Dates

• Existence: 1818 - 1914

Biography

Elvira Gaston Platt, teacher and abolitionist and underground railroad worker, was born in Danby, Thompkins County, New York, on July 15, 1818. She studied at Oberlin College in Ohio in 1835 and 1836 and began teaching in area rural schools. In 1841 Elvira Gaston married Lester Ward Platt and in 1842 they began teaching Pawnee Indians in the western territory, in what is now Nebraska. In 1847 they moved to Fremont County, Iowa, turned to farming, and began assisting fleeing slaves on the underground railroad.

In 1861 Elvira Platt returned to teaching Pawnee children, which she continued until 1872 with a few interruptions for Civil War work. Lester Platt died in 1875 and Elvira Platt joined the staff of the Industrial School for Indians in Carlisle, Pennsylvania, in 1880. Three years later she became matron of a new school for Native Americans in Genoa, Nebraska, where she worked until she retired in 1887. She lived in Tabor, Iowa, until 1897, when she moved to Oberlin, Ohio. She died there on January 25, 1914.

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