GILMER MIRROR NEWSPAPER OBITUARY
L. A. Latch Passes Away in 94th Year After Colorful Life
Had Served in Confederate Army; Later Sheriff Here for Eight Years.
By Mrs. R. A. Clifton
At two-thirty on Sunday afternoon, October 30, about a thousand friends gathered
at Hopewell Cemetery, one mile from Latch, for the funeral of L. A.
Latch, known to, and loved by, the entire county as ?Daddy? Latch.
Louis Anderson Latch was born posthumously (five days following the death of
his father) on December 7, 1844, near Augusta, Georgia. He was the youngest
of a family of six sons and two daughters. He died on Saturday evening,
Oct 29, 1938, after an illness of about a week, being 93 years, 10 months, and
22 days old.
Since the small church at Hopewell could not begin to accommodate the
throng of people who came, the benches were moved outside, and the funeral
held out in the open. The simple gray casket, draped with a Confederate
flag, stood in a grove of sturdy old oak trees. Their leaves were tinged
with autumn?s rich coloring. They made a perfect canopy for the last rites
of one who had lived an outside life for long, long years. Close by was
the
cemetery, neat and clean and precise, a fitting spot for the last bivouac of
an old solider.
The funeral oration spoken by Rev. R. A. Clifton of Gilmer, a personal friend
and admirer of Daddy Latch, covered the story of his life so aptly
and so feelingly, that to review it here will be to give the best obituary possible.
Mr. Clifton began his address by commenting on the appropriateness of conducting
this particular funeral out in the open, saying that those who
knew well the deceased could not imaging his free sprit confined with walls,
averring that his body was not to be laid in the cold tomb, but in the warm
earth that he loved. Mention was made of the unusual life span of this
man and how he had witnessed all the changes that had taken place in the South
for
almost a century, but not as a spectator; he was an acting part of these movements.
Daddy Latch moved with his family to Arkansas when he was a very small child
and in his childhood and youth knew the hardships and dangers of pioneer
life.
At the age of 17 years, he enlisted in the army of the Confederacy, joining
the 8th Arkansas calvary under the command of General Joe Shelby. All
six
brothers of the Latch family were soldiers in the Confederate Army, two of them
died at Shiloh. Daddy Latch himself was wounded in the head, chest,
and leg. Mr. Clifton related the incident of his surgeon brother having
saved his younger brother?s leg from amputation, through resort to what was
practically military insubordination. But there are thousands of friends
who are grateful to this determined Dr. Latch, for otherwise we might not
have seen Daddy Latch dancing on the street corners nor have the memory of his
dancing at the Yamboree street dance only a year ago.
According to his own statement, the proudest moment of L. A. Latch?s life was
the occasion when he was cited for bravery by the Confederate Army
following an incident of heroism that provoked cheers, even from his Yankee
foes, for him and his faithful mare Dolly.
Following the Civil War, there was a period when Daddy Latch was associated
with Cole Younger in bushwhacking activities and there was a time when
he
was associated with Jesse James? famous band of outlaws. Following his
break with the James gang, he was successively a stage coach driver, a job
he gave up because he was unwilling to testify against a bandit he had thwarted
in a hold-up; a steamboat hand where he worked up to a position
comparable to that of purser; a deputy sheriff in Arkansas; a Pinkerton detective,
a calling he followed with considerable success.
In 1872, L. A. Latch was married to Miss Betty Sweet and to this marriage were
born thirteen children. One child died in infancy. All the others
lived to maturity, but only three of them survived their father.
In 1873, Daddy Latch moved to Upshur County where he became the owner of a
saw mill, an extensive land owner, and lived a peaceful, settled life for 25
years. After he had attained the age that would have seemed old to another,
he was elected sheriff of Upshur County and reelected for three additional
terms. His humane treatment of prisoners is one of the legends of this
county today.
After 49 years of marriage, his wife died in 1921, she who had been the sweetheart
of his youth, the wife of his maturity and the companion of his
old age. Daddy Latch had joined the Baptist Church when he was a youth
of 15 years, but later had changed his affiliation to the church of his wife?s
faith, the Methodist.
LEE, Era V. (Goodwin) (1904-1988)
b. 17 September 1904 in Upshur County, Texas; d. 11 January 1988 in Garrison,
Nacogdoches County, Texas; daughter of Ella Walker and John Goodwin; Methodist;
married Johnny Kyle Lee.
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