Appletons' Cyclopædia of American Biography/Platt, Zephaniah

PLATT, Zephaniah, member of the Continental congress, b. in Dutchess county. N. Y., in 1740; d. in Plattsburg, N. Y., 12 Sept., 1807. He received a classical education, studied law, and practised. He was a delegate from New York to the Continental congress in 1784-'6, and was judge of the circuit court for many years. He was one of the originators of the Erie canal, and founded the town of Plattsburg. — His son, Jonas, jurist, b. in Poughkeepsie, N. Y., 30 June, 1769; d. in Peru, Clinton co., N. Y., 22 Feb., 1834, was educated in the public schools, admitted to the bar in 1790. and the next year settled in Whitesboro, N. Y. He was a member of the assembly in 1796, of congress in 1796-1801, and of the state senate in 1810-'13. He was an unsuccessful candidate for governor in 1810, a member of the council in 1813, and in 1814-'23 a justice of the New York supreme court. He then engaged in practice in Utica, and subsequently in New York city. — Another son, Zephaniah, jurist, b. in Plattsburg, N. Y., in 1796: d. in Aiken, S. C., 20 April, 1871, removed to Michigan in early life, studied and subsequently practised law, and was appointed by the U. S. government its attorney to settle its claims on the Pacific coast. He was state attorney-general for several years, and took high rank at the bar. He removed to South Carolina at the close of the civil war, and from 1868 until his death was judge of the 2d circuit.