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Descendants of Alexander & Elizabeth (Platt) Love
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- Robert Platt
- Margaret Platt
- Richard Platt
- Rebecca Platt
Descendants of Alexander & Elizabeth (Platt) Love Ref: Alexander Love, Pioneer, 1782-1849 by John W. Love (1892-1958), Cleveland, OH dtd. 1 Mar. 1945 with recollections of John D. Love (1865-1948) and Matthew T. Love (1860-1935) of conversations with their father, Joseph Love (1821-1888), the youngest son of Alexander Love. The Bible referred to was in the possession of John D. Love, of Mt. Vernon until his death. Notes – A few articles of furniture can be identified as Alexander’s property. One is a small maple chair, probably one of a set; another is a drop-leaf desk, believed to have been bought in Coshocton, an excellent piece. Both belonged to John W. Love, and are now (1945) in the possession of Robert M. Love (1927-living) of Cleveland, OH. Both the Bible and the broadaxe, mentioned in the text, were in the possession of John D. Love (1865-1948), of Mt. Vernon, until his death; they are now lost. The carding machine appeared in a tax bill for 1843; it was valued at $250. It must have been a pretty good machine, for the same year the tax valuation on Alexander’s house was only $150. Alexander Love was born in Ireland, June 12, 1782, according to an entry in his own handwriting in his family Bible in the possession of John D. Love of Mt. Vernon, Ohio, his grandson. His birthplace was probably in the southeast corner of County Donegal. (All of the Irish cities named in this biography are in an area of abut 40 to 50 miles. Donegal is the north most county of Ireland.) On January 5, 1806, when he was 23, Alexander married Elizabeth Platt, who was four years his senior. She was the daughter of Thomas Platt, also of Co. Donegal, and an unremembered mother. Elizabeth had at least one brother and one sister. Alexander and Elizabeth had five children, Thomas born November 12, 1806; Robert, born April 1, 1809; Ann Jane, born January 14, 1812; Alexander, born September 27, 1917; and Joseph, born July 12, 1821. Thomas was born in Ireland, Robert and Ann Jane were born in New Jersey and the remaining in Ohio. The dates are from the family Bible. (The birth locations are from census records.) Alexander, his wife, one small child and Thomas Platt, then about 70, left Ireland for the United States in 1808. They were probably accompanied by William (1784-1856), Alexander’s younger brother, and James’s daughter, Margaret. James, the oldest brother, came to Philadelphia near the end of his life and his daughter, Margaret lived long enough in Ireland to be homesick after she left. (It is said of Margaret that she could neither read nor write, but she was probably not alone in illiteracy.) A 10-year-old child named Ann Day was also in the group on shipboard. One brother, Joseph, remained in Ireland and died there; his four sons came to this country in 1834. Two other entries appear in the family Bible. One of them, in Alexander’s hand, reads: “November the third 18010 (blank) Love com in to a Merrica.” Near the bottom of the page is the statement: “Alexander Love com in to America May 11th in the year 1808.” Joseph Love, the librarian of Coshocton, Ohio, gave two dates for Alexander’s arrival. For Hunt’s history of Coshocton County, he supplied the information that Alexander and his brother William came to this country in 1810. In an obituary article on his first cousin, Alexander’s son, Joseph, he stated that Alexander and his wife emigrated from Ireland in 1808. Alexander’s son, Robert, always understood that he was born in Ireland, and his birth date was April 1, 1809. It is possible that the confusion resulted from Alexander’s coming to this country in 1808, followed by his wife and children in 1810, but if so, then Robert’s birth date is not correct. (PRO – I suspect that Alexander came with his family in 1808, settled in Newark, Essex Co., NJ until 1810 when they moved to Coshocton Co., OH.) The family is said to have believed itself to be the last of the Love relationship to leave Ireland. Relatives had been going to America for generations. A nephew, one of Joseph’s sons, came to America about 25 years later, did so because of the decline of the linen industry in Co. Donegal, but records show it had been declining for a century. The party landed in New York. Alexander was interested in buying a farm and inquired of real estate dealers on Manhattan Island. One of them put him in a carriage and drove into the country. The land he saw was “too stony”, however, and he decided against a purchase. A relative reported many years afterward that he had been shrewd in not buying there. The land was so worthless it had been made into