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→Apprenticeship
==Apprenticeship==
In the village of Westford, [[New York|N.Y.]], lived Mr. Peter Platner. He was one of the leading men of the town, and had a large carriage factory. To him, when of proper age, Leander was bound as an apprentice. I do not know for how many years, but probably five. I think he must have lived in family of Mr. Platner, for I never heard of any other arrangement. He was kindly dealt with, and as long as he lived, spoke affectionately of Uncle and Aunt Platner. There were three children in the family: Henry, Mary and a little girl called, familiarly, Frank; I cannot now recall her real name.
* ''Petrus "Peter" Platner (b. 1803 N.Y. - d. 1852 Westford, Otsego, N.Y.), son of Jacob M. Platner (b. 1774 Columbia Co., N.Y. - d. 1828 Otseto Co., N.Y.) & Mereitchen "Maria" Miller Platner (b. 1777 N.Y. - d. 1874 Otsego Co., N.Y.). Peter's great-grandfather Johan Jacob Platner (b. 1710 Grotzingen, Germany - d. 1787 Livingston Manor, Sullivan, N.Y.) emigrated with his 2nd wife Maria Sybilla Zuinger Zwinger Platner (1716-1800) to the U.S. in 1738, where their first son was born that year at Germantown, Columbia, N.Y.''
* ''Permelia Howe Platner (b. 1804 N.Y. - d. 1873 Westford, Otsego, N.Y.), daughter of Artemus Howe, Jr. (b. 1775 Bolton, Worcester, MA - d. 1849) & Fanny Parker Howe (1787-1819). Peter & Permelia's children: Olive Platner (b. 1824), Jacob Platner (b. 1828), Mary E. Platner (b. 1830), Fannie Platner (1833-1906), William Henry Platner, Sr. (1835-1892), Permelia Platner (b. 1837) & Lucia W. Platner (b. 1844).
There lived just outside of the village, on a small farm, Mr. Artemas Howe, with his wife and two children, Orsemus and Fanny. Mrs. Howe was a half-sister to Mrs. Platner; so there was much friendly intercourse between the two families. It is not strange that the apprentice boy, separated from his own brothers and sister, soon became friends with the shy little girl; nor is it at all surprising that when Leander had served his apprenticeship, and became a valued workman in the shop, at the age of twenty-one, and the gentle Fanny, now seventeen, and a school-teacher, that their friendship ripened into something more, and they were married. My father sometimes felt a mischievous desire to tell tales of that period, but my mother's embarrassed, "Hush, Leander, that's enough" usually quieted him. How I would like, now, to know all he might have told.
* ''Ancestry.com (via arkmskmdk): Artemas' first wife was his second wife's sister, Anna Parker Howe (1799-1869), they had at least two children:''
** ''Fannie Elizabeth Howe Roberts'', Anna Loizeaux's mother, (b. 1821 N.Y. - d. 1902 Plainfield, [[New Jersey|N.J.]]).''
** ''Orsemus Howe (b. 1823 Westford, Otsego, N.Y. - d. 1892 Montville, Medina, [[Ohio|OH]]), married Polly M. Cook (b. 1821 Delaware, N.Y. - d. 1895 Chatham, Medina, OH). Five children: Italy Marseone Howe Ripley (1848-1930), Irving Howe (1851-1893), Samuel Harvey Howe (1855-1933), Metta Medora Howe Tanner (1856-1927), Emory R. Howe (1860-1932).''
I never saw a more quiet and self-effacing person than my mother. Only those who knew her well appreciated her as she deserved. Kind and unassuming, she never gave offense. A plain spoken woman, visiting at our house, after my marriage, said to me, "Mrs. Loizeaux, you will never be a lady like your mother." I was neither hurt, nor disposed to quarrel with what I felt was true.