Unknown Newspaper
January 29, 1914

Elvira Gaston Platt, aged 95 years, died at Oberlin, Ohio, Sunday, January 25, of pneumonia, where a funeral service was read. The body was then brought to Tabor for interment in the Gaston lot where her husband and other relatives lie. Services were held here on Wednesday, January 28, conducted by Rev. C.F. Fisher.

Elvira Gaston Platt was a sister of George B. Gaston, one of the founders of Tabor College, and an aunt of Ed Rossiter, Loren Hume and Harry Gilbert of Tabor. Coming from her native state, New York, she and her father were pioneers of the Oberlin colony, where she was married in 1841, to Lester W. Platt, with whom she soon afterward moved to Nebraska. Here at different intervals, in the Pawnee Indian Nation school she taught and also in the Carlyle school in Pennsylvania, all her life being spent in educational work.

At Percival (then known as Civil Bend) she lived, her home a “shrine” to young and old.

She served in the Sanitary Commission during the civil war, and was later matron of the Soldiers’ Orphan Home at Cedar Falls.

Mrs. Platt made her home in Tabor for many years and made her life felt here for uplift. For the last seventeen years she has lived at Oberlin. In the 95 years of her life, Mrs. Platt has combined manifold experiences, and has seen and helped in the upbuilding of our western country.

She was known throughout many states as a woman of great power. A memorial service will be given in her honor here at Tabor.

~ Submitted and transcribed by Trish Randolph

---