The Life of Henry Bradley Plant: Founder and President of the Plant System of Railroads and Steamships and Also of the Southern Express CompanySmyth, G. Hutchinson (George Hutchinson)
History
The Life of Henry Bradley Plant: Founder and President of the Plant System of Railroads and Steamships and Also of the Southern Express Company
Smyth, G. Hutchinson (George Hutchinson)
Plant family; Plant, Henry Bradley, 1819-1899
Attention is paid here more particularly to the descendants of John
Plant, of Branford, Connecticut. But it may be of interest to glance at
certain other families.
The Plants of St. Louis, Missouri, have occupied an honorable place in
the history of that city during the last fifty years. One of their
number[2] tells of having traced their ancestry back some three hundred
years to the County Palatine, of Chester, in England, where, about 1600,
were two brothers, Samuel Plant and John Plant. From the latter of these
they are descended in the following line: John,^{1} Thomas,^{2}
George,^{3} Samuel,^{4} who married Ann Haigh and lived in
Macclesfield, England, Samuel,^{5} who came to Boston, Massachusetts,
between 1790 and 1800, and married there Mary D. Poignaud, a Boston lady
of Huguenot ancestry.
This Samuel^{5} Plant was sent out by his uncle, Mr. Haigh, a
manufacturer of woollen cloths at Leeds, to sell his goods, which he
did, with his headquarters at Boston, though he travelled extensively,
going once as far as Charleston, South Carolina. Some years later he
brought over from England plans for cotton machinery and built, in
1808-9, the first cotton factory in Worcester County, Massachusetts, at
Clinton.
He was the father of six sons and six daughters. The sons were George
P.,^{6} Frederick William,^{6} Samuel,^{6} Alfred,^{6} William M.,^{6}
and Henry,^{6} who all removed to St. Louis, and have been identified
with the enterprise and development of that city since 1840. Of these
sons Mr. Alfred^{6} Plant is the only survivor.
Another family has a representative[3] in Chicago, who writes that his
branch came from Ireland to Massachusetts early in this century. His
father’s name was Thomas Plant and he had an uncle Robert, who also
settled in Massachusetts.
Again the name appears in the annals of Newbury, New Hampshire, where
the Rev. Matthias Plant was rector of Queen Anne’s Chapel from April,
1722, till his death on December 23, 1751, a period of twenty-nine
years.[4] Previous to his time the church had been weak, but under his
ministry its position became secure. St. Paul’s Church was built in
another part of the town from Queen Anne’s, and he officiated there
also. His wife was the youngest daughter of Samuel Bartlett, of Newbury.
No further knowledge of this family has been obtained.
The name occurs twice in lists of persons embarking from England in
early times to settle in the colonies.[5] In one list William Plant is
reported to have died on a plantation in Virginia in 1624. In another
Matthew Plant, who was then twenty-three years old, was enrolled to sail
on the _Assurance_ from Gravesend for Virginia, July 24, 1635. Under the
term “Virginia,” in those times, were included the New England colonies
as well as those in the South, so that it is quite supposable that
Matthew Plant may have settled in New England.
THE PLANT FAMILY
OF BRANFORD, CONNECTICUT.
Public-domain text, read in full here on John Shaqi.
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