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PIECES OF THE PAST
LEGACY OF PIATT FAMILY INCLUDED GIFTS OF LAND
AND SERVICE IN THE MILITARY AND PUBLIC OFFICE
-------------------------------------------------The Kentucky Post-February 8, 1993
Author: JIM REIS
Northern Kentucky history has its share of well-known families, including the Taylors, Leathers,
Grants and Tarvins.
Another family with its own special mark on local history is the Piatt family.
The family is probably best known in Northern Kentucky for Piatt's Landing in Boone County. The
site became a subject of controversy between historians and Cincinnati Gas and Electric Co. in the
1970s, when the home of Robert Piatt - Winnfield Cottage - was torn down to make way for the East Ben
Power Plant.
Also in Boone County is Federal Hall, an historic site near Petersburg that is connected to Jacob
Piatt. Federal Hall was researched at one point for possible designation as an historic site, but the
building is now in ruins.
There is also Piatt Park at Garfield Place in Cincinnati - near the Cincinnati Public Library. Piatt Park
is named in honor of two Piatt brothers, Benjamin and John, who donated the land to the city.
The Piatt family is a challenge to chronicle because accounts written over the years tend to differ.
One reason for the discrepancies may be the fact that first names such as Robert, John, Mary and
Elizabeth frequently pop up in different branches of the family, sometimes in the same generation.
Most historical accounts agree that the family originally lived in France but was forced to leave that
country because of religious persecution. The Piatts were Protestants, known in France as Huguenots.
While living in exile in Holland, John Piatt apparently married Frances Wyckoff Van Vliet. It was then
the name "Wyckoff or Wykoff" came into family use. It would later appear as a first name and middle
name.
The Piatts immigrated to America in the 1700s. There were apparently five sons - John Jr., Daniel,
Abraham, William and Jacob. All sons joined the Continental Army during the Revolutionary War.
Daniel Piatt is said to have served with George Washington as a captain and to have spent the
infamous winter of 1777-78 with American troops camped at Valley Forge. He later rose to the rank of
major and died in New Jersey in 1780.
Daniel and his wife, Catherine Sherrad, would have seven children - John, Mary, Robert, William,
Daniel, Frances and Margaret.
Robert Piatt, born in New Jersey in 1769, may have been one of the sons of Daniel and Catherine
Piatt.
Robert Piatt would come to Kentucky and marry Nancy Jones of Bryan Station on Aug. 4, 1798.
They would settled in Boone County and their home was Winnfield Cottage. Nancy, who died in 1839,
was buried on the grounds of Winnfield Cottage.
Robert's uncle, Jacob Piatt, also came to Northern Kentucky about 1795. It was Jacob Piatt who
would build Federal Hall near Petersburg. Jacob Piatt appears in some early records as a member of the
Campbell County Fiscal Court.
Piatt's Landing in Boone County is located along the Ohio River, just below Big Bone Creek and
across from Lawrenceburg, Ind. Various members of the family apparently operated a ferry at times
across the Ohio River from that point.
A closer review of members of the Piatt family follows.
ROBERT PIATT - Robert and Nancy raised six children - Daniel, William, John, Jacob, Elizabeth and
Catherine. Based on census records Robert Piatt and his family lived at various times in Boone County;
Hamilton County, Ohio; and Dearborn County, Ind.
One daughter, Elizabeth, later married Israel T. Canby. Their son, Edward Canby, graduated from
West Point military academy; he served as a soldier in the Mexican War and in Florida against the
Seminoles. Edward Canby also was among the U. S. troops sent to Utah and New Mexico prior to the
Civil War to put down a dispute between Mormons and other settlers.
Edward Canby became a general during the Civil War and is said to have accepted the surrender of
the last major Confederate Army in the field. Canby remained in the Army after the war and was
attempting to negotiate a peace with the Modoc Indians in California in 1872 when he was killed.
Robert Piatt served as a major in the War of 1812. After the death of his wife, Nancy, Robert Piatt
married Ann Tousey. There were apparently no children from the second marriage.
