USA > New York > Genealogical and family history of central New York : a record of the achievements of her people in the making of a commonwealth and the building of a nation, Volume III > Part 27
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He married. September 23. 1841, Harriet Newell, daughter of Hon. William and Martha (Cheesebrough ) Randall, born January 25. 1815. died March 3, 1908. Children : I. Marion Rosamond. died April 3. 1892. 2. Nora Eurydice. 3. Roswell Randall, men- tioned below. 4. Algernon Ruthven, a resi- dent of Kansas City, Missouri. 5. Reuben
Llewellyn, of Elmira. 6. Arthur Herbert, of Chicago. 7. Edgar Albert, a resident of Glen Ridge, New Jersey, engaged in dry goods business in New York City.
(VII) Roswell Randall, eldest son of Reu- ben E. and Harriet Newell (Randall) Moss. was born October 16, 1845, in New York City, where his education was begun. In his fifteenth year he went with his parents to Chemung county, and pursued his studies in the Elmira Free Academy. In the mean time he assisted in the operation of the homestead farm, and subsequently taught school. In January, 1871, he began the study of law in the office of Smith, Robertson & Fassett. con- tinuing this for three winters. and worked on the farm in summer. He was admitted to the bar before the supreme court at Albany. January 9. 1874, and immediately became chief clerk in the office of his preceptors, thus gaining an extensive experience and often acting in the trial of cases. He began in- dependent practice. October 1. 1879, and in the fall of the following year became asso- ciated with Edward B. Youmans, under the title of Youmans & Moss. In 1884 Charles H. Knipp, a student of the firm, became a partner, and it was continued as Youmans, Moss & Knipp. During the first administra- tion of President Cleveland the senior part- ner retired temporarily to take a position in Washington. In 1891 Mr. Knipp retired, and the firm continued as Youmans & Moss until 1898, when the former died. Since that time Mr. Moss has continued practice alone, and has been employed in many important cases. In 1894 he compiled a manual of the election laws, which has since been used as a guide to inspectors and clerks of election. In July. 1898, he was appointed referee in bankruptcy for the counties of Chemung and Tioga, then a part of the northern. now western, district. of New York. As a pioneer of this work he was obliged to establish forms of procedure. and thus acquired considerable prominence. and was among the organizers of the Na- tional Association of Referees in Bankruptcy. serving as chairman of one of its. important committees. While few of his decisions have ever been questioned, they have been invari- ably sustained by the higher courts. In 1865 he became a member of the Park Church of Elmira ( Congregational) and in February of that year became associated with the United States Christian Commission, under whose
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auspices he acted as a teacher of colored troops north of the James river, and was in charge of a small issue office at City Point. During this time he engaged in hospital work and was among those who entered Petersburg, Virginia, upon its capture by Federal troops. He is a vice-president of the Chemung Coun- ty Bar Association ; and a member of the New York State, and of the American Bar Associa- tions. He is a fellow of the Elmira Academy of Sciences, in which he served long as vice- president, and is noted as a friend and sup- porter of educational movements. A member of the Country and Century clubs of Elmira, he gives some time to botany, and for recrea- tion engages in golf, whist, billiards, cycling and angling. Deeply interested in historical studies, he has contributed much to the pres- ervation of local history, and is a writer of articles upon social problems published in the press.
He married, June 7, 1876, Anna D., daugh- ter of George W. and Elizabeth Mason, of El- mira, the father being founder of the Elmira Gasette, and long a prominent citizen of his home city. They are the parents of two daughters.
This name was brought to New England by two emi- SKINNER grants from England, both of whom left a numerous progeny. Thomas Skinner was an early settler at Malden, Mas- sachusetts, coming from Chichester, England, before 1652. Another immigrant was prom- inent in the settlement of Connecticut, and de- scendants of both have spread throughout the United States, where they have been dis- tinguished for the Yankee qualities of en- terprise and thrift. and were usually found to be industrious, prosperous and useful citizens. Several sections of the Empire State are in- debted to this family for pioneers who were active in promoting material and moral growth of the settlement.
