Jarvis Andrew Lattin (1853-1941)



Jarvis Andrew Lattin (1853-1941) sold fruits and vegetables on the Long Island Railroad. He was a sodbuster and gold prospector in the Black Hills of North Dakota from about 1875 till 1888. He was deputy sheriff for Glen Cove in 1898 and started the Jarvis Lattin Co. making pickles and sauerkraut by 1906. He lived on the Isle of Pines 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

 * Henry K. Lattin (1806-1894) aka Henry K. Latting
 * Julia Wood (1813-1873)

Birth
Jarvis was born in 1853 in Farmingdale, Long Island, New York.

Siblings

 * Mary E. Lattin (1833-1874) who married Charles Powell
 * George Lattin (1837-?)
 * Julietta Lattin (1839-?)
 * William H. Lattin (1842-1871) who married Ella T. X
 * Phebe Maria Lattin (1845-1868)
 * Susannah Lattin (1848-1868) who died post partum in a medical scandal
 * Smith Lattin (1849-?)
 * Charles G. Lattin (1850-1869)
 * Deborah Jane Lattin (1858-1861)

Marriage
Jarvis followed the railroad out to Iowa in 1874. He married Mary Jane Puckett (1854-1927) on October 15, 1874 in Jasper Township, Carroll County, Iowa.

Children
All the children except Mary Esther Lattin were born in Farmingdale:
 * Mary Esther Lattin (1875-1895) who was born on Iowa and later 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)

Market man
The family appears in the 1880 US Census living in Oyster Bay and Jarvis is listed as a "marketman". Living with him was his widowed father, Henry Lattin. Jarvis in 1880 was selling foodstuffs on the trains of the Long Island Rail Road.

Farming in Nebraska then to Black Hills of Dakota
Jarvis moved to Nebraska near the Niobrori River, which was about 20 miles from Atkinson. 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. His daughter, Julia Ann Lattin (1880-1960) wrote: 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 of a morning when she had come 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.

Pickle Factory
In 1888 Jarvis started a pickle and sauerkraut factory in Farmingdale. There were many companies already established in the area. He had a house built on the land next to the factory. The factory in 1894 was sold to Aaron Stern (1876-?) and it became the "Stern and Lattin Pickle Company" and later "Stern and Brauner". It was also listed as "Stern Pickle Products, Inc." and "Stern's Pickle Works". It was at 111 Powell Place off of Melville Road and lasted until 1985.

Deputy sheriff
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 reported 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 is for less than five months services and amounts to $568. This bill came before the board for audit 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); 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
The Isle of Pines was ceded to the United States during the Spanish-American War of 1898. The Platt Amendment defined Cuba's boundaries at the end of the war, but because the island wasn't specifically mentioned in the amendment, it was claimed by both the United States and the new Cuban government. In 1907, the United States Supreme Court made a decision on the island, declaring it belonged to Cuba. In 1909 Jarvis moved with his wife and unmarried children to the island. On Tuesday, March 23, 1909; Tuesday, August 30, 1910; and Monday, June 24, 1912, Jarvis returned to New York City from Havana, Cuba. These must have been his first trips back from Cuba where he bought land and a dry goods store near Santa Barbara on the Isle of Pines.

While in Cuba he was involved in a smear campaign against Charles Henry Grosvenor (1833-1917) who did not support having the island become part of the United States.

His daughter, Julia Ann Lattin (1880-1960), wrote: "We 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." The island was formally ceded to Cuba in 1925.

Florida
Jarvis on his return from Cuba in 1924, settled in Lake Helen, Florida and his wife passed away on October 29, 1927. In 1928 he married Agnes M. Dimmock (1861-1937).

Memories about Jarvis Lattin

 * Harold Lawrence McPheeters (1923- ) writes: "I do know that grandpa Lattin regularly drank whiskey. He wanted an inch (25 mm) 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 nearby 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 [Lattin] had told me, 'My father was as close to the Devil as there was, and my mother as close to an Angel.'"
 * Earl Vincent Winblad (1916-2004) said on March 03, 1999: "I went to Cuba [in 1924] to visit my maternal grandparents Jarvis Andrew Lattin and Mary Jane Puckett with my mother, Eva and her sister, Julia Lattin. We went down for their wedding anniversary. I remember that Jarvis was a drinker and when I was playing outside the house his dog would run around the yard and hit the porch swing. The noise of the swing creaking back and forth would wake up Jarvis. He put whiskey in the dog's water so he wouldn't make noise anymore. There was a porch that ran all the way around the house."
 * Harold Lawrence McPheeters (1923- ) wrote on April 14, 2012: "Jarvis was a crusty old man who lit strike-anywhere matches to light his cigars and then used a knife to whittle the end of the match stick so he could stick it in the very end of his cigar butt and smoke it down to 1/4 inch. He also wanted an inch of whiskey a day - preferrably in a milk bottle. According to what my Uncle Dewey later told me, Jarvis's whiskey problem worsened in later years.  I recall Jarvis telling me that from his years in the Dakotas, 'There is no good Indian except a dead Indian.' "

Death and Burial
Jarvis died in 1941 in Lake Helen, Florida, and is buried in Powell Cemetery, Hempstead, New York.