JOHN H. PIATT - Believed born in Boone County on Aug. 15, 1781, he is said to have moved to
Cincinnati as a young man, become a successful merchant and opened a bank in Cincinnati.
During the War of 1812, John H. Piatt loaned money to outfit American troops. John H. Piatt later
suffered financial setbacks and began a long court battle with the United States government in an effort to
receive reimbursement for the money he had loaned the troops in the War of
1812.
In 1820 John H. Piatt received a partial judgment of more than $46,000 from the government, but he
still owned creditors more than $63,000. John H. Piatt was imprisoned in Washington D. C. for nonpayment of debts and died there in 1822. The family pursued the claim against the government in court,
but it was not until 1875 that the U.S. Supreme Court ruled in favor of the Piatts - paying the principal
amount, but no interest.
BENJAMIN M. PIATT - Born in 1799, he was the brother of John H. Piatt. Benjamin Piatt became a
Hamilton County Common Pleas Court judge and served in the Ohio legislature. He died in 1863.
JACOB WYKOFF PIATT - Jacob Wykoff Piatt was born in Boone County on March 29, 1801. He
became an attorney in Cincinnati, and accounts describe him as fluent, forcible and witty. He was a
Catholic and won a strong backing from Irish immigrants in Cincinnati. He served several years as a
Hamilton County court clerk of common pleas and served on the Cincinnati City Council.
Jacob Wykoff Piatt apparently made his mark on Cincinnati history as a council member when he
advocated a paid city fire department. Accounts say the various private volunteer fire departments, which
made their money at the time by getting donations from property owners, were not pleased with Piatt's
proposal. The volunteers reportedly mobbed his home in Cincinnati and burned him in effigy.
Councilman Piatt turned to his Irish supporters, who provided him with security.
As an older man, a contemporary described Jacob Wykoff Piatt as a "rather tall, slim, erect man,
high forehead, (with) long gray hair gracefully falling on either side, perfectly regular features, handsome
mouth, chin and nose, with an alert, keen, penetrating eye, a twinkle in it when lit up by a sarcasm."
DONN PIATT - A brother of Jacob Wykoff Piatt, Donn Piatt, was born in Cincinnati on June 29, 1819.
He studied law and became a Hamilton County Common Pleas Court judge in 1851. Later he
became secretary to the U. S. legation in Paris - serving one year as the delegation leader after the
minister became ill.
During the Civil War, Donn Piatt joined the Union Army. He served with the Ohio volunteers and rose
to the rank of colonel in 1863.
In 1865 he was elected to the Ohio legislature and later became a Washington D. C. correspondent
for the Cincinnati Commercial newspaper. He also edited a weekly newspaper in Washington called the
"Capital," and he authored several books. He died in Ohio on Nov. 12, 1891.
BENJAMIN MCCULLOUGH PIATT - Born in Kentucky, he joined the Union Army during the Civil
War and became a brevet major in the volunteers. He saw action in several battles including
Chancellorsville and Gettysburg.
He later settled in Covington, where he had a law office in the First National Bank Building at 517
Madison Ave. Benjamin M. Piatt also was a landlord. A Daily Commonwealth account on Oct. 23, 1877,
said Piatt built two homes as rental property on the site of the old African church on Robbins street
between Scott and Madison.
His 8-year-old daughter, Mattie, died while Benjamin Piatt was on a trip to Washington D. C. in
November 1877. He died in Covington on April 17, 1885.
ABRAHAM PIATT - Born in Kentucky on Nov. 20, 1801, he is listed in the 1850 census as living in
Boone County with his wife, Mary P., and their five children - Jacob, 19; Mary, 20; Benjamin, 16; Virginia,
14; and John H., 3.
He was a farmer and died on Dec. 23, 1876. His wife died on July 8, 1886. They are both buried in
the Piatt Cemetery on Lawrenceburg Ferry Road, about 1.3 miles from Ky. 20 in Boone County.
Also buried in the same cemetery is their daughter, Virginia, who married Dr. L. B. McKenzie. The
tombstone says Virginia McKenzie was born at Federal Hall and died at Burlington on July 28, 1880.