(I) John Skinner was one of the Hooker company and probably came from Braintree, county Essex. England. He was a kinsman of John Talcott. of Hartford. mentioned in his will in 1649. was one of the founders of Hartford, and died there in 1650-51. His will was proved October 23, 1651. The estate was partitioned January 18, 1655, and at that time the ages of the children were given in the records, and it is from this record that
the birth years of the children are computed, viz .: Mary, 1638; Ann, 1639; John, 1641; Joseph, 1643; Richard, 1646. His wife Mary was a daughter of Joseph Loomis, an early resident of Windsor, Connecticut, where many descendants of both names resided. She married (second) Owen Tudor, of Windsor.
(II) Joseph, second son of John and Mary (Loomis) Skinner, was born in 1643, in HIart- ford, and resided in East Windsor, where he bought land in 1666. This was on the west side of Broad street, was in his possession in 1684 and he probably resided there until his death. The Windsor church records con- tain the following entry : "February 16, 1678- 79, Joseph Skinner having never been bap- tized, desired that he might be baptized. and ye church granted it. He would be tried (ex- amined) concerning his knowledge and blame- less life and own Ch. Cov't and came under disciplin to be owned as a member, and so any others might come in in like manner, man or womankind. On ye 2 of March there was none that lay any blame on him in point of his conversation so he owned ye Ch. Cov't and was baptized." He married, April 5, 1666, Mary, daughter of William and Margaret Filley. She died April 13, 1711. Children : Mary, John, Elizabeth, Joseph, Isaac, Thomas.
(III) Joseph (2), second son of Joseph ( I) and Mary (Filley) Skinner, was born 1673, in Windsor, and resided in Hartford. He married (first) January 1, 1696, Dorothy Hos- mer, born January 10, 1667, in Concord, Mas- sachusetts, daughter of James and Sarah (White) Hosmer. She died March, 1702, and he married (second), January 28, 1708, Eliza- beth Olmsted, of Hartford, probably a daugh- ter of James Olmsted and granddaughter of Nicholas and Sarah (Loomis) Olmsted. There were two sons born of the first marriage, Jo- seph and Stephen. The latter died young. Children of second marriage : Jonathan, Eliza- beth, Stephen, Dorothy, Anna, Rebecca.
(IV) Stephen, fourth son of Joseph (2) Skinner, and third child of his second wife, Elizabeth Olmsted, was baptized March II. 1755, died in Hartford, July II, 1758. He had children: Elizabeth. died young : Eliza- beth, baptized March 11, 1753; Stephen, about 1755-56; Jonathan, January 29, 1758.
(V) Stephen (2), eldest son of Stephen ( I) Skinner, resided in Hartford and is supposed to have been father of Alexander, and Charles King, mentioned below. There were prac-
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tically no vital statistics recorded in Hartford in his time, and the church records make no mention of him or of his wife or children.
(V1) Charles King Skinner was born Jan- uary 13, 1792. in Hartford, in the house on Lafayette street, where his father, grand- father and great-grandfather had lived before him. In 1812. at the age of twenty years, Charles K. Skinner went to Ohio and was one of the four men who founded the town of Massillon, in that state. He was very ac- tive in promoting the growth and progress of that section, building canals and railroads, and owned and operated woolen mills. In 1854 a bank was established in Massillon, being the second in the county, and Mr. Skinner was made its president in 1857, holding this posi- tion for a long term of years. He was instru- mental in bringing the first line of railroad through Massillon from Pittsburgh, Pennsyl- vania, in 1850, and died there November 4, 1875. His wife, Eliza (Reed) Skinner, was born November 6, 1797, in Lynn. Massachu- setts, died January 17, 1866. Children : Au- gustus. Elizabeth, Charles Phillips.