a park – Central Park. Alexander and his family went to Newark, NJ and lived there two years, Alexander probably working as a laborer. Robert and Ann Jane were born there. It is thought brother William with his family went to frontier of Ohio and settled in Linton Twp., Coshocton Co., OH in 1810. In 1812, Alexander and his family followed William to Coshocton Co., OH. (Joseph Love of Coshocton stated in 1888 that the family reached the county “in 1815 or 1816.”) Hill’s history of Coshocton County says the two brothers settled on what was called Irish Run, just below Bacon Run, and commenced distilling whisky. “Alexander and William Love inaugurated its manufacture in Linton Township. Their still-house, of modest size, was located on Irish Run, near the western line of Section 9. The process of distillation was begun here about 1812. The Loves subsequently sold out to Andrew Ferguson, who removed the still to Bacon Run.” Hunt’s history of the county suggests somewhat different dates for their arrival. Loves are not mentioned in Hunt’s lists of land owners or tenants in 1812, but they are named “among the more prominent families of later date.” Although Joseph Love, of Coshocton, assisted Hill in the preparation of this book, Joseph later stated that the arrival took place in 1815 or 1816. It is very possible that Alexander Love made two trips to Ohio from New Jersey, perhaps accompanying William on the first trip. Coshocton County was still a wilderness. The entire white population was scarcely 200. Indians were still there in their old numbers, but they were peaceable throughout the War of 1812 and becoming dependant on the white settlers. Most of them left after 1814. At the start the settler’s chief means of livelihood was probably the purchase of game from the Indians and that little cultivation possible in their clearings. There Alexander Jr. and Joseph were born. The cabin, in which the family lived, probably with William, was still standing in 1945. The photograph accompanying this biography is one of one such cabin in Irish Hollow. The cabin was definitely built by one of the early Loves, whether it was built by Alexander and Elizabeth Love is not known. The town is now about one mile west of the old site of Plainfield. (The town was moved in 1938 to provide room for flood-control works.) About 1000 feet to the north is the supposed site of the still-house. The cabin is of one and a half stories and was occupied in the 1930s by Mr. and Mrs. Wayne Collins, the latter a descendant of Alexander’s brother, Joseph. By 1820 the county had a population of 7000 and a whisky industry of 14 stills. Utter’s history of frontier Ohio states that an estimated 10,000 gallons of liquor, the entire output, was consumed in the county that year. Some time after, other Loves did a considerable business in whisky, but this first still must have been a poor living. A typical still-house had a 25 to 40 gallon still and a half a dozen tubs, with a capacity of about a barrel a day. Other families of probably relationship were reaching Coshocton County in the heavy immigration which followed the end of the War of 1812. Robert Platt, perhaps the brother of Elizabeth (Platt) Love, Alexander’s wife, came to Linton Township in 1816, perhaps accompanying her and the children. He also had emigrated from Ireland to Newark, NJ in 1809. John Love, born in County Donegal came to America in 1826 and settled in Keene Township. John O’Love and Thomas Love, both relatives of his, were born in Molinmore Parish, on the northern shore of Donegal Bay, and John Love married Eleanor Love of the same parish. All three came to Coshocton County. They and the McKees, two of whom married Loves, were believed related to Alexander and William. It is not certain that any of them reached Coshocton County by the time Alexander left, but a grandson his, Sheridan T. Love, visited their descendants many years afterwards. Other Loves, more closely related, reached the county afterward. William Love, “tall, straight and sandy-haired, with a broad Irish accent,” a linen weaver, a son of Joseph and a nephew of Alexander, came to Philadelphia with his brothers James and Alexander in 1834. In 1846, he came to Linton Mills and died later at Bacon Run. Thus it is apparent that the Loves in this country kept in touch with relatives in Ireland for nearly a quarter of a century after the first of the family had arrived. No correspondence appears to have been preserved. In the summer of 1823, when Alexander Love was 41, he bought land in the Wangum Valley, Berlin Township, Knox County, Ohio. The Indian trail from Coshocton to upper Sandusky crossed the tract – ruler laid down between the two places crosses the farm. The abstract of title reveals that it had been obtained on a patent made out to