NOTE:  Mother of five Sinnock boys (oldest to youngest): William Pike, Robert Letton, Charles Burton Baker, Burton Summers and James Marion
daughter of Reuben Pike Letton and Permelia Kavanaugh. The following is transcribed from an audio tape about family recollections in 1995 by Roberta Kell Sinnock, Mary's granddaughter.

Mary came from an interesting family. Reuben Pike Letton, Mary's dad, enlisted under General Scott in 1846 for the war with Mexico and served 4 years until the war ended. During the Morman War he freighted stock for the government to Salt Lake City. Born near Rockville, Maryland, he moved to Otero CO in 1875 and settled with his family on the Apishapah River, then to Trinidad, CO, back to Otero. Otero was finally abandoned when he moved to Raton, New Mexico, a new town founded by the railroad company. He built the first house in Raton, was known as "Pap", and died there after a long illness. Reuben, Parmelia and family had 5 live-in black servants in 1870 in Missouri. At least two of their boys fought for the confederacy. Reuben, however, having served 14 years in the US army fighting the Mexican war before the Civil war broke out, refused to fight for the confederacy against his own army, though perhaps sympathetic to the cause. A dillemma from census records occurs about where the Lettons came down on the side of the issue of the day, slavery. Some were proud Confederates; others refused to abandon the Union. Four blacks living at the Letton farm in 1870 were given the Letton name. One, Sarah, maybe Sarah Lauderdale, had children with Reuben's son, Archibald. Reuben was a significant landholder with an estimated value of $7,200 in 1860 reduced to $3,750 10 years later after the war. Reuben's wife, Permelia, is listed as both black and white with similar young 'uns in the 1870 Clay and Washington Township census's. Mary's brothers old enough fought for the confederacy during the Civil War. From Wikepedia, 2012, "Lafayette County, Missouri" where the family settled:

Lafayette County was settled primarily from migrants from the Upper Southern South, states of Kentucky, Tennessee and Virginia. They brought slaves and slaveholding traditions with them and quickly started cultivating crops similar to those in Middle Tennessee and Kentucky: hemp and tobacco. Lafayette County was one of several settled mostly by Southerners. Given their culture and traditions, this area became known as Little Dixie. In 1860 slaves made up 25 percent or more of the county's population. Residents generally supported the Confederacy during the Civil War.