Platte, Ephraim

Born: 1804-09-22 Monmouth County, New Jersey

Flourished: McLean County, Illinois

Alternate name: Platt

Platte moved with his family to Pennsylvania in 1816 to farm. He married Susan Platte, a distant relative, in December 1824. In the spring of 1833, Ephraim moved his family to McLean County, Illinois, and Susan died later that year. Ephraim sent his children to Ohio to live with Susan's family, and he moved to Bloomington, Illinois, to learn carpentry. He married Sarah Woodson, a widow with four children, on March 8, 1837. In 1850, Platt was a shoemaker living in Bloomington. He was a Jacksonian Democrat, but later a Free Soiler and a Republican; and he supported the Union during the Civil War, although age prevented him from military service.

E. Duis, The Good Old Times in McLean County, Illinois (Bloomington, IL: Leader, 1874), 242-45; U.S. Census Office, Seventh Census of the United States (1850), McLean County, IL, 5; Illinois Statewide Marriage Index, McLean County, 8 March 1837, Illinois State Archives, Springfield, IL.