PROBABLE PIATT PICTURE

The picture above and the text that follows could be in interest to anyone who is researching the surnames: Piatt, Norris, Craig, McMasters, Shriver, or Moffet

This photo has not been positively identified. It is listed here as "Unknown - Piatt" and the suspected information relative to it is given below. The picture was submitted by Laverne Ingram Piatt and is from a collection of the late Carol Jean Chamberlin Johnson, who grew up in Lucas OH. Carol Jean Chamberlin Johnson was the daughter of Samuel and Edna Grace Piatt Chamberlin.  It is hoped that visitors to the site may be able to assist with a positive identification. If you can provide any information or guidance regarding this photo or any of the families mentioned in the text, please relay it to Laverne Ingram Piatt at e-mail address: lapiatt@worldnet.att.net or to her postal address: Laverne Ingram Piatt, 4036 Beam Road, Crestline OH, 44827. Also, please send copies of all information to the web master at: richardharrington@cox.net so that the site can be updated.

Laverne Ingram Piatt wrote regarding the above picture:

I suspect that the two individuals to the left of the picture are:

JOHN P. PIATT, who died in 1897 at age 65 years and his wife ELIZABETH JANE SHRIVER PIATT. 

The reasons I believe this are:

-- the man bears a facial resemblance in the cheekbones and hairline to my husband who would be John P's great grandson.

-- the photo was in a box of photos which included some pictures of people who might not be of Monroe Co, but which also included individual photographs of 5 of the 6 children of John P. Piatt and Elizabeth Shriver Piatt.

-- the box also included memorial cards for John P. Piatt and for his son Madison Goldsmith Piatt as well as an envelope (which now contains other materials) which I believed was used to mail the memorial card of John P to Elizabeth Shriver Piatt

The woman in the center was likely the mother of John P. Piatt or Elizabeth -- but which?  I have a death date of 25 May 1882, Green Township, for CATHERINE MOFFET PIATT, John P's mother.  If I assigning an arbitrary date to the photograph of 1880 Catherine would still be alive at age 84.  I suppose the woman in the photograph could be 84.

I do not have a death date at hand for ELIZABETH (maiden name unknown) SHRIVER, mother of Elizabeth Shriver Piatt.  She was the wife of Adam Shriver.

A case could also be made for the older woman being Catherine Moffet Piatt, because the 1880 census of Monroe Co OH shows:

Green Township 46/53

John P. Piatt	49	OH	PA	Md
Elizabeth	46	OH	WV	PA
Madison G	19	OH	OH	OH
Martha A	16	OH	OH	OH
Mary A	13	OH	OH	OH
Minerva	11	OH	OH	OH
Melvin F	9	OH	OH	OH

And in a separate household, but in the same house?

Green Township, 46/54

Katherine Piatt	84	MD	MD	Bav
Susanah Piatt	43	OH	MD	PA

Or are the two women Catherine Moffet Piatt and Susanah Piatt, age 43, Catherine's daughter who never married, and only 3 years different in age from Elizabeth Shriver Piatt?

As to the two young girls, the girl in the darker blouse has a pointed chin and
a hint of a widow's peak.  So does Minerva Emmaline Piatt in an identified
portrait taken in her 20s or so. 

The girl to the right could be a little older than the other one but standing
downhill making her shorter.  I have a dim photograph of Mary Adaline Piatt Craig, but the facial features are more like those of the girl in the dark
blouse.

The photograph is glued to heavy card stock which was probably done by the photographer who is not identified, The only marking on the back is C T C in pencil

That's all I know, or don't know, about the photograph.  I'm certainly hoping
some in Monroe Co, maybe a Norris, has an identical photograph or contemporary identified photos from which we can make an identification.

Additional Information: John and Elizabeth lived in Green Township, on present day Co Rd 10.  Daughter Margaret Ellen (Ellie) Piatt Norris and her husband Isaac Harvey Norris and Minerva Emmaline (Emma) Piatt Norris and her husband John Norris lived on the same road.  Everyone is buried in Fletcher-Ott Cemetery on the same road.  So are Mary Adaline Piatt Craig and her husband William Craig. 

Additional Information: In a subsequent e-mail message from Laverne Ingram Piatt, she wrote. "I took the photo with me to Monroe Co last weekend and shared it with the people at the Monroe Co Chapter OGS meeting.   No one could identify the old farm family in the photo, but Ruth Hogue thought the house looked familiar.  She knows Green Township where the Piatts lived and she gave me a line on an abandoned house in the woods, quite difficult to see in the summer.  I went back out to Green
Township and talked to the man who lives in the house that I originally thought was in the old photo despite obvious major differences.  He told me his house was not that house and told me also of an abandoned house in the woods back up the road.

I also stopped at the house once owned by Isaac Harvey Norris (he married John P. Piatt's daughter) and was given the same story about an abandoned house.  The Norris house owners feared, however, that the old house had been town down to make way for a new weekend house for a couple from near Columbus.

I went up the lane to the house-site and found six husky men, two of whom were the new owner and his father.  They confirmed that the house torn down a month ago or so was the house in the picture.  All three individuals in Green Township who told me of the abandoned house called it the 'Old Chetty Craig Place' (a nickname for former owner Chester Craig).

The new owner thought he had 150 acres, but the 1898 atlas shows two parcels of just less than 80 acres each owned by a T. J. McMasters.  Without checking maps and deeds further I'll say that at this writing I believe the Chetty Craig place to be the McMasters land in 1898.  Further research is needed to put the Piatts on the McMasters/Craig land around 1880.

The identification of the old house puts the house (and family) smack in the middle of three other properties that the Piatts and Norrises (Piatts before marriage) owned as well as the Fletcher-Ott Cemetery where everyone is buried.  Then, too, there is the fact that John P. Piatt's daughter Mary Adalina Piatt married William H. Craig and had at least one son.

JOHN P. PIATT and his wife ELIZABETH JANE SHRIVER PIATT had six children who are listed below. For more information on each of these children, click on their name.

Margaret Ellen "Ellie" Piatt born 25 March 1859; died 19 March 1937

Madison Goldsmith Piatt born 7 January 1861, died 6 June 1919

Martha Arabella "Belle" Piatt born August 1864, died December 5, 1941

Mary Adalina "Lina" Piatt (Craig), 8 Aug 1866 - 7 Mar 1901
Minerva Emmaline "Emma" Piatt (Norris), 24 Nov 1868 - 23 Feb 1948
Melvin Forrest Piatt, 23 Aug 1870 - 29 May 1941

Also available is a photo of the Fletcher Methodist Church where many of the members of this Piatt line are buried.

Photograph provided by Laverne Ingram Piatt, e-mail address: lapiatt@worldnet.att.net

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