Franklin Platt

FRANKLIN PLATT. B. NOV. 19, 1844, PHILADELPHIA, PA. D. JULY 24, 1900, CONGRESS HALL HOTEL, CAPE MAY, N. J. The Platts came to this country from Yorkshire, Eng¬ land, during the 17th century. One branch settled in New England, another in New York (each of the foregoing being represented at present by a scion in the U. S. Senate), and still another in New Jersey. Ultimately, but in all probability subsequent to the original immigration, a fourth branch settled in Ohio (information from Mr. Charles Platt). The branch to which the subject of this sketch be¬ longed was that which found a home in New Jersey ; and its founder, so far as known, was Thomas Platt, the dates of whose birth, marriages to his two wives and death are not recorded, but whose first child by Jane, his first wife, Elizabeth, was born in 1712. The second child Thomas, by the same wife, married Sarah Dennis, by whom he had nine children, and of them John (b. 1749, d. 1828), m. Alice Stevenson in 1784, who bore him six children. In 1808 he married Mary Conrow, by whom he had three children ; the first, Franklin (b. near Wilmington, Del., Jan. 1, 1810, d. Aug. 19, 1871), was the father of our late fellow mem¬ ber. (Notes upon the ancestry of John Platt, etc., by Franklin Platt, printed by David Pepper for private distri¬ bution, April 14, 1896.) Franklin Platt, Senior, married Clara A. Greenough, of Sunbury, Penna. (b. Dec. 16, 1817, d. Phila,, May 7, 1897), on April 10, 1838. The Greenoughs are descended from Robert Greenough, b. in England,? d. at Rowley, Mass., March 30, 1718. His son Daniel m. Elizabeth Hatch, by whom he had a son (226) Franklin Platt 227 Symonds. Symonds m. Abigail Chadwick, by whom he had a son Ebenezer (1). Ebenezer m. Mary Flagg, by whom he had a son Ebenezer (2). Ebenezer (2) was born in Haverhill, Mass., Dec. 11, 1783, and died in Sunbury, Penna., Dec 25, 18 . He married Abigail Israel of Cristine, Delaware (b. Dec. 12, 1791, d. Aug. 16, 1868). He had won distinction at Harvard, only to find reverses of fortune fall upon his father. He set out to Pennsylvania and settled in Sunbury, where he achieved a fortune and the reputation as leader of the bar in that section. He had ten children, of whom the fourth in order of birth, Clara Ann, married Franklin Platt, and wras the mother of the subject of this sketch. There were born to Franklin and Clara A. G. Platt, of Philadelphia, seven children, viz : Helen Abigail, Annie, Ebenezer Green ough, Franklin, Clara Greenough, William Greenough, and Mary Eliza. But two of these, Clara and Mary, married, and all are now dead. I became acquainted with Ebenezer Greenough, and a little later with Franklin Platt, formerly a member of this Society, when a student in the University of Pennsylvania. The former was a year and a half older and in the class above me, and the latter five months younger and in the class below me. We were thrown in that close intimacy which is only usual in college years, and this intimacy was strengthened by the ties of our college fraternity, the A- *• At this period, 1858-1860, Mr. Franklin Platt, Sr., and his family lived, during a part of the year, near Newark, Dela¬ ware, but his permanent residence was in Philadelphia. Even at this period the intellectual superiority of the Platt brothers was patent, and easily placed them above their comrades in all questions involving correct knowledge of facts and statistics, and accurate memory of the details of past events. In power of memory both of the brothers were phenom¬ enal, and though the elder was in this faculty superior to — 228 Fi'anklin Platt . the younger, the latter was calmer in judgment, and in estimating the relative values of things. It is easier to con¬ sider them both in describing the character of either, for many of their characteristics were the same, and these grew stronger by mutual encouragement in the close association of their lives. They both shunned ladies’ society, and the emotional pleasures of music, poetry, and dancing. They were both filled with strong prejudices against views of life and things which were alien to their own, and with exalted admiration ' for intellectual superiority and masculine virtues. They were both immovable and unpersuasible, but in later life Franklin was more careful to avoid positions in cases not requiring decision, and yielded with better grace wrlien necessity compelled. Both had strong prejudices, but Franklin was much more discreet and politic. During our college years the mutterings of civil war were growing more and more ominous, and the excitement and unrest of that epoch may well excuse a lack of education in those whose misfortune it was to have just then reached their early adolescence. The