Jarvis Andrew Lattin

"I began planting in October of last year, and 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. … 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."

"The people of Farmingdale are well aware of the fact that the village has within the past year been overrun with tramps, and many of the best and influential citizens have requested me to allow no tramps to remain at large, well knowing the danger attending any place where so many tramps congregate. In doing my duty as an officer elected by the people."

"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 were 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 the nearest town called Atkinson. This was a very lonely place. …"

"Jarvis Andrew Lattin was born 29 May 1853 in Farmingdale, Queens County, New York. He married Mary Jane Puckett 15 October 1874 in Jasper Township of Carroll County, Iowa. Mary Jane Puckett was born 8 October 1854 in Randolph County, Indiana and died 29 October 1927 at Lake Helen, Volusia County, Florida. …"