{"id":2627,"date":"2020-08-14T14:17:29","date_gmt":"2020-08-14T14:17:29","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/housedivided.dickinson.edu\/sites\/stampedes\/?p=2627"},"modified":"2023-08-05T17:59:20","modified_gmt":"2023-08-05T17:59:20","slug":"jireh-platt-ugrr-diary-1848-1859","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/housedivided.dickinson.edu\/sites\/stampedes\/jireh-platt-ugrr-diary-1848-1859\/","title":{"rendered":"Jireh Platt UGRR Diary, 1848-1859"},"content":{"rendered":"

Jireh Platt Diary<\/strong><\/p>\n

Excerpted by Rev. H.D. Platt in \u201cSome Facts About the Underground Railroad in Ill.\u201d Typescript March 20, 1896, Wilbur H. Siebert Underground Railroad Collection, Ohio Memory https:\/\/ohiomemory.org\/digital\/collection\/siebert\/id\/8659<\/a><\/p>\n

 <\/p>\n

\"platt<\/a>

Abolitionist Jireh Platt. (Photo has been lightened, original at Kansas Memory)<\/p><\/div>\n

The following excerpt comes from the diary of an abolitionist living in Mendon, Illinois during the 1840s and 1850s.\u00a0 Jireh Platt<\/a> (1798-1870) was a farmer and Congregationalist deacon, born in Connecticut, and who spent many years in western Illinois helping enslaved families escape from Missouri.\u00a0 Rev. Henry Dutton Platt<\/a> (1823-1903) inherited many of his father’s papers, including a diary that described Underground Railroad operations around Mendon.\u00a0 Rev. Platt shared excerpts from this diary along with some of his own recollection in a typescript he sent to pioneering UGRR scholar Wilbur H. Siebert in 1896.\u00a0 Siebert then included a few of the passages in his groundbreaking work, The Underground Railroad From Slavery To Freedom <\/em>(1898) on p. 9<\/a>.\u00a0 The full scope of the diary excerpts provided by Platt’s son in 1896 are reprinted below and include a passage we can now identify (“December 5 year not given”) as being related to the 1853 Palmyra Stampede<\/a>.\u00a0 The passages in italics come from Henry D. Platt (the son).\u00a0 Those in regular font come from the original Jireh Platt diary.<\/p>\n

\n

I make now a few quotations from a sort of diary and farm record of my father\u2019s, which came into my hands at his death.\u00a0 There was a \u201cblue book,\u201d which had vastly more in it, and some very exciting records.<\/em><\/p>\n

May 19, 1848.<\/u>\u00a0 Hannah Coger arrived on the U.G. Railroad, the last $100.00 for freedom she was to pay to Thomas Anderson Palmyra, Missouri \u2013the track is kept bright it being the 3rd time occupied since the 1st of April.<\/p>\n

November 17, \u201948.<\/u>\u00a0 John Buckner arrived in a car \u2013had been acquainted with Thornton and others that have traveled this way.\u00a0 Had been sold to a trade, and was to start South Next Monday morning.\u00a0 He had spent most of the time for a week in sawing off his chain with an old casa-knife. [Here follows a cut of the knife]<\/em><\/p>\n

\u00a0<\/em>[no date, but between September 5 and September 14, 1849]\u00a0 <\/em>It is rumored that John escaped, not long since from the [steamer] <\/em>Kate Kearniey.<\/p>\n

December 5 [year not given] <\/em>within a month past, there has been a great stir, advertising, telegraphing, and hunting property from Missouri.\u00a0 Oh, what a spectacle!\u00a0 Eleven pieces of property, walking in Indian file, armed and equipped facing the North Star!\u00a0 $3000.00 offered for their apprehension, after they were safe in Canada!\u00a0 The hunters say they must have gone from Mendon to Jacksonville on a new track.<\/p>\n

July 1, 1854<\/u> \u2013 Henry Edwards took passage on the U.G. Railroad, for fear of being sent South, report says.\u00a0 From St. Louis, and within a few weeks past, William crossed the Mississippi river in a dugout padding with a shingle-board after having been shot at.\u00a0 Also one other, who had been taken to Pike County Jail, and the sheriff commanded them to let him go.\u00a0 He had a bullet hole through his left arm.<\/p>\n

