The Judge – Platt
By Diane Barile
Everyone knew Frank Platt, cowman, musician and star football player for Melbourne High School. He served on the boards of banks and taxing districts and was a deputy sheriff – a real hometown fellow.
Platt’s great grandfather came from North Carolina as an early Florida pioneer in the 1840s. When the Spanish, who had occupied the state for 250 years evacuated, Florida became a territory and state. Herds of abandoned scrappy cattle adapted to the Florida landscape and roamed wild and free. The Platt and Barber families were attracted to the awaiting opportunities of land and cattle free for the taking. With succeeding generations, the Platts followed their herd across the vast acreages of marsh and prairies of the St. Johns River.
Frank was born at Wolf Creek, west of the river near Deer Park. The family followed their cattle on open range from Livingston Hammock near Christmas in Orange County south to St. Lucie. He attended schools wherever the herds moved. For high school and football he lived with his sister at a cow camp off Highway 192.
Frank equated being a wrangling cowboy to playing football. “Everyone does his part and a little more. It’s a kind of game,” said the Mel High Bulldog who himself had bulldogged a few steers. “It’s not easy to be a cowboy and it takes a long time. You had to know cows like a vet and a farmer. You not only had to ride a horse, but break a horse. You had to work not only the horse, but the ten to twenty foot cowhide whip to move herds or crack the whip to communicate on the trail or with neighbors and family.”
It was a hard life. Early one morning, asleep and snuggled in a blanket, he told his dad it was too cold to get up now. Dad replied, “Time to move. No one ever froze in Florida.”
Life in Florida changed seriously after World War II. Soldiers who trained at local bases and airfields moved in for new homes and lives. Free ranging cattle became a nuisance, invading gardens and wandering into town. Yards were fenced to deter the wanton grazing. Cow-car collisions were not uncommon.
New laws in 1947 called for the end of free open range. Now the ranchers had to buy land and fence the herds. The Platt family bought land drained for agricultural development in the Melbourne-Tillman Drainage District east of the St. Johns River. Mackie Brothers and General Development Corporation (GDC) began building the subdivisions of Port Malabar, first along the Indian River Lagoon and coastal creeks in the 1960s. They viewed expansion further west toward the St. Johns and buying Platt lands. Frank Platt held a board position on the drainage district when serious discussions were essential to the plans of GDC.
The company sent a noted attorney to confer with Frank. At this point, I must reveal a fact heretofore ignored. His family found their child, a quiet and pensive fellow, sober as a judge. The name stuck. Frank, the cowboy, was Judge Platt.
So to continue the story – Not being local, the Harvard schooled GDC attorney arrived at the Platt ranch off Minton Road for serious legal discussions. It was hours later that attorney found that while astute, the Judge lacked certain judicial credentials.
City life moved in on the Platt ranch lands even as the town of West Melbourne formed in an attempt to retain its rural character. Palm Bay grew steadily. Platt observed Minton Road one day saying, “When my family moved here in the 1920s, you could see the levees on the St. Johns River. Now there are so many cars passing here, I cannot turn into my own lane.”
Platt kept a lone longhorn steer in a pasture. His daughter honed her cowboy skills right at home and her keyboard accompanied her Dad as he piped his harmonica as far away as Russia. Judge died in 1997, but the ranching and cowboy legends remain.