(VII) Charles Phillips, son of Charles King and Eliza (Reed) Skinner, was born August I. 1827. in Massillon. died in Owego, New York. June 10. 1882. He was educated at Kenyon College and Western Reserve College at Hudson, Ohio, and was many years en- gaged in transportation on the Great Lakes, being associated with his brother-in-law. James P. Gay. About 1853 he removed to Owego, where he was for some time engaged in bank- ing, being cashier of the National Union Bank until its liquidation. Subsequently he was a contractor. under the government. in the con- struction of canals, and also engaged in rail- road construction, with which he was identi- fied to the time of his death. Taking an ac- tive interest in public progress, he was fre- quently a delegate to the conventions, acting politically with the Republican party from its organization. He was an attendant of the Presbyterian church.
He married. October 14. 1852, Emily Eliza- beth Platt. born April 28, 1829, daughter of William and Jesbia ( Hinchman) Platt, of Owego ( see Platt VII). Mr. and Mrs. Skin- ner had one son, Frederick Platt Skinner, born October 31. 1858, in Owego. He received his preparatory education at Owego Academy and in Yale College, from which he graduated in 1880. He took up the study of medicine, but
owing to ill health was obliged to abandon it, and now resides with his widowed mother in Owego.
(The Platt Line ).
The surname Platt has been early found in many countries, the word meaning an open, level piece of land. In Norman French the name was spelled Pradt, then Pratt; in Ger- man. Platz. Coats-of-arms were granted to half a dozen different branches of the family in England as early as the reign of Elizabeth. and some as early as 1326. Senator Orville Hitchcock Platt was descended, through both father and mother, from lines of New Eng- land farmers, who for many generations had held prominent stations in the communities in which they lived. They held offices in church and town affairs; were land owners, deacons, tithingmen, and captains of militia. One ancestor was imprisoned by Governor Andros in 1681 for daring to attend a meet- ing of delegates "to devise means to obtain a redress of grievances under his arbitrary rule." Another was among those who marched to Fishkill in the Burgoyne campaign of October, 1777. to reinforce General Put- nam. It was a sturdy, loyal, patriotic, effi- cient New England stock.
(I) Deacon Richard Platt is believed to be the Richard who was baptized September 28. 1603, son of Joseph Platt. in the parish of Bovington, Hertfordshire, England. He settled as early as 1638 at New Haven, Con- necticut, and was one of a party of sixty-one who formed a church settlement at Milford, in the same colony, being the first settler in that place, November 20. 1639, and at the time having four in his family. He was chosen deacon at Milford in 1669 and bequeathed a Bible to each of his nineteen grandsons. His will is dated January 24. 1683-84. In Au- gust, 1889, a memorial stone, suitably in- scribed to the pioneers, was placed in the new bridge over the Mapawang at Milford. Chil- dren: 1. Mary, married ( first ), May 1, 1651, Luke Atkinson : (second) January 3. 1667, Thomas Wetherell. 2. John, settled in Nor- folk; married Hannah Clark. 3. Isaac. see forward. 4. Sarah. 5. Epenetus, baptized July 12, 1640, was an associate of his brother Isaac in his varied experience. 6. Hannah. born October I. 1643. 7. Josiah. 1645. 8. Joseph, 1649. married, 1680. Mary Kellogg.
(II) Isaac, second son and third child of Deacon Richard Platt, was with his brother
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Epenetus enrolled among the fifty-seven land owners of Huntington, Long Island, in 1606. They were doubtless residents there for some years earlier. Both were admitted freeman. May 12. 1664. by the general assembly of Con- necticut, then having jurisdiction over Long Island, under the old charter, and their names appear among the proprietors in the patent of 1666, and again in the patent of 1668. Both were imprisoned in New York by Governor Andros in 1081 for attending a meeting of delegates of the several towns to obtain "a redress of grievances under his arbitrary rule." After their release, at a town meeting, a vote was passed to pay their expenses. He and his brother were among the sterling pa- triots of the time, fully recognizing and claim- ing their civil and religious rights. He bought land at Huntington in 1678 of John Greene. and of Jonathan Hammet, May 15. 1683. He was recorder of Huntington in 1687, was cap- tain of militia, and it is said of him that "he held every office of consequence in the gift of his townsmen." His death occurred at Hunt- ington, July 31, 1691. He married ( first ) at Milford, Connecticut, March 12, 1640, Phebe Smith : ( second ) at Huntington about twenty years later, Elizabeth, daughter of Jonas Wood. Children, all by second marriage : Elizabeth, born September 15, 1665: Jonas, August 16, 1667: John, born June 29, 1669: Mary, October 26, 1674: Joseph. September 8, 1677: Jacob, September 20. 1682.
