Lett Family Pictures
Contributed to Jennings County Public Library by Leland & Shirley (Joseph) James
The Lett family lived in Marion Township, and the children lived in neighboring counties also, such as Jackson & Scott.
These pictures were quite dark, so I lightened them up.
This tintype picture of Fielden Lett is explained by the newspaper article below, when he was running for local
office. He is on his horse prepared to go out and practice veterinary surgery.
NORTH VERNON BANNER
North Vernon, Jennings County, Indiana
October 22, 1890
FIELDEN LETT.
The subject of this sketch, Mr. Fielden Lett, is now before the voters of Jennings and Scott counties as a candidate for Joint Representative at the ensuing election in November next. Said voters may well ask as to his antecedents as a man of business and as a citizen. He was born September 25th, 1817, in Owen county, Ky. At the age of ten years he removed, with his father's family, to Jennings county, Indiana, and located on a tract of land which is now a part of his farm. Daniel Lett furnished his son Fielden with a suit of buckskin clothing and a grubbing hoe, and he was kept busy for the next nine years helping to clear and cultivate the farm. Fielden, by his father's permission, then commenced working on the Madison and Indianapolis railroad, then in course of construction, which was 1836. With the money earned at this work, he entered forty acres of land, which he still owns to-day. This purchase was the last thing he did before his father's death. By his good management and industry he soon acquired another eighty acre tract, making in all 120 acres in his possession before he was 21 years of age. He then married and moved onto his farm which was the basis of his future business operations. In time this small farm was increased by subsequent purchases until Mr. Lett was the owner of two thousand acres of land, but of course these lands were not in one body or farm. In conjunction with his farming he introduced into this county mule raising, and realized handsomely from it, as well as those who subsequently engaged in it. As a boy he was fascinated with the art of veterinary surgery, and in manhood his practice in this art caused him to visit the farms of his neighbors, those of other counties, and later, as his fame spread, he had frequent calls to adjoining States to practice the art. He being a profound thinker and very close observer, his mind was every day being cultivated in business interests pertaining to farms, farming, stock and stock raising of all kinds. His efforts toward bringing Jennings county to the front in the way of raising fine stock has been untiring, and to this fact the people of the county, and of the State, can point with pride.
Fielden Lett September 25, 1817 - September 28, 1917
Another tintype
This tintype has no identification except "Sons of Fielden Lett"
Daniel M. Lett August 13, 1839 - June 23, 1925
Jackson County Banner - June 24, 1925, Page 4
Lett - Daniel M.Lett, one of Jackson county's well known citizens, passed away at the home of his son. W. H. Lett, one and a half miles south of Crothersville, Tuesday evening at 5 o'clock of a complication of diseases aged 85 years, 10 months and 10 days. He had only been sick since Friday.
Deceased was born in Jennings county August 12, 1839. On September 16, 1865, he was united in marriage to Martha Jane Holbrook. Of this union were born five children of whom two, W. H. and H. M. Lett both of Vernon township, survive him. His wife preceeded him in death in 1918.
Funeral services will be conducted by the Rev. L. S. Sanders of Franklin at the Crothersville Baptist church Thursday afternoon at 2 o'clock. Burial in the Crothersville cemetery.
I believe this is Daniel M. Lett son of Fielden Lett and Diana Hougland. The picture is too recent to be one of the senior
Daniel Lett father of Fielden Lett, who died in 1837. I researched the photographer (Palace Railway Art Car.) and found the following. S.L.K.
Palace Art Car:Indiana Historical Society- Collection #P0197
This collection is dated circa - 1890
Jorns & Harrod - Hundreds of itinerant photographers sprang up in nineteenth century America, particularly in small towns whose limited populations and economies could not support resident photographers. Some traveled by wagons, while others rode the rails, plied the rivers, or endured dusty, rutted roads in carriages or stage coaches, stopping to herald their arrival and peddle their photographs to the locals. So it was that photographers Frederick Jorns and William L. Harrod of Girard, Illinois, established a resident photographic studio and a mobile studio which traveled the rails, stopping at towns in Illinois and Kentucky and Indiana One photo in the collection shows that the traveling studio of Jorns and Harrod was a modified baggage-passenger car. It was pulled by an engine from the Pittsburgh Cincinnati-Chicago & St. Louis R.R., with a coal/wood tandem car. The studio car was labeled with signs "Jorns & Harrod Palace Art Car Photographs, Views of All Kinds, Photos of Children Our Specialty." The Earlington Bee (of uncertain date), published in that western Kentucky mining town, carried a small ad and three promos of the Jorns-Harrod studio in the community. It noted that the studio had been in town "for several days . . . and [has] been doing a considerable amount of work." Readers were urged to "call at the Palace art car and see the fine lot of photographs they are showing. They guarantee their work to equal that of any city studio."
In this collection are pictures of Vernon, Seymour, Madison and other neighboring places, making it possible Daniel M. Lett who lived in Jackson county could have had a picture taken by them.
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