W. Osborne Platt and Lucinda A. Messinger

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Husband W. Osborne Platt ¹

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           Born: 1860 - Clarion Co, PA 1
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         Father: [Unk] Platt (      -1862)
         Mother: 

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       Marriage: 1882 2

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Wife Lucinda A. Messinger ²

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Children

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1 M Ralph Platt ²

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           Born: 
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           Died: when seven years old
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         Spouse: Did Not Marry

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2 F Margaret Platt ²

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           Born: 
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           Died: when five years old
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         Spouse: Did Not Marry

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3 M Fred Platt ²

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           Born: 
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           Died: when twenty-one years old
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4 M Hugh A. Platt ²

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5 F Anna L. "Annie" Platt ²

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         Spouse: Carl H. Brakeman (      -      ) 2
           Marr: 1909 - ? Venango Co, PA

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6 F Rose A. Platt ²

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         Spouse: [Unk] Ramsey (      -      ) 2

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7 F Olive M. Platt ²

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8 F Mary L. Platt ²

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9 M J. Reid Platt ²

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General Notes: Husband - W. Osborne Platt

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His father was a soldier in the Civil war and was killed at the battle of Fredericksburg, Virginia, and he received his education in the Soldiers' Orphans' Schools of the State of Pennsylvania until he was sixteen years old.
His first steady job was at the old barrel works, and from that he passed to a job of cleaning castings at the foundry of the W. J. Innis & Co. works, and from that job he passed into their machine shop to learn the machinist's trade. Two years later, in the panic of 1878, the shop shut down and he got a job with Joseph Reid, who was running a jobbing shop on Seneca Street.
Four years later he moved on to a job in Corry, Pennsylvania, with the Harmon, Gibbs & Co., who, besides making steam engines for the oil country, were doing a general jobbing and repair business. With them he was outside man and had repairs to make in tanneries, gristmills, sawmills, planing-mills, refineries, furniture factories, waterworks, brickyards, printing offices, creameries, bottling works, and at farms and any other places where machinery was used and would need repairs.
As he was not a genius, or one of the "natural" mechanics who are supposed to know all about machinery without study, it had always taken reading and study to keep up with these jobs, and to be ready for the new kinds which kept coming.
In 1888 he returned to Oil City to again enter the shop of Joseph Reid, this time having the position of foreman. This shop had been moved from Seneca Street to Elm Street, and besides the general jobbing work it was making refinery equipment and a line of crude oil burners. These oil burners had been designed and patented by Mr. Reid, and were so well fitted for their purpose that they were still being made many years later.
He always considered that it was a great privilege to have been associated with Mr. Reid during the period that Mr. Reid was developing the gas engine and fitting it to oil country uses, and to have had a share in that work.
In 1899 Mr. Reid incorporated his business and the Joseph Reid Gas Engine Company came into being. Mr. Platt was one of the first board of directors. He was also elected as vice president, and was appointed superintendent, and held both of these positions continuously until the death of Mr. Reid in 1917, when he was elected to fill Mr. Reid's place as president.
Mr. Platt always found the work, the shops and the people of the oil country of absorbing interest and thought that they should interest others, and to test out his theory in 1900 he wrote an article under the title "Echoes from the Oil Country." and sent it to The American Machinist. The answer was a check and a request for more, and there began a part of his life that was carried on under the pen name of W. Osborne that was unknown to all except a few of his intimate friends. During some of the time since that small beginning this branch of Mr. Platt's ac-tivities was the most remunerative, even though it kept him busy evenings and holidays. He was also a contributor under various names to the Iron Age, the Iron Trade Review, Foundry, Castings, the Gas Engine, the American Manufacturer & Iron World, Machinery, Pattern Making, Power, Wood Craft, the Engineering Magazine, the Gas Magazine and Industrial Management. All of these publications were well known to those who were interested in the things which they represent. He also sent a few articles to Engineering of London, England, and they were all published.
As W. Osborne he made friends who wrote to him from all parts of the English-speaking world, and most of these friends never knew that W. Osborne is but part of the name W. O. Platt.
Home study enabled him to grad-uate from the Scranton Correspondence Schools in a course of Mechanical Engineering. Beginning in 1902 he was a member of the American Society of Mechanical Engineers. He was granted a number of patents for inventions that were of use in developing the oil country, among them being the well known bandwheel power which was manufactured by the Joseph Reid Gas Engine Company, and which was extensively used in the Mid-continent oil fields.
Besides his position as president of the Joseph Reid Gas Engine Company Mr. Platt held the position of president of the Reid Land & Development Company, which was a company that for years was engaged in a large way in developing land in the orange belt of central California; of vice president of the Frick-Reid Supply Company, which was one of the large oil well supply houses of the Mid-continent oil fields; was a director of the Oil City National Bank, and of the Home Savings & Loan Association, and was a member of the I. O. O. F., of the Venango Club, of the Wanango Country Club, of the Mid-continent Oil & Gas Association, of the American Founders Association, of the Y. M. C. A., of the Oil City Rifle Association, of the Oil City Motor Club, of the United Sportsmen, of the American Automobile Association, etc.

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General Notes: Wife - Lucinda A. Messinger

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from Elgin, Erie Co, PA

1 —, Commemorative Biographical Record of Washington County, Pennsylvania (Chicago, IL: J. H. Beers & Co., 1893), Pg 526.

2 —, Commemorative Biographical Record of Washington County, Pennsylvania (Chicago, IL: J. H. Beers & Co., 1893), Pg 527.