(III) Little is known about John, Joseph and Jacob, sons of Isaac Platt. It. is presum- able that one of them was the father of the next mentioned.
(IV) Benoni Platt appears as early as 1730 in North Castle, Westchester county, New York, where the records show he was a town officer. His will was made May 20, 1761, and proved May 14, 1763. indicating that he died in the latter year. His widow, Hannah, made her will March 8, 1764, and this was proved February 25, 1767. Children: Jonathan, Be- noni, Abigail.
(V) Colonel Jonathan Platt, son of Benoni Platt, with his son Jonathan removed from Bedford to Tioga county, New York, in 1793. and died there in 1795. It is supposed he and his son Jonathan served in General Sullivan's army, which in 1779 crossed from Trenton to Susquehanna and drove the Indians out of Wyoming Valley, and this would explain their returning and settling near the Susquehanna.
Colonel Jonathan Platt was an enthuiastic patriot during the revolution, was a member from New York of the provisional congress in 1775, and also a member of the committee of safety at White Plains the following year.
(\'1) Jonathan (2), son of Jonathan (1) Platt, was born April 20, 1704, died December 1824. He married Anna Brush, a native of Greenwich, Connecticut, born October 8, 1766, and their children were: Jonathan, born in 1783; Mary, May 20, 1785: Benjamin, June 5. 1787 : Edward, August 19. 1789; William, October 29, 1791 ; Brush, August 6, 1795 : Ne- hemiah, July 25. 1797 ; Charlotte, January 25, 1800: Benjamin, April 2, 1803: Deborah, Au- grust 6, 1805: Charles, May 11, 1808; Sarah, May 9, 18H. The family resided many years in Bedford and removed thence to Tioga county, where several of the sons became prominent in public life.
(VII) William, fourth son of Jonathan ( 2) and Anna ( Brush ) Platt, was born in Bed- ford, October 19, 1791. He accompanied his parents to Tioga county in early childhood. and after reaching his majority became a prominent lawyer of that region, making his home in Owego, where his death occurred January 12, 1855. He married Lesbia Hinch- man, of Long Island, whose ancestors were prominent in the old French war and the revo- lution, and became one of the leading families of Long Island. Of this union nine children were born: William II., Stella Avery. Fred- erick E., Edward, Susan C., Anna, Emily E., married Charles P. Skinner (see Skinner VII), Humphry, Thomas C.
