Jarvis Andrew Lattin

Jarvis Andrew Lattin (1853-1941) sold fruits and vegetables on the Long Island Railroad in 1880. He was a sod-buster from 1882 to 1887 in Holt, Nebraska. He was deputy sheriff for Glen Cove in 1898 and started the Jarvis Lattin Company making pickles and sauerkraut by 1906. He lived on the Isle of Pines in Cuba from 1909 to 1924 then moved to Florida where he died in 1941. (b. May 29, 1853; Farmingdale, Queens County, Long Island, New York, USA - d. February 21, 1941; Lake Helen, Volusia County, Florida, USA)

Parents: Jarvis was the son of Henry K. Lattin (1806-1894) aka Henry K. Latting, and Julia Wood (1813-1873).

Birth: May 29, 1853 in Farmingdale, Queens County, Long Island, New York.

Siblings: He had the following siblings: Mary E. Lattin (1833-1874) who married Charles Powell; George Lattin (1837-?); Julietta Lattin (1839-aft1850); William H. Lattin (1842-1871) who married Ella T. X; Phebe Maria Lattin (1845-?); Susannah Lattin (1848-1868) who died post partum in what became a medical scandal; Smith Lattin (1849-?); Charles G. Lattin (1850-1869); and Deborah Jane Lattin (1858-1861).

Oyster Bay, Long Island: The family appears in the 1850 US census living in Oyster Bay.

First marriage: Jarvis followed the railroad out to Iowa and married Mary Jane Puckett (1854-1927) on October 15, 1874 in Jasper Township, Carroll County, Iowa. Mary was the daughter of Elijah Puckett (1815-1896) and Katherine Keever (1821-1904).

Children: Together Jarvis and Mary had the following children: Mary Esther Lattin (1875-1895) who married Richard Arlington Brush (1874-1944); Catherine Lavinia Lattin (1878-1964) who married Richard Arlington Brush (1874-1944) as his second wife, after her sister died; Julia Ann Lattin (1880-1960) who married Alfred William Poole (1881-1959); William Henry Lattin (1882) who died as an infant; Myrtle Adelia Lattin (1884-1970) who married Charles Haley Williams (1884-1960) after they met in Cuba; Deluth Andrew Lattin (1886-1887) who died as an infant; Jennie Alice Lattin (1888-1958) who married Charles Henry Pilkington (1887-1956); Charles A. Lattin (1890-1891) who died as an infant; Eva Ariel Lattin (1892-1939) who married Anton Julius Winblad II (1886-1975) after they met in Cuba; Frederick E. Lattin (1894) who died as an infant; Effie Jeanette Lattin (1895-1989) who married Josiah Barnes Pomeroy (1882-1956) after they met in Cuba; Dewey Ernest Lattin I (1898-1985) who lived in Cuba from 1909 to 1915 and married Elizabeth Henry (1903-1987); Theodore Roosevelt Lattin (1901-1980) who lived in Cuba from 1909 to 1915 and married Bertha Christina Nelson (1905-1980).

Oyster Bay, Long Island, New York: Jarvis appears in the 1860-1870 US census under the name "Jarvis Latting" living in Oyster Bay. The family appears in the 1880 US census living in Oyster Bay and Jarvis is listed as a "market man". Living with him was his widowed father, Henry K. Lattin.

Nebraska and Black Hills of Dakota: Jarvis moved to Nebraska as a homesteader near the Niobrara River, about 20 miles from Atkinson, Nebraska. He had bought farm implements on credit, but he wasn't successful, so he could not pay for them, and they were repossessed. He next tried prospecting for gold in the Black Hills of Dakota. He returned to Farmingdale in 1888 during the week of the blizzard. (Source: Julia Ann Lattin (1880-1960) in 1960)

Pickle and sauerkraut factory: In 1888 he started a pickle and sauerkraut factory in Farmingdale. There were already many sauerkraut companies established in the area. He had a house built on the land next to the factory. In 1894 he may have partnered with Aaron Stern to became the "Stern and Lattin Pickle Company" that later became "Stern and Brauner". In the 1900 census Jarvis listed his business as "sauerkraut manufacturer" and in 1906 the company appears on the Farmingdale map as "Jarvis Lattin Co." In 1916: "Farmingdale, L.I., N.Y. — Stern & Brauner, Inc., 52 Tompkins Street, New York City, has purchased from Jarvis A. Lattin a tract of land here formerly a part of the old Lattin homestead. The purchasers contemplate making extensive improvements at once, which will include the erection of a plant for the manufacture of table condiments." The company may have been later listed as "Stern Pickle Products, Inc." and "Stern's Pickle Works". It was at 111 Powell Place off of Melville Road. The Stern factory lasted until 1985. (Source: Harold Lawrence McPheeters in Ancestors and Descendants of Jarvis Andrew and Mary Jane Lattin, published in 1989)

