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Subject: [PIATT] William and Hannah Tindall Piatt
Date: Mon, 2 Jul 2001 15:11:59 EDT

To all interested parties of this line, this is the data that I presented at
the PIATT CONFERENCE June 24-30, 2001.

We all know the data on William and Hannah (Tindall) Piatt excepting possibly
that some do not know that Hannah was the daughter of Joseph and Phebe
(Hendrickson) Tindall. Hannah Tindall had a sister Anne Tindall married to
Richard Bray. Joseph Tindall died early 1831 and I feel that William and
Hannah Piatt probably moved shortly thereafter from NJ to PA. The Tindalls
were staunch Methodists, donating land in 1830 for a school house and a
religious society for Christian worship. To my knowledge this building is
still standing today.
I had obtained a couple of letters written by Rita Piatt O'Brien back in the
1940s, a granddaughter of Nathaniel Piatt. She was researching the Piatt
line. Rita died in 1958 in Ft. Wayne, IN. I gave this name to Cecil C.
Piatt in 1978 in hopes that he could learn of the location of her possible
collection if they existed. He was able to learn and review her papers but
without finding any additional data that would mention the possible parents
of William Piatt. Later, I was able to locate a letter dated 2/1/1934 from a
Miss Lulu I. M. Thompson of 340 E. 1st. St., Upper Flat, Fon du Lac,
Wisconsin. She stated she was the aunt of Rita Piatt O'Brien and that she
had the line down to William's grandfather and they were searching for the
two missing generations. But, in the letters of a much later date by Rita
O'Brien it appears they were still searching for the parents of William.
It appears that Nathaniel Piatt had 13 children but to my knowledge only 8
are known, so therefore if the others lived to maturity, it is possible
research could locate some of these other children.
It is important that in the Bible of William Piatt, born 1792, it is stated
that he was born at the base of the Jenny Jump Mountain near Hackettstown, NJ.
Now we come to Benjamin and Hannah (Bowlby) Piatt. Benjamin was born ca1762
and died between 11/18/1823 and 8/23/1826. Hannah, his wife, was born
5/10/1765 and died 3/30/1842, the daughter of Samuel and Elizabeth (Dunn)
Bowlby and the granddaughter of John and Mary Bowlby. Much has been printed
on the Bowlby family.
I know that Benjamin and Hannah Piatt had children: Mary probably born
ca1785, Anna probably born ca1790, James probably born ca1795, Samuel
probably born ca1800, and Sarah born ca1805. This family lived at the base
of the Jenny Jump Mountain near Hackettstown, NJ. In all my research since
1962, I only find this one family in that area. This was even west of where
Jacob Piatt (one of the five Revolutionary brothers) had lived, this being
the gentleman that moved to Boone Co., KY.
Two others that surely fit into this picture is Benjamin Piatt, born 1783 and
David born 1797, the one married to Hannah Jackson. I mention these two
because this Benjamin (1783) moved earlier to Columbia County, PA. This was
the same area that my ancestor, Philip Piatt, had gone to before.
When William and Hannah (Tindall) Piatt moved from NJ to Pa ca1829 and David
and Hannah (Jackson) Piatt moved they also went to this same exact area in PA.
It appears more then a coincidence, they went to see their family.
Per William Piatt's Bible he stated this was where he was from in NJ, the
only piece of evidence we have to my knowledge that places him in the same
exact location as Benjamin and Hannah (Bowlby) Piatt. The first names David
and Joseph are in the Bowlby line. Neighbors to Benjamin and Hannah Piatt
were Bray, Tindall, Johnston and others. William and Hannah Piatt even name
a daughter Euphemia Johnston Piatt. Euphemia is also in the Bowlby line and
this is not a common name.
When Richard and Anne (Tindall) Bray moved on, they even sold their property
to Benjamin and Hannah (Bowlby) Piatt. The Bray name was also used in the
William and Hannah (Tindall) family.
Some other factors figure in with this family. When Hannah (Bowlby) Piatt's
father died in 1823 he left a sizable estate of property and daughter Hannah
received a one-sixth part. Either Hannah's husband Benjamin was ill at this
point or it created some friction in the family or Benjamin and Hannah
decided they had to do something to prevent all their sons from moving
westward, because Benjamin made an indenture 11/18/1823 releasing all the
one-sixth part of his wife's inheritance to his two sons, James and Samuel,
for his care and all the clothing he may need for life.
On 8/23/1826 widow Hannah files a mortgage lien against the two sons and
immediately sells a piece of the inherited property. Therefore, we now know
that Benjamin Piatt had to die between these two dates. Sons Samuel and
James evidently also wanted to move on and probably did so as there is no
more mention of them in mother Hannah's life. By 1836, widow Hannah had
moved back to New Hampton, NJ.
Another piece of evidence was the store lists of indebtedness in the estate
of Henry Dusenberry, near New Hampton in April 1792. Two persons owing debts
to the Dusenberry estate were Benjamin Piatt and Benjamin Piatt Jr. This
gives me reason to believe that the father of Benjamin married to Hannah
Bowlby, may have been Benjamin Piatt Sr.
I have spent a great deal of time in researching this line because I felt and
still feel, this family was very closely connected to my ancestor Philip
Piatt.
Now, as we (the conference group) get closer to the research years of early
to mid 1700s, we must research the Dunn, Drake, Hull, Stelle and other
families that were closely connected to the RENE PIATT children and
grandchildren, to produce Piatt names that are not in the indexes under
Piatt. Possibly someone would like to research the Miss Lulu Thompson
papers, if they exist.
I welcome any corrections or thoughts others may have on this line.
Richard O. Piatt, PA.

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