should be widely read, as it brings out those little incidents that illustrate the spirit of the patriotism of those old days more conspicuously than the story of many a battle. It is in the life of the people, in the spirit that animates them more than in the histories of armies, where the real temper of an age is to he discovered. In this respect Mr. PLATT has made a real contribution to our knowledge, to say nothing of the charming way, in which so many of these incidents are presented." The second volume of Mr. PLATT’s poems, published in 1901, is a book of an entirely different kind of poetry from that of the Ballads. It contains the poetry of the heart touched by earth and sky, mountains and meadows, lake and river, the flowers and the birds, the joys and sorrows of home and the family. In the space to which this writing is confined it is impossible to give any adequate analysis of these poems or indicate sufficiently the manifold qualities by which they are enriched. |
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