Deputy Sheriff of Farmingdale: Harold Lawrence McPheeters (1923- ) writes: "Jarvis Lattin was for some time a Constable in Farmingdale. Someone accused him of charging too many trips to Jamaica [New York] on the Long Island Railroad, but his response was that his responsibilities included arresting 'tramps' and taking them to County headquarters in Jamaica for booking." The Brooklyn Eagle, Wednesday, June 29, 1898 reports on the inquiry: "Deputy Lattin's Bill. Oyster Bay, Long Island, June 29, 1898. One of the greatest curiosities in the form of public documents at the town clerk;s office, Oyster Bay, is the bill of Jarvis A. Lattin, a deputy sheriff of Farmingdale. The bill id for less than five months services and amounts to $568. This bill came before the board for aufit and a committee, consisting of Justice Simonson and Franklin and Town Clerk Long, was appointed to cut the bill down. There is talk of calling on Justice Bausch to appear before the committee with his docket that the terms may be compared."

Lawsuits: He was involved with at least two lawsuits: Lattin v. Town of Oyster Bay, 34 Misc. 568 (1901) was an "action by Jarvis A. Lattin against the town of Oyster Bay to recover statutory fees as constable. Complaint dismissed. Motion for new trial denied. John B. Merrill, for plaintiff. George B. Stoddard, for defendant. ..."; and Lattin v. Saitta, 116 App. Div. 926 (1907) with Jarvis A. Lattin, suing as James A. Lattin against Edith E. Saitta.

Isle of Pines, Cuba: In October of 1909 Jarvis moved his family to Santa Barbara on the Isle of Pines in Cuba. On Tuesday, March 23, 1909; Tuesday, August 30, 1910; and Monday, June 24, 1912, Jarvis returned to New York City from Havana, Cuba. While on the island he appears to have been in conflict with a man named Grosvenor: "Esto conllevó que a través del periódico Isle of Pines Appeal el anexionista Slevin emprendiera contra el acusado una constante campaña difamatoria que tuvo su culminación en la acusación que realizara Jarvis A. Lattin de que Grosvenor ..." In 1915 his two youngest children returned to New York and lived in the Bronx. In 1924 the island was formally ceded to Cuba and he returned to the US and lived in Florida.

Letter to Isle of Pines Company: Mr. J. D. Potts, New York, September 30, 1910. Isle of Pines Company, 225 Fifth Avenue, New York City. Dear Sir: When at the office of your company on Thursday you asked me to write you a letter setting forth my views regarding conditions, developments, etc., on the island since my residence there. As you know, I moved to West McKinley with family about one year ago to take up the development of my forty-acre plantation, which I had previously purchased from the Isle of Pines Company. When I first went to the island my tracts of land were among the very first cleared lying south of the San Rosario Springs Reservation. Now nearly all of the tracts of land lying in my section have been cleared and houses have been constructed down to the very extreme south end of the West McKinley map, and every day one will see a new house being constructed on all sides in West McKinley. There are now three saw-mills operating in West McKinley, and they am unable to supply the demand for lumber as fast as required for house construction purposes. I began planting in October of last year, a. planted something almost continuously up to the middle of April. I had a yield of about 200 bushels of Irish potatoes per acre from planting, and sold them on the ground at four to five cents per pound, amounting to $2.50 per bushel. I grew all kinds of vegetables, including strawberries, watermelon, muskmelon, etc. I also grew sorghum cane, kaffa corn and broom corn. I also planted a grapefruit grove and a pineapple garden and they are doing fine. I am returning to the island to-morrow and shipping on the same boat 200 barrels of seed potatoes. I shall plant ten acres of my land in Irish potatoes next month and in January I will dig the potatoes and shall plant the same field to oats. I expect to harvest the oats the latter part of March or the 1st of April, and will plant to same soil corn, thus taking three crops off this one ten-acre field. I should have a yield of 300 bushels of potatoes per acre this season, as I consider the second season of cultivation should produce a much larger yield than the first season. Based upon last season's figures and experience I should realize around $800 per acre from this one ten-acre tract from the product above mentioned. Besides I shall continue to increase my citrus fruit groves and plant vegetables between the trees. West McKinley is rapidly building up and the land in West McKinley is the best I have seen on the island. Mrs. Lattin and my family enjoy life in West McKinley very much. In fact, Mrs. Lattin did not care to come North on a visit, stating that she enjoys the summer climate there as well as the winter. In fact, nothing could induce us to move back to the States. The island undoubtedly has a great future. Yours, very truly, (Signed) J. A. Lattin.

