Biographical Sketch of John Y. LATTA (1893); Chester County, PA Contributed for use in USGenWeb Archives by John Morris . Copyright. All Rights Reserved. http://www.usgwarchives.net/copyright.htm http://www.usgwarchives.net/pa/pafiles.htm ********************************************************* Source: "Biographical and Portrait Cyclopedia of Chester County, Pennsyl- vania, comprising a historical sketch of the county," by Samuel T. Wiley and edited by Winfield Scott Garner, Gresham Publishing Company, Phila- delphia, PA, 1893, pp. 622-4. "JOHN Y. LATTA, a representative farmer and stock dealer of Parkesburg, is a member of a family which has acquired considerable distinction in the reli- gious annals of this section. He is a son of Rev. James and Jane (Sutton) Latta, and was born on the farm where he now resides, in Sadsbury township, Chester county, Pennsylvania, January 31, 1827. "His paternal grandfather, James Latta, was born in the north of Ireland, of Scotch-Irish parentage, and while yet a boy made his way to America and settled in the southern part of Lancaster county, Pennsylvania. He became a Presbyterian minister, and for many years preached regularly at Chestnut Level, that county. At his home there he died about 1800, aged 60 years, and his remains rest in the cemetery connected with the church he so faithfully served, at Chestnut Level. He married Mary McCalla, of Bucks county, and reared a family of eight children, four sons and four daughters. The daugh- ters were Mary, Margaret, Elizabeth and Sarah. "Sarah was the only one of the four who married, and she wedded a Presby- terian minister named Thomas Love, who preached during a number of years at Red Clay creek, near Wilmington, Delaware, and had one daughter, Mary, who married Stephen Springer, and now resides near Wilmington, on the old home- stead. "The sons were Francis A., William, John, and James, and one after another they all entered the pulpit, and became eloquent and successful ministers in the church of their father. "Rev. Francis A. Latta, the eldest son, was born April 27, 1766. He was or- dained as a Presbyterian clergyman November 23, 1796, and was pastor success- ively of Presbyterian churches in Wilmington, Delaware, and at Lancaster and Chestnut Level, Pennsylvania, in which latter place he also maintained a classical school for many years. In the year 1826 he removed to Sadsbury township, Chester county, and established the Moscow academy, a classical and literary institution, which flourished for some years. he was a man of remarkably well cultivated mind, a poet of no mean order, a very superior classical and Hebrew scholar, and one of the greatest instructors of his day. He was able in debate, discriminating and decided in judgment, and a model in the pulpit. In his manners he was social, and in his deportment humble and unostentatious. He died April 21, 1834. "Rev. William Latta, the second son, was born in Bucks county, Pennsylvania, in May, 1768. He graduated at the university of Pennsylvania in 1794, was licensed by the Presbytery of New Castle, and became pastor of the congrega- tions at Great Valley and Charlestown, Chester county, October 1, 1799, in which relation he continued until his death, February 19, 1847, a period of over forty-seven years. He was created a doctor of divinity by Lafayette college, Easton, Pennsylvania. He was a student and a scholar, and his preparations for the pulpit were made with close study and care. In the church he was highly esteemed, and by appointment of the general assembly held the office of trustee of that body for many years. he was also a direc- tor in the Princeton Theological seminary. The general assembly of 1847, in noticing his death, spoke of him as 'one of the venerable fathers of the Presbyterian church.' On occasion of the reception of General Lafayette at West Chester, in July, 1825, the Rev. William Latta made a prayer very re- markable for its touching sentiments, fervid eloquence, and patriotic spirit. "James Latta (father) was the youngest son of the immigrant, James Latta, and was born in Lancaster county, this State, about 1789. He was graduated from Princeton college at the age of twenty, and shortly afterward from Princeton Theological seminary. While yet a young man, about the beginning of the present century, he left his native place and came to Chester county; and a few years after his arrival here he purchased and settled on the farm now owned by the subject of this sketch. Here he continued to reside until his death in 1862, when in the seventy-second year of his age. His secular employment was that of a farmer, and in its prosecution he was alike ener- getic and successful. But he also continued his labors for the church, and for more than forty years preached regularly in the Octoraro Presbyterian church. He was chiefly instrumental in the erection of the Presbyterian churches at Atglen and Christiana, this county, and preached at those churches for eight or ten years. He had scarcely reached his majority when he was given charge of a church, and he remained an active worker in the cause of Christ all his life, almost literally 'dying in the harness.' During his long ministry in the Octoraro church he beheld the birth, growth and death of a generation, assisting continuously in the baptismal, marriage and funeral rites made necessary by the changing phases of the deep current of actual life among his people. His name became a household word in all the surrounding country, and he stood high both as a citizen and a preacher. "Politically he was an old-line whig, but never took any active part in politics, preferring to find a field for his activity in the line of his religious work. He married Jane Sutton, a daughter of John Sutton, of Dela- ware, by whom he had a family of five children, two sons and three daughters: Dr. William, who was for many years a practicing physician of Sadsbury town- ship, and died in 1872, aged forty-five years, leaving a family of eight chil- dren - Dr. Samuel, William, John, Thomas, Jane, Mary, Margaret, and Helen; John Y., whose name heads this sketch; Mary, married William Armstrong, and died about 1867, leaving six children: Margaret, deceased at the age of twenty-one; and Eliza, who wedded John A. Parke, a farmer of Highland town- ship, this county. Mrs. Jane Latta was a native of Delaware, a strict member of the Presbyterian church, and died in 1842, at the age of forty-five years. "John Y. Latta was reared on the home farm and received a liberal education in the Chester county academy and similar institutions of learning at Stras- burg and Wilmington. On leaving school he engaged in farming on the old homestead, and agricultural pursuits were so agreeable to his disposition that he has devoted his entire life to cultivating the farm on which he was born, and which passed into his possession in 1862. The farm consists of one hundred and fifty-seven acres of valuable land, well improved, and con- veniently located on the Philadelphia and Lancaster turnpike, two miles from Parkesburg. In addition to this farm Mr. Latta also owns one hundred and eighty acres of land in this county. Beside his farm operations he has, since 1860, been a large live stock dealer, being for more than twenty years a member of the well known stock firm of Latta & Phipps, who were engaged in shipping cattle from the west to the Philadelphia markets. Mr. Phipps died in 1880, and since that time Mr. Latta has continued the stock business by himself, but not so extensively as before. For a time he dealt in sheep and cattle, but now handles cattle exclusively, and has been remarkably success- ful in this business. "On April 6, 1876, Mr. Latta was united in marriage with Martha Rupert, a daughter of William Rupert, of this county. She died in 1880, in the thirty- first year of her age, leaving two sons; James and William. In politics Mr. Latta is a democrat, and has served for a number of years as school director of his township. He is one of the directors of the Parkesburg National bank, and occupies the same position in the Parkesburg Building and Loan associa- tion. Being affable in manner, prompt and energetic in business, and thor- oughly reliable in every relation of life, it is doubtful if there is a better known or more popular man in the entire township.