High Quality Content by WIKIPEDIA articles! Tobias Avery Plants (March 17, 1811 June 19, 1887) was a U.S. Representative from Ohio.Born at Sewickley, Pennsylvania, Plants apprenticed to a saddler at the age of twelve. He received a limited common school education. He attended Beaver College, Meadville, Pennsylvania. He taught school, and while teaching studied law with Edwin M. Stanton in the office of Judge David Powell at Steubenville, Ohio. He was admitted to the bar and commenced practice in Athens, Ohio, in 1846, but soon moved to Pomeroy, Ohio. He served as member of the State house of representatives 1858-1861. He was owner and publisher of the Pomeroy Weekly Telegraph about 1860.