Second marriage: On November 13, 1928 Jarvis married Agnes M. Thornhill (1861-1937) in Hillsborough County, Florida. She was previously married to John William Dimick (1855-1907).

Lake Helen, Florida: In 1930 Jarvis was living in Lake Helen, Volusia County, Florida with his second wife, Agnes M. Dimmock. Harold Lawrence McPheeters (1923- ) writes: "I do know that Grandpa Lattin regularly drank whiskey. He wanted an inch of whiskey a day, and much preferred that it be in a milk bottle rather than in a regular shot glass. Uncle Dewey told me that they lived near his parents in Lake Helen at that time, and they often found Jarvis quite well lubricated with a bottle of whiskey in which he had placed [a] considerable [amount of] sugar. They felt that Jarvis treated Agnes badly in that he would not buy her new clothes or shoes and expected her to shoo away the flies attracted by the spilled sugar and whiskey. Elizabeth, Dewey's wife, told me how she once embarrassed Jarvis into buying Agnes a new pair of shoes. Dewey had ... told me, 'My Father was as close to the Devil as there was, and my Mother as close to an Angel.'"

Arrest: "Jarvis Lattin who was arrested yesterday on a charge of assault against his wife in their Lake Helen home Monday afternoon will not be tried until his health has improved considerably, ... Lattin was removed from the county jail this afternoon to the DeLand Memorial hospital on recommendation of his physician, Dr. Hugh West. The 84-year-old retired banker is reported to be suffering from acute alcoholism." (Source: The Daytona Beach Morning Journal on December 4, 1936 ) Note: I am not aware that he was ever a banker.

Death: Jarvis died on February 21, 1941 in Lake Helen, Volusia County, Florida.

Obituary: "Deland, Florida. Mr. Jarvis A. Lattin, 87-year-old Lake Helen resident, died in his home there at 5 o'clock Friday morning, having been in poor health for several years. Born May 29. 1853 in Farmingdale, Long Island, New York, where he spent most of his life as a pickle manufacturer, he retired and moved to West Volusia County 15 years ago. Accompanied by Mrs. Alice Fletcher of Lake Helen, the body was forwarded to Farmingdale for the funeral and burial this afternoon. The Allen-Summerhill Company had charge of local arrangements." (Source: Orlando Evening Star on February 22, 1941)

Burial: His body was transported back to Long Island by train and he was buried in Powell Cemetery in Hempstead, Long Island.

