George W. Platt

PLATT, EASTEPP, ETCHEN, BERNOKING, EICKMEIER

Posted By: Peter Gausmann (email)
Date: 2/6/2010 at 07:25:02

GEORGE W. PLATT

An excellent farm in Twin Lake township, Hancock county, situated on section 12, pays tribute to the care and labor bestowed upon it by its owner, George W. Platt. This farm is carefully and systematically cultivated, and Mr. Platt ranks with the wide-awake and progressive agriculturists of his district. He was born February 2, 1871, a son of William and Matilda (Eastepp) Platt, the former a native of Maine and the latter of West Virginia.

It was in the schools of West Virginia that George W. Platt pursued his education, after which he devoted six years to farm work in that locality. He then went to Pittsburgh, Pennsylvania, where he was employed for three years in a bakery, and later he engaged in peddling for eighteen months. He was also employed for two years as a coal miner in West Virginia and devoted three years to work in the steel mills of Ohio. On the expiration of that period he came to Iowa and engaged in railroad work for three months. He afterward secured work as a farm hand in Illinois, where he spent five years and then came to Iowa, where he worked for one year on a farm. In purchasing land he secured one hundred and sixty acres on section 12, Twin Lake township, Hancock county, eighty acres on section 13 and eighty acres on section 11, so that he owns altogether three hundred and twenty acres of rich and productive land in Twin Lake township. He is carrying on general farming and his labors are attended with a gratifying measure of prosperity, for his affairs are wisely managed.

On the 30th of January, 1902, Mr. Platt was married to Mrs. Lizzie Etchen, a daughter of Herman and Caroline (Bernoking) Eickmeier, who were natives of Germany and about 1860 became residents of Illinois. By her former marriage Mrs. Platt had six children, Louis F., Lillie, Albert, Fred, Rosa and John. In his political views Mr. Platt is a republican and his life is guided by the teachings of the Methodist Episcopal church, of which he is a loyal and helpful member.

Source: History of Winnebago County and Hancock County, Iowa: A Record of Settlement, Organization, Progress and Achievement, Vol. II. Pioneer Publishing Company (Chicago), 1917. pp. 541-542.