Lawsuits

 * Jarvis A. Lattin v. Town of Oyster Bay, 34 Misc. 568 (1901) April 1901
 * Jarvis A. Lattin, Suing as James A. Lattin, Respondent, v. Edith E. Saitta, Appellant, Impleaded with Frank C. McLain and Another (1907) January 1907

Timeline

 * 1853 Birth of Jarvis Andrew Lattin in Farmingdale, Queens County, Long Island on May 29, 1853
 * 1860 United States Census in Farmingdale
 * 1870 United States Census in Farmingdale
 * 1872 (circa) Selling food on Long Island Railroad trains
 * 1872 (circa) Migration westward following railroad
 * 1872 (circa) Settle in Carroll County, Iowa
 * 1874 Marriage to Mary Jane Puckett in Carroll County, Iowa on October 15, 1874
 * 1875 Birth of Mary Esther Lattin, his child, in Iowa
 * 1976 (circa) Move from Iowa back to Farmingdale, Queens County, Long Island
 * 1878 Birth of Catherine Lavinia Lattin, his child, in Farmingdale on May 11, 1878
 * 1880 Birth of Julia Ann Lattin, his child, in Farmingdale on January 7, 1880
 * 1880 Henry Lattin, his father, living in his household
 * 1880 Working as marketman on Long Island
 * 1880 United States Census with Jarvis as Head of Household in April
 * 1881 (circa) Move to Holt County, Nebraska
 * 1881 (circa) Julia Ann Lattin, his daughter, age 1, falls onto stove and loses use of one eye
 * 1882 (circa) Mary Esther Lattin, his daughter, age 7, is bitten by rattlesnake
 * 1882 Birth of William Henry Lattin, his child, in Holt County, Nebraska on April 24, 1882
 * 1882 Death of William Henry Lattin, his child, in Holt County, Nebraska on August 12, 1882
 * 1884 Birth of Myrtle Adelia Lattin, his child, in Holt County, Nebraska on March 28, 1884
 * 1885 (circa) Lose farm to creditors
 * 1885 (circa) Move to The Black Hills, Dakota Territory to mine gold
 * 1886 Birth of Deluth Andrew Lattin, his child, in Holt County, Nebraska on August 5, 1886
 * 1887 Death of Deluth Andrew Lattin, his child, in Holt County, Nebraska on September 19th
 * 1888 Move from Holt County, Nebraska back to Farmingdale, Long Island, New York
 * 1888 Blizzard leaves 40 inches (1 m) of snow in New York on March 11th to 12th
 * 1888 (circa) Working at pickle and sauerkraut factory
 * 1888 (circa) Build house in Farmingdale, Long Island
 * 1888 Birth of Jennie Alice Lattin, his child, in Farmingdale on July 9th
 * 1890 Birth of Charles A. Lattin, his child, in Farmingdale on December 9th
 * 1892 Birth of Eva Ariel Lattin in Farmingdale on February 19th
 * 1894 Birth of Frederick E. Lattin, his child, in Farmingdale on March 13, 1894
 * 1894 Death of Frederick E. Lattin, his child, in Farmingdale on April 24,1894
 * 1895 Birth of Effie Jeanette Lattin, his child, in Farmingdale on July 9th
 * 1895 Death of Mary Esther Lattin, his child, in Farmingdale on October 1st
 * 1898 Birth of Dewey Ernest Lattin I, his child, in Farmingdale on September 16th
 * 1900 United States Census
 * 1901 Birth of Theodore Roosevelt Lattin, his child, in Farmingdale on August 31st
 * 1904 Treaty recognizing Cuba's sovereignty over Isle of Pines negotiated
 * 1909 Purchase of 20 acres (81,000 m²) on the Isle of Pines, Cuba in October
 * 1909 Return from Havana, Cuba to New York City on March 23, 1909
 * 1910 Return from Havana, Cuba to New York City on August 30th
 * 1910 Return from Havana, Cuba to New York City on June 24th with Mary Jane, his wife
 * 1916 Sale of property to Stern and Brauner in Farmingdale
 * 1918 Passport application
 * 1920 Passport application
 * 1920 United States Census with Jarvis in Cuba
 * 1924 Eva Lattin and Earl Winblad trip to Cuba
 * 1924 Celebration of 50th wedding anniversary on Isle of Pines, Cuba on October 15th
 * 1924 Treaty recognizing Cuba's sovereignty over Isle of Pines ratified
 * 1925 (circa) Move from Cuba to Lake Helen, Volusia County, Florida
 * 1927 Death of Mary Jane Puckett, his wife, on October 29, 1927
 * 1928 Marriage to Agnes M. Dimmock (1861-1937)
 * 1930 United States Census
 * 1941 Death of Jarvis Andrew Lattin in Florida on February 21, 1941
 * 1941 Burial in the Powell Cemetery, Hempstead, New York

Research

 * This article is researched and written by Richard Arthur Norton (1958- ). Jarvis Andrew Lattin (1853-1941) is Richard Arthur Norton (1958- )'s great aunt's father. This biography was originally written for Findagrave.