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HIRAM HART PIATT.
An active and prominent business man of Carriers Mills, Hiram Hart Piatt is conspicuously concerned with various industrial enterprises, and as secretary of the H. H. Piatt Brick & Lumber Company is officially identified with one of the most prosperous manufacturing and mercantile firms of Saline county. A son of H. John Piatt, he was born September 6, 1860, at Mount Carmel, Indiana, just on the border of the Ohio state line. He comes of excellent French ancestry, being a direct descendant, several generations removed of John Wocoff Piatt, whose sons immigrated from France, their native land, to America, settling at Coldwater Run, Pennsylvania, in early colonial days.

Starting forth in boyhood to make his own way in the world Hiram Hart Piatt secured a very humble position in a saw mill, being at first employed in scraping up saw dust. He was so faithful in the performance of his work that he was speedily promoted to more important positions, and ere he had attained his majority he had thoroughly

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mastered the details connected with the manufacture of lumber, and when ready to embark in business on his own account became operator of a saw mill. Coming from Carroll county, Indiana, to Saline county, Illinois, in 1899, Mr. Piatt purchased the land included in his present lumber yard, erected a saw mill, and within six years had sawed out all the timber in this vicinity, his mill having a capacity of upwards of four million feet a year. Mr. Piatt subsequently added a planing mill to his plant, and carried on a large business, employing from one hundred and twenty-five men to one hundred and thirty men in the manufacture of lumber. When timber became very scarce Mr. Piatt began dealing in brick, and finally manufactured brick for two years, although at present he buys what brick he needs for supplying building materials. With an ample supply of first-class building materials always on hand, it was but natural that he should utilize his stock for building purposes, and he become a builder of dwelling houses and business blocks, many of which he has erected in this vicinity.

Mr. Piatt built up a part of the town, having laid out an addition of five and one-half acres to Carriers Mills, and having assisted in the development of the coal mines in this vicinity, the coal industry alone employing nearly two thousand people, or the supporters of that number of persons. The H. H. Piatt Lumber and Brick Company, of which Mr. Piatt is secretary, is one of the more important enterprises of Carriers Mills. It was capitalized at $25,000, and its annual sales amount to $75,000, in 1910 the company having handled over one hundred car loads of building materials. A man of excellent business qualifications, Mr. Piatt has accumulated considerable property, among which is a valuable farm of eighty acres lying near Carriers Mills.

Although not a politician, Mr. Piatt uniformly supports the principles of the Democratic party by voice and vote and for two years has been a member of the town board, of which he is now the president.

He married in Indiana Amelia Travelbee, of North Manchester, Indiana, and they have one son, John F. Piatt.