Zephaniah Platt (Michigan Attorney General)

Zephaniah Platt (March 31, 1796 in Pleasant Valley, Dutchess County, New York – April 20, 1871 in Aiken, Aiken County, South Carolina) was an American lawyer and politician from Michigan. He was Michigan Attorney General from 1841 to 1843.

Life

He was the son of New York Supreme Court Justice Jonas Platt and Helena (Livingston) Platt (1767-1859), and was baptized at the Presbyterian Church in Pleasant Valley, N.Y. On September 30, 1818, he married Cornelia Jenkins (d. 1890), and they had seven children.

He removed to the Michigan Territory and practiced law at Jackson, Michigan. He was Attorney General of the State of Michigan from 1841 to 1843.

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.

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

Sources

• Descendants of Robert Livingston and Alida Schuyler Livingston family tree (gives Pleasant Valley as baptism place)
• The Political Graveyard: Index to Politicians: Pittsford to Platzek Political Graveyard
• famousamericans.net/zephaniahplatt/ (gives erroneously Plattsburgh as birthplace, which was copied by most later sources)
• Platt Genealogy in America, from the Arrival of Richard Platt in New Haven, Connecticut, in 1638 by Charles Platt (1963) (gives Pleasant Valley as birthplace)
• 1842 Ojibwe Treaty