Lyman Campbell Platt
& Mamie (Pershall) Platt
Contributed by Essie Platt
Lyman Campbell Platt was the first child born to Papa and Mama, arriving Sept 30, 1889. The family was living in North Central Kansas, at Smith Center, in Smith County.

They moved to Waverly, Kansas, for a while, then back to Smith Center. Not too much later, they decided to go to Oklahoma for the land rush. Papa and Lyman traveled by horse drawn wagons across the prairie, no fences or roads, looking for water and firewood each night for camping out. Neighbors who had a cow for milk accompanied them. They traveled only as fast as the cow could go. Papa made the run on Sept. 16, 1893, selecting a quarter section (160 acres) of land near Maramec. Their first winter was in a tent, with a log house to follow. Papa did freighting and was away a good deal.
Essie comments that her dad, Lymon helped his father build the stone cellar at the homestead. It has an arched ceiling with wedge-shaped cut stones. (Still there) "When Grandpa told papa to pull out the poles that had been supporting the ceiling stones, he was scared, but he did it, and the stones stayed up there!"

Papa was also an itinerant preacher, and on one trip to Arkansas, Lyman went with him. His job was to tend the oil lights in the tent. There he saw the prettiest girl he had ever seen- she had a red ribbon in her dark hair. When he asked to walk her and her sister home, Papa came after Lyman, sent the girls on home by themselves and told Lyman that he was being sent home. "I didn't bring you down here to go sparking."
Sam Pershall's Farm at apple picking time
After four years of courting by mail, on January 11, 1910, Lyman and Mamie Veda Pershall were married in spite of an unhappy Grandpa Pershall, who refused to let the minister into the house. The preacher replied, "Now Sammy, my wife is ill, and I need to get back home. If you don't want these young people to be married inside, I'll just marry them here outside the gate." And Grandpa Sammy Pershall stomped away. The bride and groom did stand inside the house to say their vows. They spent one night in the Pershall home and went by train the next day to Oklahoma.
Lyman and Mamie
They lived awhile in the Platt home, a great change for Mamie, who was used to hot bread, every meal, not cold light bread. After some difficult years of trying to farm with Papa, Lyman found his own farm, with a little house. Essie was born there January 21, 1911. The story of the birth sounded like a family get together, with Mamies' father (now reconciled) and brother there, the doctor and his wife and a neighbor lady.
When Papa accepted an agency to sell Model T Fords in Stillwater, Lyman joined him in a partnership business, a new work that took him away from family much of the time. He was selling cars, teaching people to drive the new contraptions, and bringing them in from the country when the jitney would not start. He told the story of a German doctor who wanted to learn to drive. The doctor was at the wheel, Lyman sitting by him, when he asked "How do you make it go faster?" Lyman was not yet a Christian, and was not ready to risk his future, by going faster with him.

 Lyman experienced a genuine conversion at a meeting in Stillwater, and felt he should go to a place where he could be with his family. Goldie, Myrtle and Elmer had been born in Stillwater, and Ivy in Perkins where family lived while Lyman was looking for a home to buy.
Papa and Lyman did considerable traveling and looking, and Lyman bought a homestead in eastern Colorado, near Walsh. Here he learned about the Quakers and helped build a new church and learned to be a church member. He went into wheat farming on the level prairies, glorying in not having to dig out tree stumps. He had 1400 acres of wheat ready to harvest, and hail devastated the crop in minutes- no insurance- nothing left but debts. Ellis was born on the farm in 1920, a red headed boy. The Dirty Thirties and The Depression meant losing the home and land, and the family became refugees, moving to the western slope of Colorado, at Paonia, where a group of Quakers had a meeting and one Quaker had a peach orchard. Lyman worked for him for a dollar a day, hauling manure to the orchard, and then trucking fruit to the San Luis Valley, creating an outlet for the delicious ripe Paonia fruit.
The farm at Walsh, Colorado, mid 1920's.
Essie, born in 1911 and Goldie, born in 1914.
Lyman decided he should be what God had meant for him- not to become wealthy, but to be obedient to the call of the ministry. He had to study by correspondence to make up for a lack of schooling, a great undertaking for a father of six, while trying to survive the Depression.
Lyman kept his children occupied with chores, with only enough time to get to school. He told of struggling with grammar and asking for help, but friends with schooling did not feel adequate for the job. He had asked one mentor, after looking at childish exercises "Do I have to do all these little exercises?" And she assured him "You will do every exercise in the book!" Lyman told of kneeling by his chair, asking God for help, and going back to work with a sense of concentration, recognizing how to open his mind and attention to study. He had been preaching at the Friends Church in Paonia and in Center, Colorado, then accepted a call to Deer Trail, Colorado, a small ranching community east of Denver. There he developed a live meeting that became a community church for everyone.
Elmer, Ivy and Myrtle
Essie,Ellis, Myrtle, Elmer, Goldie
Mamie, Lyman, Ivy
He and Mamie were there nearly twenty-five years building up a church. With excess lumber from nearby missile base construction, he built an addition to the church that provided a spacious meeting room, with fireplace, kitchen, classrooms, and rest rooms. His dream was recognized by the church and "Platt Hall" was named in his honor. He was recognized as a Friends minister by Nebraska Yearly Meeting, and became active in the larger Friends United Meeting as a representative.
Mamie died in Denver on May 17, 1973, and Lyman followed her on May 22, 1977, dying of a heart attack.
Their second child, Gladis Ann was born Sep 17, 1912 and died Jul 22, 1913 in Maramec, OK.
Lyman Platt
in 1948