blowr fell when the “ Star of the West” was fired upon in Charleston harbor, Jan. 9, 1861. Franklin Platt had entered the Sophomore class of the University of Penna. in 1860, and left at the close of that Academic year. In 1863 he served as a private from June 26 to Aug. 1, 1868, during the “Emergency” cam¬ paign when Lee crossed the Potomac into Pennsylvania, in Co. D of the old militia regt. of Philadelphia infantry known as the Gray Reserves (then called the 32nd Pa. militia). Prof. Alexander Dallas Bache, a graduate of West Point with the first honors, and at that time Superintendent of the U. S. Coast and Geodetic Survey, was an intimate friend of my father, and in 1864 through him I procured for Franklin Platt an appointment as Aid on the U. S. C. and G. S. His first service was in the party of Act’g Asst- Franklin Platt 229 Edw. Cordell. The reports concerning his work were most favorable, and he left behind an enviable reputation for ability. During the celebrated “ march to the sea ” he was in a Coast Survey party of topographers under Mr. Dorr, attached to Gen. Sherman’s army, under the immediate command of Gen. Orlando M. Poe, but held no commission. After the recall of this party to the North, and the re¬ establishment of peace between the States, Franklin Platt read geology in the office of Mr. Benjamin Smith Lyman. On my return to this country in 1870, from a three years’ sojourn at the School of Mines in Freiberg, Saxony, and after serving six months on the Hayden National Geologi¬ cal Survey of 1870-71 as Metallurgist and Mineralogist in Wyoming, Colorado, and New Mexico, I opened an office in Philadelphia as Reporting Geologist, Chemist, and Min¬ ing Engineer, and took Franklin Platt into partnership with me, introducing him to Professor J. P. Lesley, and associating him writh my first geological investigations undertaken for private parties. At this date I was appointed lecturer and instructor in the University of Pennsylvania as assistant to my father (then twenty-six years Professor of Natural Philosophy and Chemistry), and in consequence of my duties at the Uni¬ versity the affairs of the office were left in the hands of Franklin Platt. This partnership lasted but a year. The subject of a second geological survey of Pennsylvania was being much discussed at that time by the intelligent members of the Commonwealth, but the opposition from the country members of the legislature rendered the passage of a bill to create such a survey apparently hopeless. One wunter evening in the early part of 1874, during a visit of the brothers Platt to my house, Greenough, who had been already four years at the bar, read the sketch of a bill which he had drawn up creating a second Geological Survey of the State. I offered to take the bill at once to 230 Franklin Platt. Mr. Thomas A. Scott (then President of the Pennsylvania Railroad) and ask his advice, and also his support before the legislature. Although Mr. Scott, greatly overworked, was by the strictest orders inaccessible at his home, and especially on Sunday night, on sending up my card he received me with the greatest kindness, and, as was his wont, went promptly to the heart of the matter. He approved the draft of the bill and its object, proposed several changes (all of which were gladly made), and inside of fifteen minutes promised that the immense influence which he exercised in the legislature should be used in favor of this measure of public benefit. But even with this powerful support, and the appearance of many citizens, of more or less influence, before special committees of the legislature, the bill was passed by a majority of only one or two. One honest old back-country member refused his vote because, as he said, “ The new survey would not put any wealth into the ground, and what was there would be there with or without it.” One clause which Mr. Scott had advised to be left out appointed Prof. J. P. Lesley the Director. “ Not that he is not the man we want, but it is better to leave something in the bill for the legislature to determine.” Mr. Lesley’s appointment as Director was nevertheless insured in another way. The bill was passed as stated by a bare majority, and on May 14, 1874, Prof. Lesley was appointed Chief of the new Survey. “ From among about 120 applicants,” he chose six assistants, including Platt, besides three others for special work. (See his annual report.) Platt chose the bituminous coal fields, because, as he said, oil was a new subject and might not last, but the one pro¬ duct -which could be counted on to engage and make fortunes for at least a century w~as bituminous coal. He was assigned to the Clearfield and Jefferson Counties district. Subsequently his younger brother, W. G. Platt, was first associated with him as his aid, and was afterwards made an independent assistant. Franklin Platt. 