Memories about Jarvis Lattin: Julia Ann Lattin (1880-1960) wrote in her death-bed memoir the following: "My father was born in Farmingdale on May 29th, 1853. As a young man of 20 years he worked for a short time on the Long Island Railroad selling foodstuffs on the train. He was the youngest of eleven children and had a roaming disposition and left home to see the world. He got as far as Lake City, Iowa and a short time later met his future wife to be, a Mary Jane Puckett, who was a young school teacher at the time. After about six months, [on October 15, 1874] they were married and lived in Iowa for about one year when my oldest sister was born. Then they came back to Long Island for about three or four years where my next older sister and I was born. But my dad still had that longing for the Old West where things were rugged, so he left again and settled in Nebraska near the Niobrara River, which was 20 miles from from the nearest town called Atkinson. This was a very lonely place. Dad had bought quite a number of farm implements on time, but things were bad, so he could not pay for them, and they were taken from him. My mother had a cow and a feather bed given to her from her parents, so they could not take them for payment, and dad decided to try his luck in mining gold in the Black Hills of Dakota. That left my mother alone with the children right across the river from the Indians, but they were friendly and traded many things which were allowed them from the government. I remember especially some blankets from them. They were rather dark blue with a black border. My mother used to leave the baby [in] bed [in the] morning when she had to cross a stream on a foot-log to milk her cow. One day starting back with her milk, she saw the child starting to creep across the foot-log to meet her, and just in the middle of the stream the child fell overboard in the water. Mother sat her milk pail down and ran and jumped in after her, catching hold of her night dress. It was a puzzle to know how she got herself and the child on the foot log again, as the water was deep in places. Finally she managed to get her skirt off in the water and fastened the child with that until she climbed up herself. We only had a cook stove for heat, and when I was a little more than a year old, I was sitting in a high chair near the stove to keep warm and my mother was combing her hair with her head bent over when she heard a terrible scream. I had fallen on the stove. My sister [Catherine Lavinia Lattin], 1 1/2 years older had pushed the chair. My left eye had hit one of the galvanized balls on the stove leaving the skin on it, causing me to lose sight in that eye. The eye was almost closed. The doctor operated on it three times, but it did not improve the sight. I was seven years old the last operation, and they laid me right on the floor. We used to sleep in the trundle beds. When not in use the one is pushed under the other. ... I have two baby brothers buried out there. When my oldest sister, [Mary Esther Lattin], was seven years old [in 1882], she was bitten by a rattlesnake. It had thirteen rattles. She had a little dog with her and it killed the snake. They could not wait so long for a Dr. to come from town and my dad cut the fang out and sucked the poison till the Dr. arrived. Mother had her on a pillow for weeks with bread and milk poultices, but she carried the mark to her grave. It was a hollow spot about the size of a quarter just below the knee. When I was 8 years old we moved back to Long Island. This was just about 10 days before the blizzard in 1888 [which started March 11, 1888 and ended March 14, 1888]. I can remember my father carrying bags of coal home on his back as no trucks could get through. During the blizzard, we children were in a dark room in bed with the measles we had caught on the train coming East. In [the] year (1909) my parents moved to the Isle of Pines, just south of Cuba, which was populated at that time by 90% Americans. They had expected that the United States would take it over, but several years later it was turned over to Cuba. My parents (Jarvis Andrew Lattin and Mary Jane Puckett) celebrated their 50th wedding anniversary (on October 15, 1924) there, and my sister Eva, and I made them a surprise visit. They were so happy to see us. The boat made only two trips a week between Cuba and the island. We had our luggage inspected in Havana and spent one night there. It took about two hours to cross Cuba by train, and the boat was waiting for us. It was just an overnight trip to the Isle of Pines, and it was so calm there was hardly a ripple on the water. But we did experience a very bad hurricane while there. every one boards up their windows when they see the storm approaching. After Cuba took over the island, many of the Americans left and went back to the States as my parents did. They settled in a little town in Florida, and a few years later my mother passed away, and was brought back north to our home town for burial. Father spent most of his remaining years in Florida, but things were not the same. He also passed away at 88 years of age and was laid beside my mother [in the Powell Cemetery]."

Harold L. McPheeters writes in The Ancestors and Descendants of Jarvis Andrew and Mary Jane (Puckett) Lattin (1989): "Jarvis Andrew Lattin was born 29 May 1853 in Farmingdale, Queens Co., New York. He married Mary Jane Puckett 15 October 1874 in Jasper Township, Carroll Co., Iowa. Mary Jane died 29 October 1827 in Florida and Jarvis then married Agnes Dimmock. Jarvis died 21 February 1941 in Florida. Ancestors lived primarily in New York and descendants in Ohio, Virginia, North Carolina, Indiana, Iowa, Florida and elsewhere."

Research: Researched and written by Richard Arthur Norton (1958- ) for Findagrave starting on July 16, 2003. Updated on June 25, 2010 with information from a 1906 map. Updated on September 22, 2010 with the article on his arrest in Florida in 1936. Updated on August 2, 2013 with information from 1916 on the sale of land for pickles. Updated on July 15, 2014 with text from The Ancestors and Descendants of Jarvis Andrew and Mary Jane (Puckett) Lattin (1989). Updated on July 24, 2014 with the date of his second marriage. Updated on May 9, 2016 with the dates he was in Nebraska. Updated on July 26, 2017 with his letter from 1910. Updated on July 6, 2018 with his obituary. Updated on July 22, 2018 with the name of the river as "Niobrara River".

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