Lathrop Catch-Up

If I have neglected the Lathrops, I am not alone — well known Lake County historians, such as the Rev. T.H. Ball and Sam Woods, skipped over them as well.

Samuel Lathrop was born in Ohio around 1822. By 1853 he had come to Lake County, Indiana, for that was the year he married the 30-year-old Mariah Castle — a widow, I gather, with four young children from her first marriage. In 1856 Samuel and Mariah had their first child (or first to survive), George. Charles, their second and last, was born in 1860.

I cannot find any evidence that Samuel served in the Civil War.

The 1860 census shows them near the Chester family, which may mean that Samuel already owned the land that bore his name in 1874:


(Click on image to enlarge)

In December 1880, as we know, George Lathrop married Eva Niles. In 1885 Charles Lathrop married Emma Jacobs.

After his disastrous career as an assistant postmaster, George seems to have made a success as a wholesaler buyer of apples for resale in Chicago and perhaps locally. He traveled widely in search of good fruit, including to Illinois, Colorado, New York, Utah — and, of course, Michigan, where he met his second wife.

In 1901 came a great change: the Lathrop farm was sold to Gib Bullock. A "Mr. Lathrop" bought a lot and house in Ainsworth from John Ols — that would probably be George, as we soon find him moving himself and his father from the farm they had just sold. Perhaps George's son, Samuel (Jr.), lived with them for a time, as he was "operating a feed mill at Ainsworth." George and Samuel Jr. bought some threshing machinery from the Aultman Co. of Ohio.

An even greater change came in March 1903. George uprooted his family and moved to Portland, Michigan, where he owned a fruit farm. "His family" was pretty small — besides his wife, it may have included his father and his son from his first marriage (Samuel Jr.). But the first child of his second marriage was born in Michigan.

As for brother Charles and his wife, Emma — by 1910 they too had moved to Michigan, taking their two youngest children (Earl and Etta) with them, their two oldest children (Henry and Clara) having apparently left home already. But I am not sure what happened to their marriage. This report on Earl's death has some suggestive wording:

Mrs. Catherine Pierce and sister, Louise, and brothers, John, Adam and Henry Jacobs, went to Muskegon, Mich., to attend the funeral on Wednesday of their nephew, Earle Lathrop, who died Sept. 22 at the home of his mother, Mrs. Chas. Austin, formerly Emma Jacobs-Lathrop. Earle was her youngest son, and was born Oct. 18, 1898, near Ainsworth, and was said to have been a most promising young man. Besides his parents, he is survived by one brother and two sisters.

(Emphasis added.) Make of that what you will, but to me it sounds like divorce.

And now, dear Reader, you know as much as I do about the Lathrops.


Sources:
♦ 1860 Census
♦ 1870 Census.
♦ 1874 Plat Map.
♦ 1880 Census.
♦ 1900 Census.
♦ "General News Items." Hobart Gazette 18 Jan. 1901; 5 Apr. 1901; 26 Dec. 1902; 6 Mar. 1903.
♦ Indiana Marriage Collection.
♦ "Local Drifts." Hobart Gazette 6 Oct. 1899; 7 Sept. 1900; 20 Sept. 1901; 4 Oct. 1901; 26 Dec. 1902; 28 Sept. 1917.