SIXTH GENERATION: DESCENDANTS OF JOHN HIATT, JR.
(995.) JAMES M. HIATT (335.) (69.) (10.) (2.) (1.):
b. 22-4mo-1839, Centerville, Wyane Co., Indiana; m. MARY FRETWELL; b. 23-4mo-1830. No children.Excerpts from letters James M. Hiatt wrote in 1906 to Jesse M. Hiatt: “Returning to myself, I will say that I acquired a classical educations at my own expense, and by my own labor between terms, at the cabinet maker’s trade, which I learned of my father. Since graduation and maturity, I have been an almost constant drudge at the pen. Was chief war correspondent of the Cin. Gazette. Have since the Civil War, worked in various capacities for a number of metropolitan dailies. Have, meantime, added a knowledge of French, German and Dutch to my lingual; stock of Hebrew, Greek and Latin, and have written 14 books, of Loyalty,” “The Ribbon Workers, Greek and Latin, and have written 14 books, of which ‘The Political Manual,’ ‘The Vote’s Text Book,’ ‘The Test of Loyalty,’ The Ribbon Workers,’ and a ‘History of the Horse,’ are the chief works. ‘The Test of Loyalty’ was a war novel, and ‘The Ribbon Workers’ was a temperance book written at Chicago, in 1878-9, under contract, for J. W. Goodspeed and Co., Publishers, of New York and Chicago.
“In the latter part of 1879 I became traveling Editor of Wallace’s Monthly, then the leading trotting-horse authority of the world. It was published in New York. For it I traveled all over Europe and America, and during that time wrote my History of the Horse, which traces the horse back to the five primeval races, and which was, by the London Live Stock Journal, pronounced ‘The best and most scholarly History of the Equine language.’ --- I quote the English paper’s own words verbatim.
“After Wallace’s death his magazine went out of print. Since than I have had Editorial connections with about all the horse papers, and am now associate Editor of The Spirit of the West, published at Des Moines, Iowa. I was 7 years on the Western Horseman, of Indpls, and left it lately for my present connection.
“… You ask about me and my family. I have a wife, about my own age --- a little older, though - born April 23, 1830, and her maiden name was Mary Fretwell. But we have no children. She is one of the noblest of women, and is of English extraction …..You ask for my brothers and sisters. I have none. They all died in infancy. Two of them were dead born.” (These letters were written from Kahoka, Mo.; Mr. Hiatt’s pen name was ‘Mark Field’ --- editor.) (R24).