one John Noyes by President Thomas Jefferson and Secretary of State James Madison in 1802. The land was in the U.S. Military District, set up in 1797-1798 for veterans of the Revolution. In 1817, Joseph, William and Matthew Noyes deeded the land to George Hoadley, and the following year, Hoadley sold it to James Stanberry for $600. In 1823, following the collapse of land values in the west, Stanberry sold it to Alexander Love for $200, of which $50 was borrowed. It is clear that the Love family had been able to save little from the 11 years in Coshocton County. Alexander had some money when he reached this country – he had inquired for farms on Manhattan Island – and he may have put a little capital into the whiskey business. It is practically certain that he was also caught in some way in the financial panic of 1819, which resulted from over-speculation in western land, and in the depression which lasted several years afterward. The first purchase in Knox County (Ohio) was of 176 acres – at a little more than one dollar an acre. Alexander selected hilly land because it was self-drained, in preference to the level, unhealthy, and at that time, almost untillable bottom land, a few miles farther west. The valley is one of the indentations in the Portage Escarpment, the west edge of the Appalachian Plateau. Timber grew big on the farm, and this he regarded as evidence of good soil. None of the timber had been cut and apparently the former owners had made no improvements. In the summer and autumn of 1823, Alexander built a cabin, possibly with the help of the two older boys. He selected the site where he had found a spring on the stream bank, at what later became a bend in the farm lane. Late in the fall he returned to Plainfield. The following spring, he brought the family to its new home. They probably came over the Indian trail, which at that time was plainly marked. In journeying to Knox County one year and bringing his family out the next, Alexander appeared to follow an old custom of his, a method of caution he had used before. He may have made two trips to America, and he may have come to Ohio first in 1812 and again in 1815 or 1816. For several years, the family lived in the cabin about a quarter of a mile back from the highway. Soon after their arrival, perhaps the same year, Alexander and the older boys built the first section of the barn, which still stands. About that time, they discovered the spring at the foot of the knoll. In 1831, they built the brick house, making the bricks themselves from clay taken from near where the cabin stood. The house was of two stories with chimneys at each end of the gables, a type of which several still stand nearby. When it was taken down in 1876, the bricks were used for insulation in the walls of the frame house built on the same site. The construction materials available to Alexander were very poor. The foundation was made out of soft sandstone that decomposed. The mortar was poor as they had no cement. The bricks were not made out of good brick clay or fired correctly. The house remained in good shape during Alexander’s life, but his son, Joseph had to replace it. By the autumn of 1828, and perhaps earlier, Alexander was hauling his wheat to Milan, Erie County, (Ohio) where it was sold at an elevator, loaded into boats on the Huron River, and shipped as far as New York, by way of the Erie Canal. In the busy seasons at that port, several years afterward, as many as 600 wagons arrived in one day, some of them drawn by four or six horses. Twenty sailing vessels were sometimes loaded in a 24-hour period. For a number of years, the wagons from Knox County took the stage road from Fredricktown through Mansfield, Truxville (Ganges), New Haven and Monroeville. The trip required two days one way. It was generally made in groups, and Knox County parties often stayed overnight at taverns in our near Ganges, Richland County. A map of Ohio highways in 1834 shows no other road was available. The Wangum Valley, where Alexander lived, is shown on the typographical maps as Wannegan Valley, but Wangum was the name known to the settlers. Wangum wheat was long quoted in Mansfield under that spelling – at 2 cents over the market because of the quality of the flour. Several years after they opened the farm, the Loves erected a carding mill at the foot of the north slope of the rise where the brick house stood. This was a substantial two-storied frame building, about 30x36 feet, the timbers of which were hewn with a broadaxe. (His grandson, John D. Love, had this axe in Mt. Vernon.) Power was supplied from a mill race which ran to a dam about half a mile up the stream. Faint traces of the race could still be seen in 1945. The water drove an overshot wheel set in a pit. Many years afterward (1869 or 1870), when