Mrs. Lou Parks Letton, of Paris, is the widow of John Will Letton, representing one of the old families of Central Kentucky, and she is herself an interesting and capable representative of the Parks lineage.

The first of the Letton family in Kentucky were brothers, Ralph, Jack, Caleb, Brice and Michael, who came from Maryland. Ralph and Caleb, Brice and Michael, who came from Maryland. Ralph and Caleb settled near each other on Hingston Creek in Bourbon County. Jack settled near Little Rock in the same county, while Michael probably located in Nicholas County, where his son William lived. One of the early physicians near Little Rock was Dr. John Letton. Hervey W. Letton, a son of Caleb, lived near Jackstown on Hingston Creek, and died on the old farm of his father, Caleb. James, another son of Caleb, was killed by a horse he had imported from France while exhibiting the animal at Carlisle. His son, Rev. James Letton, was a minister of the Methodist Church.

John Will Letton was a son of Hervey W. Letton, and spent his active life on Hingston Creek. He died in 1910, and Mrs. Letton still owns a part of the old Caleb Letton farm.

Lou Parks, who became the wife of John Will Letton, is a daughter of Arthur Lee and Eliza Ann (Kincart) Parks, of Parks Ferry on Licking River in Nicholas County. Her grandfather, James Parks, came from Pennsylvania, married Jane Entrekin, lived for a time in Virginia, and coming to Kentucky, located near Millersburg for a year or two. Arthur Lee Parks was born in that locality in 1797. A year later the family moved to the vicinity of Carlisle. When Arthur L. was six years old, the family went to the farm in Licking River, where James Parks established the ferry. Arthur L., as a boy and young man, operated this ferry, and its ownership later passed to his brother Thompson, eight years his junior , who continued its ownership and operation until his death, at the age of ninety-four. The ferry was owned by the Parks family for almost 100 years, and after the death of Thompson it was sold. Thompson Parks served as a member of the Legislature, as did his father. Arthur L. Parks was county surveyor of Nicholas County, and spent his life near the old ferry, where he died in 1874. His wife Eliza Kincart, died at the age of twenty-eight, when Mrs. Letton was fifteen months old. Eliza Ann Kincart was a daughter of John and Isabel (Paxton) Kincart. John's father, Samuel Kincart, owned at one time the central part of Carlisle. John Kincart subsequently donated the ground for the courthouse square. The county erected a monument to John who was buried some eight miles away. However the body of Samuel Kincart rests in the old courthouse square, having been laid there when the ground was a peach orchard and a slab marks the spot today. John Kincart was county assessor for many years, and was one of the most popular citizens, widely known and esteemed as "Uncle John." He was Scotch-Irish, and some of his vivacious characteristics are inherited by Mrs. Letton. He died at the age of seventy-seven. The Paxtons were an old family near Carlisle, and Isabel Paxton Kincart died at the age of seventy. James Kincart, who looked after his parents during their declining years, was killed on the Lexington Branch Railroad, having been struck by a bridge as he put his head out of a window. He left a widow and four children. His youngest son; John Thomas Kincart, a painter by trade, grew up to the age of fourteen in the home of Mrs. Lou Letton, and still considers her home as his own.

After the death of her mother, Mrs. Letton was reared by her Grandmother Kincart to the age of fifteen and then became her father's housekeeper. All her married life has been spent in Bourbon County and after the death of her husband she capable managed the farm until March, 1920. Some years ago Mrs. Letton lost the use of her right arm, and has learned to write with her left hand. That is only one evidence of her great energy and her optimistic temperament. Without children of her own, she had done a mothers part by several of her relatives. Her nephew James Francis Owen, sone of her sister, Tabitha Frances Parks, who married Thornton Owen, was a railway employee at Emporia, Kansas, and through assistance given him by Mrs. Letton was enabled to take the dental course at Louisville University, entered the army and as a second lieutenant saw service in France, and is now in successful practice as a dentist at Georgetown. He makes his home with Mrs. Letton and never fails to be with her at the weekend.

[Book has picture of John W Letton and Mrs Lou Parks Letton on facing page]