JOHN PIATT - Born on April 30, 1803, he was a farmer in Boone County and may have been the
son of Robert and Nancy Piatt.
An 1850 Boone County census lists among those living in the family of John Piatt a Robert Piatt Sr.,
83, who was born in New Jersey. Others living in John Piatt's household were a son named Robert, who
was 20 years old, a 16- year-old son named Lewis R. and a 12-year-old son also named John.
The elder John Piatt's wife, Millicent, apparently died on Sept. 24, 1844. She and John Piatt, who
died on Nov. 15, 1863, are buried in a cemetery on East Bend-Big Bone Road in Boone County.
DANIEL PIATT - Buried in the same cemetery as John and Millicent Piatt is Elizabeth Piatt, who is
listed on her tombstone as the wife of Daniel Piatt.
Daniel Piatt was the brother of John and the son of Robert.
An account in the Boone County Recorder on Aug. 10, 1887, said Daniel Piatt was apparently born
in East Bend, Boone County, on June 5, 1801.
He and his first wife, Elizabeth Cain, had seven children: Nancy, Lucy, Gemima, Elizabeth, William
Cain, Asael and Harriett.
After the death of his first wife, Daniel Piatt married Louisa Kennedy, widow of Thomas Kennedy.
Kennedy operated the first ferry on the Ohio River at Covington and is the namesake of Kennedy Street
in Covington.
From the marriage to Louisa Kennedy three more children were born: Washington, Alice and
Martha.
The 1887 account said Daniel Piatt was an ardent Baptist, and during the Civil War Gen. John Hunt
Morgan supposedly stayed at Piatt's house during his successful escape from a Columbus, Ohio, jail
through Kentucky to Confederate lines in Tennessee.
Daniel Piatt died at the Louisville home of his son, Washington Piatt, on July 30, 1887.
ASAEL DANIEL PIATT - The son of Daniel Piatt, Asael Piatt was born in Boone County on Jan. 14,
1841. When the Civil War began Asael Piatt joined the Confederate Army and served under Morgan until
the summer of 1863, when Asael Piatt was among Morgan's men captured in Indiana.
Asael Piatt was held prisoner first in Louisville and then was transferred to Camp Douglas prison
camp in Chicago, where he remained until the end of the war. He settled in Scott County and became a
farmer.
WILLIAM CAIN PIATT - Son of Daniel Piatt and half-brother of Asael Piatt, William Cain Piatt was
born about 1838 in Boone County. He also joined the Confederate Army and served with Gen. Morgan.
After the war William Cain Piatt lived in Lexington for many years and then moved to Louisville. He
worked as a traveling salesman. He died in Louisville on June 2, 1891. He was survived by a wife, two
sons and a daughter.
A NOTE ABOUT PIATT PARK - Located on Eighth Street in Cincinnati, between Elm and Vine
Streets, the park is developed on land given to the city of Cincinnati for a marketplace by brothers John
H. Piatt and Benjamin Piatt.
The land was deeded to the city on April 9, 1817, but the decision to turn the site into a park did not
come until after the Civil War. Called the Eighth Street Park, it was dedicated on June 18, 1868.
After the death of President James Garfield, an Ohioan, the decision was made to rededicate Eighth
Street Park as Garfield Park, which was done on in 1882.
In the early 1900s, descendents of the Piatt family began a campaign to rename the park in honor of
John H. Piatt and Benjamin Piatt, the brothers who originally donated the land. Finally on Oct. 20, 1940,
the park was dedicated Piatt Park. More than 150 descendants of the Piatt family took part in the
ceremonies.
PHOTO
Controversy erupted in the 1970s when the Cincinnati Gas and Electric Co. tore down Winnfield
Cottage at Piatt's Landing to make way for the East Ben Power Plant.Memo:
Column
The study of Northern Kentucky history is an avocation of staff writer Jim Reis, who covers the
suburban cities for The Kentucky Post.
Edition: KENTUCKYSection: EDITORIALPage: 4K
Index Terms: HISTORYRecord Number: KNP020800390200020Copyright 1993 The Kentucky Post