Sacramento County
Biographies
S. HENRY
LETTNER
S.
HENRY LETTNER—Posterity will ever honor, as his contemporaries always
highly esteemed him, the late S. Henry Lettner, one
of the sturdiest and most progressive of he early pioneers of Sacramento County. He was a native of Germany, and after he came to America as a boy of twelve years he lived in Washington D.C., until in 1847, when he went with a
party to Mexico, and was a soldier in the Mexican War,
as a sergeant. Then, while still very young, he crossed into California, in 1848. As a youth of only nineteen,
he went into the mines at Coloma, and while in Sacramento he lived for a time at Sutter’s Fort. In
1849 he located in Yolo County, and bought a Mexican land grant three
miles east of Davis. He farmed to grain for many years, and
built barns, etc., and in 1862 he erected a brick house, which is sill
standing. He sold this ranch in the seventies.
In 1854, Mr. Lettner
returned to Europe and married Louise Glockler, a
native of Carlsruhe, bringing her out to California by way of the Isthmus of Panama, Their three children were born in California. Only one of the family is now living, Lena, now Mrs. P. C. Drescher,
of 1423
H Street, Sacramento. The other children were Louise, who
died in early youth, and Fannie, who became the wife of Maj. Wm. Kopp, residing
in Germany until her death.
Mr. and Mrs. Lettner
were splendid examples of the heroic, thrifty, and progressive pioneers, who
not only encountered many obstacles and experienced losses, but also endured
hardships both for the sake of their own kin and descendants and the benefit of
all who might come after them. Mr. Lettner was a
Mason and a Knight Templar, and he was also a member of the Society of
California Pioneers.
Transcribed
by Gloria Wiegner Lane.
Source: Reed, G. Walter,
History of Sacramento County, California With Biographical Sketches, Page 610. Historic Record Company, Los Angeles, CA. 1923.
© 2007 Gloria Wiegner
Lane.