(VIII ) Hon. Thomas C. Platt, son of Will- iam and Lesbia ( Hinchman ) Platt, was born at Owego, New York, July 15. 1833. He attended the schools of his native town and entered Yale College. He was oblige 1 to leave Yale in his sophomore year, on account of failing health, but in 1876 received the hon- orary degree of Master of Arts from that col- lege. He then entered commercial life, and in 1879 became secretary and a director of the United States Express Company, became ex- tensively interested in lumber business in the state of Michigan, and became president of the Tioga National Bank. He displayed the ability and sagacity in business which later assured his success in a political career, being able to grasp the essential details of any en- terprise with which he became connecte l and to discover and build up the weak parts of an
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organization. In 1872 he was elected to con- gress as a Republican and was reelected in 1874. January 18, 1881, he was chosen United States senator from New York to succeed Francis Kernan. However, May 16 of that vear Mr. Platt and his colleague, Roscoe Con- kling, resigned from the senate on account of some New York appointments which had been made by the president, a bitter enemy of Mr. Conkling's having been appointed to a high post. It was at this time that Mr. Platt obtained his soubriquet of "Me Too." in con- sequence of his resignation following so close- ly that of Mr. Conkling, but by his own state- ments it is plain that this term was undeserved by him, as his plans had been made and his resignation written before this time. He had been elected as a candidate of the "Stalwarts," in opposition to the "Half Breeds." an'l was known as one of the original supporters of this faction in the state of New York. He returned to the practice of his profession and at this time was interested in various enter- prises, being president of the United States Express Company. He was at one time presi- dent of the Southern Central Railroad Com- pany, and also had interests in the middle west. In 1880 he was appointed commissioner of quarantine of New York City, serving un- til January 14. 1888. Mr. Platt was a mem- ber of the Republican conventions of 1876-80- 84-88-02-1900, and was for several years a member of the Republican national committee. He was elected to the United States senate in 1806 and again in 1903, retiring from pub- lic life in March. 1909, after spending fifty- two years in active political life. At that time his health was failing and he was grow- ing too weak physically to be able to continue in the service of his party, and his death oc- eurred one year later. in March. 1910.
At the time of Senator Platt's retirement, he had become well known throughout the country through three great things in his pub- lic life. as follows: His alliance with Con- kling and their joint resignation : his fight for the gold-standard plank in the platform of the party at the St. Louis convention of 1896: his forcing the nomination of Theodore Roosevelt for the office of vice-president, which resulted in his later becoming the Na- tion's executive. IIis political career had be- gun in 1856, when as a member of the Fre- mont Glee Club. with other young men of similar sentiments, he traveled through the
counties of Tioga and Tompkins, singing the "Pathfinder's" good qualities and telling the people in verse the reasons why Mr. Fremont should be elected to the presidency. During this time Mr. Platt held a tuning fork at their meetings and marked time with that instru- ment. He retained his love for music all his life and was especially fond of that of a mar- tial kind. He early won the confidence of the people of his native county, and in 1859 was elected county clerk.
Mr. Platt had served the interests of his party long and well and had been highly hon- ored by them. He had a remarkable power to influence men and draw them to him. com- bined with the ability to hold the friendship and devotion of his followers and associates. His life was always a busy one and success rewarded him as the result of intelligent ef- fort, well directed.
Mr. Platt married. in 1852. Ellen Lucy, daughter of Hon. Charles R. Barstow, of Owego. Children: Edward Truax, Frank Hinchman and Henry Barstow. Mrs. Platt died some years before her husband.
Captain John Underhill, UNDERHILL immigrant ancestor, was descended from the Un- derhills of Huningham, Warwickshire. Eng- land a town about four miles west of Kenil- worth, on the river Learne. The family was very ancient there, and during the reign of Elizabeth seems to have been at its height of prosperity. They owned much land, and a Sir Hercules Underhill was sheriff of the county and a John Underhill was chaplain to Queen Elizabeth, who made him Bishop of Oxford in 1589. The father of the immigrant, who was also named Captain John Underhill, was a soldier in the personal train of Robert Dudley, Earl of Leicester, and went with him to the Netherlands, where Leicester com- manded the combined forces against Spain. After Leicester's death in 1588. Underhill re- mained with the army under Robert Devoreux, Earl of Essex, in 1601.
