By Marilyn May
Milford History
When English-born Richard Platt was among the first settlers who walked through the wilderness from New Haven to a territory we now call Milford in 1639, it was beyond his imagination to think that 11 generations later another Richard Platt would be living here.
It’s no surprise that today’s Richard Nathan Platt, Jr., whom most call Dick, spent 16 years as the official historian of Milford. He was born on Platt Lane, and after college, military service and marriage he moved back to another family house on Platt Lane. He lives on ancestral lands that once included acres of fields, orchards and cow pastures.
With family roots like Platt’s, genealogy has always been one of his hobbies. But it was still a surprise to find out that he and his wife of 61 years, the former Jane Hitchcock of New Haven, have 19 ancestors in common.
“And we’re related!” he said. “But no closer than fifth cousins.”
Platt knows just about everything about the history of this settlement, plantation, republic, town and city. But how much do we know about him?
Platt
Both of his grandfathers were classmates in the Yale class of 1898. Grandfather Irvin Wilbur Sanford studied civil engineering, eventually helping design the Merritt Parkway. Grandfather Frank Nathan Platt majored in agricultural studies. He died young during the Great Depression and was the last to farm the land.
Platt’s father, Richard Nathan Platt, Sr. worked for the Woodruff Seed Company, then the post office, and eventually became superintendent at the US post office in Woodmont.
Platt Jr. was in the Yale class of 1955. At that time students could also be enrolled in the Reserve Officer Training Corps. At graduation he was handed his diploma and orders from the US Navy about when to report for duty.
But let’s start his story from the beginning. He was born in 1933 on his family’s farm that ran along both sides of North Street. Because so many trees had been cut from everyone’s surrounding farmland, he said, “You could see all the way from here (Platt Lane) to the towers of First Church and Plymouth Church.”
Today the former Platt land includes the community gardens, a soccer field, the Platt Vocational Technical School, the Orchard Golf Course, part of Eisenhower Park and many houses at the end of Platt Lane.
What was Milford like when he was a boy? A good day meant doing his chores and then riding his bike around town to meet up with friends Eddy Beach, Ned Heberger, David Kelsey and many others. They would find a pick-up baseball game and spend the morning playing on the Milford Prep or Washington Street fields or wherever teams were forming.
Like almost every youngster in town, he had to head home when the noon whistle sounded from fire headquarters. After checking in at home and getting a quick lunch, he would be out the back door, back to the bike, back to the ball game, back to the freedom of a summer’s day in a small town. But at the 6 p.m. whistle, almost every kid headed home for a family supper. Many families lived by the sounds of those whistles.
“They don’t have those whistles anymore,” he said with a touch of nostalgia.
One day he and friends were playing touch football on the side lawn of Plymouth Church.
“They hiked the ball to me and I split my pants! I went across the street to the First Church parsonage and told Louise Thursby what happened,” he remembered.
Louise Thursby, wife of Rev. Irvin Thursby of First Church, didn’t skip a beat and said, “Oh, I know. I have two boys. Come in.” Platt said he went behind a couch, handed her his pants that she quickly repaired, and he was back to the game in minutes.
His school days were spent in the Central School, which today we call the “yellow building” that was later named after Diane Toulson, a state legislator from Milford.
When in high school in the late 1940s, the area around the Central School was a place of destruction and construction. It was noisy and dusty as nearby buildings were destroyed to make room for a new Milford High School, which is today’s Parsons Government Center.
The historic Clark Tavern, which at different times accommodated George Washington and Aaron Burr, was demolished along with a private mansion called The Linden, which in its last years was the Weylister Secretarial Junior College.
About the same time, an entire neighborhood on Hawthorne Place was taken off the map. Gone were the homes of W.J. Shea, Jr., Charles Rice, Herbert Smith, G.H. Standen, Marion Razee and others. The city directory lists Hawthorne Place at 54 West River St. It ran perpendicular from West River Street to High Street, just to the right of the Central School.
Meanwhile, looking out the Central School windows, students who had spent four years on half sessions wondered if they were ever going to be in the new building.
Well, no and yes. They never studied there, but Platt’s class of 1951 had their graduation ceremonies in the brand new auditorium. That was the first event ever held in the new MHS.
“They were still installing the seats during our graduation rehearsals, but they finished just in time,” he said.
Platt was in the National Honor Society; upon graduation he was fourth in his class.
His extracurricular activities included being in Boy Scout Troop #3 and going on a camporee in the wilds of Wilcox Park. He played the euphonium (a baritone horn) in the Milford High School band, and was president of the Pilgrim Fellowship, the youth program at the First Congregational Church of Christ.
Then he was off to Yale, where he lived in Silliman College. He majored in economics and political science.
“One fond memory,” he said, “was playing in the Yale Precision Marching Band and performing at every football game.”
After college graduation, all band alums were invited to come back to play in the band. So, after the Navy he went back a few times.
“I’d march out on the field and get in the big ‘Y’ formation,” he said.
Platt was in the Navy from 1955-1959 during the Cold War. His first assignment was on an amphibious transport ship stationed in San Diego.
“I was on that ship for two-and-a-half years and made two trips to the Far East. I thought the Pacific was calm, but it was far from pacific. We had storm after storm and got battered all the way. Then in the late afternoon on the day before we arrived in Japan, it cleared. We had a gorgeous sunset and off in the distance you could see Mt. Fuji glowing pink. I still remember that quite vividly.”
His other Navy cruises took him to Taiwan, the Philippines and Hong Kong.
During his last year and a half he was assigned to a radar picket ship out of Rhode Island.
“It was an old World War II liberty ship that went all of 11 knots,” he said. “We would station out about 200 miles for 30 days at a time with the latest radar to listen for the Russians.”
They never discovered any Russian ships. But they did get calls from overhead US airplanes asking what coordinates the ship was in to compare with their readings.
“I was the navigator of the ship, and I’d tell the pilots where they were,” he said. “I still have my sextant.”
After his military service, he earned a master’s degree in history from Wesleyan that set him up for a 31-year career of teaching history at East Haven High School.
During our conversation, Platt’s phone rang. He looked at it and said, “Oh, it’s just a span call. I don’t know why something so unwanted is called spam. I used to like Spam.”
Platt is the oldest of three siblings: Josephine and Tom, who both have passed. He and Jane have two sons, Richard Hitchcock Platt and James Thomas Platt, who make up the 12th generation of Platts.
Platt’s interest in history engendered a passion for preservation of old houses. He was a founding member and past president of the Milford Preservation Trust. As a longtime member of the Milford Historical Society, he was president in 1971-1973. He is a member of the Milford Cemetery Association and a 2014 charter member of the Friends of Milford Cemetery, a group that cares for the old gravestones and offers cemetery tours.
He and Jane have sponsored several “founding families” weekends that have brought together hundreds of descendants of Milford’s first settlers. The couple has also led genealogy workshops at Milford Library helping others find out where their roots were planted. He was also on the Milford Board of Education from 1959 to 1969.
It seems that Platt is always busy. Last year he went to the 70th reunion of his Yale class. As our talk came to an end, he was getting ready to pack up his euphonia and play in that night’s Milford Concert Band performance. And he continues to share his stories of Milford’s history every day.
Marilyn May is a lifelong resident of Milford and is on the board of the Milford Historical Society.