John Wesley Luttrell

1856-1938

Lynn County News, July 1938

One by one the older settlers of Lynn County are passing away.

John Wesley Luttrell, one of the few citizens still holding the land originally filed upon in Lynn County, and a prominent citizen here for many years, died last Saturday morning just as the day began to break. He had passed his eighty-second birthday January 24. He had been ill about three years of paralysis and complications.

Funeral services were held at the Luttrell homestead Sunday afternoon at 3 o’clock, Rev. J.W. Braswell, Lamesa, pastor of the Redwine Baptist church, and an old time friend, conducted the services. Burial followed in Tahoka cemetery, under the direction of Harris Funeral Home.

Mr. Luttrell was born Jan. 24, 1856, at Louisville, Kentucky. At the age of 23, he married Miss Betty Ann Pickrell, who died and was buried here in 1907. For a time he lived in Kansas, moving from there to Bronte, Coke County, and from that place to Lynn County. Mr. Luttrell filed on three sections of land about 12 miles southeast of Tahoka in November in November 1901, Tahoka not yet having been established, however. He helped organize the county, and for many years took an active part in its affairs. At his death he still owned two sections of this land he had held nearly 37 years. He was a member of the Christian Church.

The deceased is survived by three sons and five daughters, the sons being Wesley T. And Robert R. Luttrell of Portales, New Mexico; the daughters, Mrs. Minnie King, Mrs. Lula Traweek, Mrs. Hanna Nordyke, Mrs. Ruth McDonald, and Mrs. Daisy Henry, all of Tahoka.

All of the children, and a son-in-law, A.D. Mayfield of Grady, New Mexico whose wife died eleven years ago, were present at the funeral.

Though realizing this highly respected man had lived longer than the average human, numberless friends and acquaintances are grieving because of his passing, and join The News in expressing sympathy to his surviving relatives

Provided by Faye Nordyke Kennedy

Contributed by John King.