The immigrant, Captain John Underhill, was born probably between 1595 and 1600, and doubtless spent much of his youth in Hol- land or in the service of Maurice of Nassau, Prince of Orange, the famous commander. In the Netherlands Captain John Underhill was a fellow soldier with Captain Myles Standish. Although it is said that he was urged to go
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with the Puritans in 1620, he did not sail un- til April 7, 1630, from Yarmouth, with John Winthrop and his nine hundred immigrants to Boston. Here he was made freeman, May 18, 1631, and was one of the first deputies to the general court. On July 26, 1630, the first Thursday of every month was set as the gen- eral training day of Captain Underhill's com- pany at Boston, and on September 28, 1630, the court ordered fifty pounds to be raised for Mr. Underhill and Mr. Patrick, who were training another company. On November 7, 1632, the court limited training days to once a month. Underhill and Patrick fought to- gether in several Indian fights. In 1634 he was one of the selectmen of Boston. In 1637 his friend, Sir Henry Vane, put him in com- mand of the troops of the colony and sent him to Saybrook, Connecticut, against the Indians. He destroyed the Indian forts on Mystic river and broke the power of the Pequots, return- ing the same year. On November 7. 1637, for some reason concerned with military matters, he was banished from Massachusetts, and in 1638 he returned to England, where he printed a book called "News of America," which gave a good account of the Pequot war. He said in it: "Myself received an arrow through my coat sleeve, and a second against my hel- met on the forehead, so, if God in his Provi- dence had not moved the heart of my wife to persuade me to carry it along with me, I had. been slain."
He returned to America and petitione 1 the court for three hundred acres of land which he claimed, but the petition was refused, and he went to Dover, New Hampshire, where he was chosen governor in place of Barret, al- though Governor Winthrop tried to keep Bar- ret in office in vain. Through Underhill's in- fluence. Hansard Knollys was made minister at Dover, but neither of them seem to have got along well in that place, and they left after a time, Knollys returning to Boston, where he, after confessing his faults, was reinstated. Al- though Captain Underhill also made confes- sion, he was not admitted to communion again until there had been much controversy. After six months of good behavior the court took away the sentence of banishment. About 1640 he settled in Stamford, Connecticut, and in 1643 was representative from there to the general court at New Haven. In 1643 the Dutch, who were severely harassed by the In- dians, sent an appeal for help from Captain
Underhill and others. A company of men was sent against an Indian camp supposed to be at what is now Bedford, nominally under Counsellor La Montagne, but they did not find the Indians and returned to Stamford; during the halt there a Dutch soldier called on Captain Patrick and accused him of having misled them, and in the quarrel Captain Pat- rick was killed, the soldier escaping, January 2. 1644. Captain Underhill led the troops back to New Amsterdam, and went with another expedition, again nominally under La Mon- tagne, in a successful attack against the In- dians in Hempstead. He then was sent to Stamford to find the Indian camp there and in February was sent to attack it. A fierce fight terminated in victory for him, and almost entire destruction for the Indians, and soon the Indians asked for peace. In 1644 Cap- tain Underhill went to Flushing, and in 1645 was chosen one of the "Eight Men" of the governor's council at New Amsterdam, but gradually he had more interest in Long Island and began to side more with the English than with the Dutch. During the war between England and the Netherlands, Captain Un- derhill, May 20, 1653, hoisted the parliament colors in Flushing, giving an address in which he accused Governor Stuyvesant of many wrongs to the people. But the Dutch as well as the English heard this address, and he was warned to leave the province. On May 24, 1653, he was appointed by the authorities of Providence, Rhode Island, to capture Dutch property, and on June 27, of that year, he seized the Dutch fort of Good Hope, near Hartford, Connecticut, with all the surround- ing lands, which he sold, October 13, 1653, to William Gibbins and Richard Lord, of Hart- ford, in order to pay his soldiers. Later he obtained a tract of land in Oyster Bay from the Matinecock Indians, and settled there. calling the place Kenelworth, after the Kenel- worth in Warwickshire, where his ancestors had lived so long. However, the place in Long Island has more often been called Killing- worth. Captain Underhill lived in this place . the remainder of his life. In February, 1663, an agreement was drawn up between the Eng- lish and Dutch for peaceable intercourse, and he was one of the English signers. In March, 1665, he was one of the representatives from Oyster Bay to the convention. He died at Killingworth, September 21, 1672, and was buried on his estate. His will was dated Sep-
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