the building was torn down and its timbers used to build the hog house (still standing, 1945), the site and its spring was utilized for the milk house. The mill was used to prepare wool for sewing and to full the cloth afterwards. The work was done for all neighboring households which had spinning wheels and looms. Power machinery was used only for carding and fulling. Fredricktown reported two carding mills and two fulling mills in 1846, and Mt. Vernon had one fulling mill. Knox County was at that time one of the leading Ohio producers of wool and probably also of woolen cloth. To dress cloth, Alexander used the burr of the teasel (Dipsacus Sylvestris), which he planted and cultivated, but which turned out to be a weed. A number of years afterward, it had overrun the valley. Its dried flower-head is said to have done finer work than modern machine combs. Fulling included agitating the cloth in warm soapy Water, which also washed it. The mill was regarded as a failure. The stream, Owl Creek, supplied too little water, particularly after the forest had been cleared. Yet in the year of Alexander’s death (1849), it was still considered useful enough that he stipulated in his will that the heir to the farmstead should do the carding and fulling for his brothers and sisters. Some of the carded wool was taken to the Beard Mill, which still stands, now a barn, three miles northeast of Butler, on Ohio Route 95. Farm life must have been one almost solely of toil. What social activity the family enjoyed was probably centered in Berlin Church (Methodist), where they were members. Few stories of that 25-year period have come down to their descendants. Members of the family went to Mt. Vernon by wagon occasionally. There is no record that Alexander or his wife ever left the county, except for the trips to Milan. It is possible that they purchased furniture in Coshocton in later years. The women must have worked as hard as the men and boys. (“Old Tom” Platt probably led a chimney-corner life.) The farm production included milk, butter and cheese, eggs, fresh and smoked meats, fresh and canned fruit, thread and yarn, linen and cotton cloth, bedding and clothing. Wheat and corn were ground at Shaler’s mill, a mile down the valley. Little was purchased except for boots and shoes, salt, harness, farm implements, tools and bar iron. Even some of this may have been made on the farm. Two of their spinning wheels existed in the twentieth century, now lost. It is doubtful if Alexander and Elizabeth Love ever rode on a railroad train, though they may have seen one. The Mansfield and Sandusky City was completed and operated from Mansfield northward in 1846. The Columbus and Lake Erie was incorporated in 1845 to build from Newark to Mansfield and construction was carried on in 1849 and 1850, through Mt. Vernon, Fredricktown and Ankenytown. At least six of their descendants were connected with successor railroad companies in one way or another. The top social event of those years on the farm must have been the marriage of Ann Jane, or Jane as she was called, to Walter McClelland, her first cousin – the son of Elizabeth Platt’s sister, Sarah (Platt) McClellan(d). All four of the sons married farm girls living between them and Fredricktown or Mt. Vernon. Thomas Platt died January 14, 1838, at the age of 95, and was buried in the still new Berlin churchyard. Branches of thorn were piled on his grave to keep the wolves from digging up the body lying under the snow and loose clods. The last bounty on wolves was not paid in that region for 10 years afterward. Alexander Love died August 20, 1849, at the age of 67. The cause of his death is not known. His wife, then 71, died the following year. Both were buried in the Berlin churchyard. Joseph was the only son still living at home at that time. He was married the year after his mother died, to Ann Jane Thompson, a member of the family the Loves had known in Ireland. Alexander’s will, a copy of which was preserved by John D. Love, was signed July 2, 1849. In it he disposes of 548 acres, $400 in cash, “the carding machine”, a stock of merchandise in a store in Fredricktown, a quantity of notes and other credits owing to him, a house and several lots in Fredricktown, some livestock and household goods. Executors were his sons, Thomas and Joseph. Thomas received the farm on which he was then living, 126 acres, plus $150. Robert received the farm he was living on, 127 acres, three lots in Fredricktown, and $50. His daughter, Ann Jane McClelland, was bequeathed the 100-acre farm in Monroe Township, east of Mt. Vernon, on which she and her husband were living, and $100. Alexander Jr., received 120 acres of farm land, a house and lot in Fredricktown, and two-thirds of the stock in the store in Fredricktown. (Alexander was