Zephaniah Platt (March 31, 1796 – April 20, 1871) was an American lawyer and politician from

Michigan Michigan () is a state in the Great Lakes region of the upper Midwestern United States. With a population of nearly 10.12 million and an area of nearly , Michigan is the 10th-largest state by population, the 11th-largest by area, and the ...

. He was Michigan Attorney General from 1841 to 1843.

Life

Platt was born on March 31, 1796 in Pleasant Valley,

Dutchess County, New York Dutchess County is a county in the U.S. state of New York. As of the 2020 census, the population was 295,911. The county seat is the city of Poughkeepsie. The county was created in 1683, one of New York's first twelve counties, and later orga ...

. He was the son of

New York Supreme Court The Supreme Court of the State of New York is the trial-level court of general jurisdiction in the New York State Unified Court System. (Its Appellate Division is also the highest intermediate appellate court.) It is vested with unlimited civ ...

Justice Jonas Platt and Helena (

nee Nee or NEE may refer to: Names * Née (lit. "born"), a woman's family name at birth before the adoption of another surname usually after marriage **The male equivalent "né" is used to indicate what a man was originally known as before the adopt ...

Livingston) Platt (1767-1859), and was baptized at the Presbyterian Church in Pleasant Valley, N.Y. Among his siblings was sister, Helen Livingston Platt, who married Truman Parmelee and, after his death, Dr. Henry W. Bell. He was a grandson of Zephaniah Platt, and a nephew of Charles Z. Platt and of

John Henry Livingston John Henry Livingston (May 30, 1746January 25, 1825) was an American Dutch Reformed minister and member of the Livingston family, who served as the fourth President of Queen's College (now Rutgers University), from 1810 until his death in 182 ...

Career

He removed to the

Michigan Territory The Territory of Michigan was an organized incorporated territory of the United States that existed from June 30, 1805, until January 26, 1837, when the final extent of the territory was admitted to the Union as the State of Michigan. Detroit w ...

and practiced law at

Jackson, Michigan Jackson is the only city and county seat of Jackson County in the U.S. state of Michigan. As of the 2010 census, the city population was 33,534, down from 36,316 at the 2000 census. Located along Interstate 94 and U.S. Route 127, it is approxi ...

. Platt, an antislavery Whig, was Attorney General of the State of

from 1841 to 1843. He also served as a vice president in the

American Anti-Slavery Society The American Anti-Slavery Society (AASS; 1833–1870) was an abolitionist society founded by William Lloyd Garrison and Arthur Tappan. Frederick Douglass, an escaped slave, had become a prominent abolitionist and was a key leader of this society ...

. He attended the 1842 Ojibwe treaty negotiations with the "Lake Superior Chippewa" at LaPointe and signed the treaty as a witness. Subsequently Platt acted as representative for some of the American Fur Company's Ojibwe traders seeking recompense for past Indian debts. After the end of the

American Civil War The American Civil War (April 12, 1861 – May 26, 1865; also known by other names) was a civil war in the United States. It was fought between the Union ("the North") and the Confederacy ("the South"), the latter formed by states th ...

, he removed to

South Carolina )''Animis opibusque parati'' ( for, , Latin, Prepared in mind and resources, links=no) , anthem = " Carolina";" South Carolina On My Mind" , Former = Province of South Carolina , seat = Columbia , LargestCity = Charleston , LargestMetro = ...

, and was Judge of the 2nd Circuit Court from 1868 until his death.

Personal life

On September 30, 1818, he married Cornelia Jenkins (d. 1890), and they had seven children, including: * Mary Platt (1843–1911), who married J. J. Agnew. After his death, she married her cousin, Theodore Weld Parmele (1833–1893). Platt died on April 20, 1871 in Aiken, Aiken County, South Carolina.

References

External links

Index to Politicians: Pittsford to Platzek
at

The Political Graveyard The Political Graveyard is a website and database that catalogues information on more than 277,000 American political figures and political families, along with other information. The name comes from the website's inclusion of burial locations of ...

. {{DEFAULTSORT:Platt, Zephaniah Michigan Attorneys General South Carolina state court judges 1796 births 1871 deaths People from Pleasant Valley, New York American Presbyterians Politicians from Jackson, Michigan Livingston family People from Aiken, South Carolina