Representative Hermon C. Piatt View All Years

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Hermon C. Piatt

Cedar County

Born on the 24th of March, 1824. Young Piatt was employed for some time on a farm; wrote awhile in the county clerk's office; prepared for college at Mifflinburg, Union county; entered the sophomore class of Jefferson College, Canonsburg, Washington county, in 1847, and graduated in 1850; taught one year in an academy at La Porte, Indiana; read law in the office of Joseph L. Jernegan, of South Bend, in the same state; was there admitted to the bar in November, 1852, and in the spring of the next year located permanently at Tipton. He was in the steady practice of the law for twenty-four years, in the firm of Piatt and Carr, and one of the leading lawyers in Cedar county. Like most young professional men settling in a new country, Mr. Piatt came to Iowa with more energy and ambition than pecuniary means, not having even one dollar in his pocket; and that he has made his profession a success will be seen from the fact that, besides his home in the city of Tipton, and other property here, he has four farms under good improvement, in Cedar county, and three thousand acres of wild land in Sac, Sioux and Lyon counties. Mr. Piatt has a taste for stock-raising, and indulges it not only in blooded horses, cattle and hogs, but also in fine poultry. At county and other fairs he can make a good show, and delights in getting up a spirit of emulation among farmers and stock raisers. He understands the nice points in a horse as well as any man, as well as in the law. He is president of the Cedar County Fair Association, and has held that position at sundry times, in all, at least ten years. Mr. Piatt was elected treasurer of Cedar county in 1854, and was kept in the office between five and six years, leaving it with an unblotted record. He was on the local school board a long time, and for some years at its head. He is one of the trustees of the Iowa College for the Blind, at Vinton. Mr. Piatt has always acted with the democratic party, and has long been one of its most influential members in Cedar county. In religious sentiment he is a Presbyterian. He is a member of the blue lodge in Freemasonry. On the 3d of November, 1852, Miss Margaret Eason, a native of Pennsylvania, then residing at La Porte, Indiana, became the wife of Mr. Piatt. Mr. Piatt has been identified with all railroad and other enterprises tending to advance the interests of Cedar county and the city of Tipton, of which he may be justly regarded as one of the live men.

House District 44