Latta Ancestry – Four Generations in Canada (Part 3)

James Gilbert Latta (1852-1938) and Julia Ann Latta (1856-1946)

James Gilbert Latta was born in Latta, Hastings County, Ontario on March 12, 1852. His mother, Margaret Ann O'Donnell (1820-1912) who was born in Ireland, was 31 years of age. His father, Gilbert James Latta (1822-1906) who was born in Canada, was 29 years old. The following chart shows that he was the sixth of seven children (4 boys and 3 girls) and the youngest son. According to the 1901 Canada Census, James Gilbert was a sawyer in the lumber industry.

Family of Gilbert James Latta and Margaret Ann O'Donnell 

The Ontario Marriage Record (#003433) indicates that James G. Latta married his cousin Julia A. Latta on November 26, 1874 in Plainsfield, Hastings County, Ontario.

James G. Latta and Julia A. Latta - Marriage Record, 1874

James Gilbert and Julia Ann Latta

Their family chart shows that James Gilbert and Julia Ann had nine children in 16 years. In combination, the 1891 and 1901 Canada Census data states that James Gilbert and Julia Ann had the following children: Walter James (1873), Robert (1878), Bertie (1880), Maggie (1882), Millie (1884), and Norman (1889). In 1891, three more people were living in that household: their son Hulen (August 12, 1875), Sarah (Hulen’s wife born on June 30, 1881), and their son James G. (March 18, 1901).

Family of James Gilbert and Julia Ann Latta

When Julia Ann Latta was born in Latta Mills, Hastings County, Ontario on February 20, 1856, her father, Samuel Latta (1809-1885), was 47 and her mother, Caroline Stapley (1815-1890), was 40. The following chart shows that Julia Ann was the youngest of nine children in the family (5 girls and 4 boys). She died on March 28, 1946, in Thurlow Township, Hastings County, Ontario, at the age of 90.

Family of Samuel Latta and Caroline Stapley

Family Memoirs

According to the family memoirs written by their grandson, James Cyril Latta, “James Gilbert Latta and his wife Julia Ann were popular and well-loved members of the village community. They were members of the United Church and Gibby, as he was known, was a member of the Orange Lodge (for over sixty -five years). She was called Julie. They were first cousins. She was the daughter of Samuel Latta, the brother of Gibby’s father, Gilbert James Latta. They lived in the village of Latta, just across the road from the old gristmill. When Gibby retired, they packed up and moved to Plainsfield (two miles down the road).”

“Gibby worked all of his life in the lumber industry, both in the field and at his father’s lumber mill in Latta. The Latta’s owned timber rights north of Tweed as did E.B. Eddy and the Rathburns of Desoronto. Every fall and winter many men were employed in the lumber camps to send logs down the river in the Spring to various mills, even as far south as Belleville. By the late 1880’s local timber stocks were growing thin and the lumber industry moved further and further north. Gibby, an experienced sawyer and mill operator, always found work.” On February 8, 1893, the Belleville Intelligencer reported in “PLAINSFIELD NEWS:  J.G. Latta and his son (Walter) who have been employed by the Georgian Bay Lumber Company at Walmapactic, have arrived home.”

According to the Ontario Death Certificate (018537) shown below, James Gilbert Latta died of liver cancer on November 25, 1938 at 86 years old. He was buried in Plainsfield, Thurlow Township, Hastings County, Ontario.

James Gilbert Latta - Death Certificate 1938