probably operating the store at the time.) Joseph received the 175-acre farm on which he was living, one-third of the stock in the store, and the carding machine, with the provision that he was to do the carding and fulling for other members of the family free of charge. Nancy Platt, granddaughter of Thomas Platt and niece of Elizabeth (Platt) Love who had lived with the family over 20 years, received $100, a bed, a bureau, six chairs, six sheep, one cow, one colt and “a reasonable amount of shelfrey”, which may have referred to canned goods. His widow, named first in the will, was bequeathed the furniture and “a comfortable maintenance”. Several things are suggested by the will. The estate was a large one. Alexander had been prosperous for most of his last 25 year. He and his sons were men of good health and energy – they had cleared an average of 20 acres of woodland a year. Alexander had a breadth of interest and mechanical inclination. His farm specialties were wheat and wool at a time when sheep raising was near its peak of prosperity. Knox County was among the leaders of the state not only in wool, but in wheat production. In relation to other activities, agriculture was never more prosperous in Ohio than it was in the 1840s. The fact that Alexander left a larger estate than did any of his sons was at least partly due to his living before the decline in local agriculture that followed the opening of the prairies. It is also apparent that Alexander took a decidedly paternal interest in his children. At various times he had acquired land in addition to the original 176 acres and had deeded it to them, presumably later – the deeds are mentioned in the will. The eldest son was 43 at the time of his father’s death, his youngest 28. Only Joseph had received no property by deed, but this was due to his living on the homestead. The size of the estate, then, should be credited in considerable part to the exertions of the other members of the family. Alexander probably supplied credit for their ventures, such as the store, as he had evidently done also for some of his neighbors. He had led a hard life, but an exceedingly active one. All of his children surviving him, and he and Elizabeth must have looked back on their toil with much satisfaction. 1. Love, Alexander b. 12 Jun. 1782, Co. Donegal, Ireland, d. 22 Aug. 1849, Farm nr Fredricktown, Knox Co., OH, bur. Methodist Church Cem., Berlin, Knox Co., OH, 67-2-10, md. 5 Jan. 1806, Ireland to Elizabeth Platt b. ca 1778, Ireland, d. 20 Jun. 1850, Farm nr Fredricktown, bur. Methodist Church Cem., 72 yrs., d/o Thomas Platt. Ref: John W. Love - One of four Irish brothers, three of whom came to America shortly after the turn of the century. Alexander Love and his sons opened the virgin forest to a farm, and raised wheat and wool when these were the most profitable crops in Ohio. Extremely successful! Ref: Alexander is believed to be a brother of William Love who married Sarah Logan. If so, Alexander was a resident of Linton Twp., Coshocton Co., OH in 1812. Ref: Will of Alexander Love, Knox Co., OH, dtd. 27 Jul. 1849, probated 19 Nov. 1849. Wife mentioned, not named, names children: Thomas, Robert, Ann Jane McClelland, Alex Jr., Joseph and Nancy Platt; names, sons, Thomas & Joseph as executors, witnesses were A. G. Farguhar & Alexander Menzie. Ref: 1830 Coshocton Co., OH census. Robert Platt 1 male, under 10 yrs., b. 1810 - 1820, 1 male, under 10 yrs., b. 1810 - 1820, 1 male, 26 - 45 yrs., b. 1775 - 1794, Richard b. ??? 1 female, under 10 yrs., b. 1810 - 1820, 1 female, under 10 yrs., b. 1810 - 1820, 1 female, under 10 yrs., b. 1810 - 1820, 1 female, under 10 yrs., b. 1810 - 1820, 1 female, 26 - 45 yrs., b. 1775 - 1794, Margaret b. ??? {1 alien, 1 farmer}
1 male, 10 -- 15 yrs. -- b. (1815-1820), ??? 1 male, 15 -- 20 yrs. -- b. (1810-1815), ??? 1 female, under 5 yrs. -- b. (1825-1830), ??? 1 female, 5 -- 10 yrs. -- b. (1820-1825), ??? 1 female, 10 -- 15 yrs. -- b. (1815-1820), ??? 1 female, 40 -- 50 yrs. -- b. (1780-1790), Margaret Platt ({No aliens listed.} Ref: 1820 Coshocton Co., OH census. Richard Platt 1 male, 26 - 45 yrs., b. 1775 - 1794, 1 male, plus 45 yrs., b. prior 1775, 1 female, under 10 yrs., b. 1810 - 1820, 1 female, under 10 yrs., b. 1820 - 1820, 1 female, 26 - 45 yrs., b. 1775 - 1794, Rebecca {2 aliens, 1 farmer, was the older male a father of Richard or Rebecca?} Ref: 1830 Linton Twp., Coshocton Co., OH census, pg. 18. Rebecca Platt 1 male, under 5 yrs. -- b. (1825-1830), ??? 1 female, under 5 yrs. -- b. (1825-1830), ??? 1 female, 5 - 10 yrs. -- b. (1820-1825), ??? 1 female, 5 - 10 yrs. -- b. (1820-1825), ??? 1 female, 5 - 10 yrs. -- b. (1820-1825), ??? 1 female, 30 - 40 yrs. -- b. (1790-1800), Rebecca Platt {No aliens listed}
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