231 At the termination of the 2d Geological Survey of Penn¬ sylvania, Franklin and William G. Platt practiced as re¬ porting geologists, principally in coal, but also in other fields. Nearly at the same time Walston H. Brown and others, and the Rochester and Pittsburg Coal and Iron Co., employed them to locate a site for a large coal purchase in Jefferson County, Pa. Franklin Platt was consulting Engineer, and for some years President of the company. He was elected to membership in the : Academy of Natural Sciences, Dec. 29, 1868. American Institute of Mining Engineers, May 21, 1872. American Philosophical Society, July 17, 1874. Pennsylvania Historical Society, April 23, 1888. Geological Society of America, original member. Circular of Oct. 16, 1888. Sons of the Revolution, May 12, 1890. Penna. Genealogical Society, Feb. 24, 1892. (One of the founders and managers.) He retired from active work about 1891, having saved enough from his salaries and professional fees, with what he had made by judicious investments, to provide him with a sufficient income for his needs, which were exceedingly modest. He belonged to the Rittenhouse Club, and subse¬ quently to the Philadelphia Club, but in his latter years he rarely visited them, spending his evenings m his apartment at 1820 Chestnut St. Before he became an invalid he enjoyed men’s society, talked a great deal, and often exceedingly well, and with a cold, dry, but generally somewhat cynical humor ; though in his last years he seemed to lose the taste for this kind of occupation, and interested himself in historical and genea¬ logical subjects. He compiled two pamphlets, wdiich were printed for private distribution. One is entitled “ Notes | upon the ancestry of | Ebenezer Greenough | b. Haverhill Mass. Dec. 11, 1783 | d. Sunbury Penna. Dec. 25, 1847, | 232 Franklin Platt. and of his wife | Abigail Israel | b. Cristine Del. Dec. 12, 1791 | d. Sunbury Penna. Aug. 16, 1868 | and also | a list of their descendants | ” (May 7, 1895.) The other is en¬ titled “ Notes | upon the ancestry of | John Platt | b. Bur¬ lington N. J. Aug. 13, 1749. | d. near Wilmington Del. Dec. 1823 | and also | a list of his descendants.” | (April 14, 1897.) His serious illness commenced in 1898. His vision be¬ came impaired so that he was unable to read. His death occurred suddenly on July 24, 1900, at Cape May, N. J. He was buried in the Woodlands Cemetery, Philadelphia. His contributions to the reports of the 2d Geological Survey of Pennsylvania were as follows : H. First report on Clearfield and Jefferson Counties, 8 maps, 2 sections and 139 cuts in the text. 8° pp. 296. 1875. H2. Report on Cambria and Somerset Counties (in col¬ laboration with his brother W. G. Platt), 4 maps and sections, 84 cuts in the text. 8° pp. 194. 1877. Hs. Report on Somerset County (with W. G. Platt), 6 maps and sections and 110 cuts in the text. 8° pp. 348. 1877. L. Report on the Y oughiogheny coke manufacture (Re¬ port on the use of natural gas in the iron manufac¬ ture in collaboration with J. B. Pearse), with other reports. 1876. Ga. Report on the coal fields of Potter county. 1880. G4. Notes on the Tangascootac coal basin. 1880. A,. Report on the causes, kinds, and amounts of waste in mining anthracite. 1881. T. Blair county with Atlas. 1881. Sundry special reports in the annual Report. 1885. Though a member of the Academy of Natural Sciences of Philadelphia from 1868 till his death in 1900, 32 years, he contributed no paper to its proceedings. In the Proceedings of the American Philosophical Society Franklin Platt. 233 his name is attached to two papers read April 19, 1878, on a “ Section of the Paleozoic Rocks in Blair County, by Mr. Franklin Platt and Mr. R. H. Sanders of the Second Geol. Surv. of Penna. in 1877,” and Feb. 7, 1879, on the “Char¬ acter of Some Sullivan County Coals.” No paper of his is contained in the Transactions of the American Institute of Mining Engineers, though in the general Index, Vol. I. to XV., he is erroneously credited with a paper on “ A peculiar soft anthracite in Sullivan Co., Pa.,” VoL XI., p. 155 ; the citation is a foot-note in a paper by Mr. C. A. Ashburner on the anthracite coal fields of Pennsylvania. These with numerous reports for private individuals and corporations represent Franklin Platt’s work in geology. He was a man of unusual intellectual equipment and a high sense of duty to the work entrusted to him. To every task he brought a very intelligent appreciation of all the directions in which information bearing on its solution could be obtained, and he exhausted them all before writ¬ ing his report. His