November 9, \u201954.<\/u>\u00a0 \u00a0Negro hoax stories have been very high in the market for a week past.<\/p>\n

November 2, \u201957.<\/u>\u00a0 Freedom progressing.\u00a0 Within a few weeks 10 tickets have been disposed of at the U.R. Depot and among the passengers were Harrison, slave of the Free State Governor of Missouri, Caroline, Bonaparte and Stephen.\u00a0 I was informed last fall by neighbor Metcalf, that one of his old Kentucky friends had lost 5.<\/p>\n

October 1859.<\/u>\u00a0 U.G.R.R. Conductor reported the passage of 5 who were considered very valuable pieces of Ebony, all designated by names such as John Brooks, Daniel Brooks, Mason Bushrod, Silvester Lucket and Hanson Ganes.\u00a0 Have understood also that three others were ticketed about mid-summer.<\/p>\n

This is the last record of the sort in the book.\u00a0 These are among the least thrilling of many which I know occurred.<\/em><\/p>\n

These passages from Jireh Platt\u2019s diary and from Rev. H.D. Platt\u2019s 1896 recollection shared with Siebert also appear with additional context and photographs in Ruth Deters, The Underground Railroad Ran Through My House <\/em>(2008), see especially pp. 205-7.<\/strong><\/p>\n

 <\/p>\n

FURTHER READING<\/strong><\/p>\n

1917 ||\u00a0 \u00a0Speech by Ferry Luther Platt (grandson of Jireh, son of Luther Hart Platt) at family reunion, “The Platt-Cottrell Spirit,” Kirwin, KS Kansan<\/em>, October 31, 1917 (Newspapers.com)<\/strong><\/p>\n

“…The old Mendon homestead was a station on the Underground Railroad and many are the incidents I have heard father [Luther Hart Platt] relate of experience with Missouri Slave Drivers. Once Grandfather had $1000 offered for his capture dead or alive, as a violator of the Fugitive Slave Law. A band of slave drivers had traced some refugees to his door and riding up before the house, they whetted their bowie knives on the rail fence demanding the surrender of the negroes, and swearing terrible vengeance if this demand was refused, but they did not try to enter, for it was common talk that Deacon Platt kept an ax hanging just inside each outside door to brain the man who attempted to force an entrance to this home, and no negro slave was thought valuable enough to risk the life of a white hunter.”<\/p>\n

1917 ||\u00a0 \u00a0 Neighbor Anna V. Baldwin writes to Ferry Luther Platt ca. 1916, excerpted in Kirwin, KS Kansan<\/em>, November 07, 1917 (Newspapers.com)<\/strong><\/p>\n

“…I forgot to tell you that your Grandfather’s home was a station on the Underground Railroad. It had a place in the cellar where from 1 to 10 people could be hidden….”<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

Jireh Platt Diary Excerpted by Rev. H.D. Platt in \u201cSome Facts About the Underground Railroad in Ill.\u201d Typescript March 20, 1896, Wilbur H. Siebert Underground Railroad Collection, Ohio Memory https:\/\/ohiomemory.org\/digital\/collection\/siebert\/id\/8659   The following excerpt comes from the diary of an abolitionist living in Mendon, Illinois during the 1840s and 1850s.\u00a0 Jireh Platt (1798-1870) was a […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":3,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[67],"tags":[67],"class_list":["post-2627","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-primary-sources","tag-primary-sources"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/housedivided.dickinson.edu\/sites\/stampedes\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/2627","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/housedivided.dickinson.edu\/sites\/stampedes\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/housedivided.dickinson.edu\/sites\/stampedes\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/housedivided.dickinson.edu\/sites\/stampedes\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/3"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/housedivided.dickinson.edu\/sites\/stampedes\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=2627"}],"version-history":[{"count":9,"href":"https:\/\/housedivided.dickinson.edu\/sites\/stampedes\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/2627\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":2697,"href":"https:\/\/housedivided.dickinson.edu\/sites\/stampedes\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/2627\/revisions\/2697"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/housedivided.dickinson.edu\/sites\/stampedes\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=2627"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/housedivided.dickinson.edu\/sites\/stampedes\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=2627"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/housedivided.dickinson.edu\/sites\/stampedes\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=2627"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}