Zephaniah Platt (Michigan Attorney General)

Platt was born on March 31, 1796 in Pleasant Valley, Dutchess County, New York. He was the son of New York Supreme Court Justice Jonas Platt and Helena (nee Livingston) Platt (1767-1859),[1] and was baptized at the Presbyterian Church in Pleasant Valley, N.Y.[2] Among his siblings was sister, Helen Livingston Platt, who married Truman Parmelee and, after his death, Dr. Henry W. Bell.[2]

He was a grandson of Zephaniah Platt, and a nephew of Charles Z. Platt and of John Henry Livingston.[2]

He removed to the Michigan Territory and practiced law at Jackson, Michigan. Platt, an antislavery Whig,[3] was Attorney General of the State of Michigan from 1841 to 1843.[4] He also served as a vice president in the American Anti-Slavery Society.[3]

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, he removed to South Carolina, and was Judge of the 2nd Circuit Court from 1868 until his death.

On September 30, 1818, he married Cornelia Jenkins (d. 1890), and they had seven children, including:[2]

• Mary Platt (1843–1911), who married J. J. Agnew. After his death, she married her cousin, Theodore Weld Parmele (1833–1893).[5]

Platt died on April 20, 1871 in Aiken, Aiken County, South Carolina.[2]

• Index to Politicians: Pittsford to Platzek at The Political Graveyard.