judgment was very superior as to rela¬ tive values of statements, which he sifted with judicial ability. His remarkable memory furnished him with continual suggestions in the solutions by others of problems similar to the one on which he happened to be engaged. He was pleasant and cheerful in manner, and extremely unostentatious. He shared with the late Prof. Joseph Leidy an abhorrence for the wrangles, intrigues and heart¬ burning as inseparable from office in the learned societies as in the political world, and always shrunk from active participation in such contests, and preferred the quiet of the private station. He was endowed with a strong sense of humor and was rarely provoked to showing anger, though those who knew him well could often detect the influence upon him of emotions in a heightened color, and a lower tone and more careful choice of words. In appear- 234 Franklin Platt. ance be was of the blondest type of Anglo-Saxon, tall and spare, with usually a slight stoop and blue eyes. He would have distinguished himself in any pursuit to which he decided to devote himself. He has left many friends, but not one of his large immediate family, all of whom are dead, to regret him. See notices of him in “ Appleton’s Cyclopaedia of Ameri¬ can biography,” “Allibone’s Dictionary of Authors,” and “ The Matriculate Catalogue of the University of Pennsyl¬ vania from 1749 to 1893.” APPENDIX 1. (Copy.) The following note from H. Tittmann, Sup. C. & G. S. , was transmitted from the office of the U. S. C. and G. S., to the Hon. Robert Adams, Jr., and by him to the writer: FRANKLIN PLATT, APPOINTED AID 1864. His first service was in the party of Acting Assistant Edward Cordell, which was engaged in the resurvey of Beaufort Harbor entrance, North Carolina. Admiral Lee, at whose request the examination was made, detailed a small vessel of the blockading fleet for the work. Messrs. A. M. Witherel and Jas. W. Brown also served as aids in the party (reported to Admiral Lee at Fort¬ ress Monroe on March 25th, 1864, work completed May 2d). In connection with the work mentioned above, this party during the summer sounded out the channel which leads from Bogue Island through the straits into Cove Sound, and extended the inside hydrography as far as Harbor Island. On the first of July Mr. Platt joined Sub-Assistant F. W. Dorr and was engaged in a plane table survey of the islands in Boothbay, of others off the mouth of the Damiscotta and St. George Rivers, the main shore from Mt. Pisgah and Spruce Point to the west side of Damiscotta and the islands lying in Muscongas Bay, Maine. In October and November this party made a topographical and hydrographic resurvey near Nantucket Harbor, Mass. On January 22, 1865, still acting as Aid to Assistant Dorr, Mr. Platt joined the army of Maj. Gen. Sherman at Savannah and continued with it in its progress northward as far as Raleigh, N. C. when in the latter part of April, after the surrender, he, with the other officers of the Survey, was relieved from further service with the army. During August and September he aided in the survey of the peninsula terminating in Pemaquid point, which was executed by the party of Assistant Dorr. This terminated Mr. Platt’s connection with the Survey. The reports are most favorable, warmly commending his aptitude and interest displayed in the work, and while there is no one now on this Franklin Platt. 235 Survey who was actually associated with him, he is recalled as an exception¬ ally clever man. APPENDIX 2. PHILADELPHIA, November 23, 1900. (Copy. ) ENSIGN PERSIFOB FRAZER. Dear Sir : Acknowledging your communication of November 22d, 1900, we have to state that we have made a diligent search for the record of Mr. Platt in the Archives of the Army of the Tennessee, without success. A transcript of his service might possibly be found in the Coast and Geo¬ detic Survey, and it might be in the papers now in the War Department, de¬ posited by the Sherman family. If you can wait for a few days, we would have an examination made of that Yours truly, Index. JOHN P. NICHOLSON, (Signed) Recorder APPENDIX 3. PHILADELPHIA, November 26, 1900. ENSIGN PERSIFOB FRAZER. Dear Sir : An examination of the Index of the Sherman Papers was made on Saturday and we are notified this morning that no reference to Mr. Platt has been found. We will make further search in the papers of General Poe, which, we understand2 are with his son in Detroit. Yours truly, JOHN P. NICHOLSON, (Signed) Recorder. In conclusion, I wish to express my thanks to Mr. Charles Platt, Mr. George Platt, Bvt. Lt. Col. J. P. Nicholson, Mr. Wm. A. Ingham, Mr. P. F. God¬ dard, Mr. David Pepper, and Mr. J. W. Jordan, for courtesies in furnishing me with various dates and facts.