BACKGROUND - LUCIAN B. LATHROP:
Lucian Lathrop was born on 7-18-1800 in Royalton, Vermont. He was the son of John and Azubah (Putnam) Lathrop. (For more information on the Putnam family contact Gaye Gindy). In 1822 he married Pamelia Cleveland (for more information on the Cleveland family contact Gaye Gindy), and moved to Pike Township, Allegany County, New York. They were engaged in hotel keeping and he served as Deputy Sheriff for 12 years. In 1834 they moved to what was Sylvania Township, Wood County, Ohio and at that time also considered part of Monroe County, Michigan. In 1836 the land that he owned became part of Sylvania Township, Lucas County, Ohio and in 1840 became part of Richfield Township, Lucas County, Ohio.
Lucian and Pamelia (Cleveland) Lathrop had the following children:
Mary Ann – born 1-3-1824 – died 12-15-1900
George – born 4-14-1825 – died 1825
Lorenzo – born 5-12-1827 – died 4-19-1910
Luther – born 10-18-1829 – died 3-20-1900
Miles – born 10-7-1831 – died 10-30-1900
James Jerome – born 6-30-1836 – died 1-10-1910
Helen – born 2-15-1839 – died 2-12-1913
Wilson – born 4-18-1842 – died 8-7-1864
Pamelia (Cleveland) Lathrop died on 8-4-1844 at the age of 42 years. On 3-11-1846 Lucian remarried – Larissa (Titus) Lathrop – she was born in 1806 and died on 8-3-1878 at the age of 72. Lucian B. Lathrop died on 5-9-1873.
In 1848 Lucian and his second wife Larissa moved from Richfield Township to Sylvania, and into the home at 5362 Main Street. In 1850 they added the two-story Colonial portion of the home.
Lucian B. Lathrop’s obituary notice reads as follows:
DEATH OF ANOTHER PIONEER – Col. Lucien B. Lathrop died at his residence in Sylvania about noon on Friday, after a year’s prostration of body and mind by a stroke of paralysis. The funeral will take place at 11 o’clock tomorrow (Sunday). Deceased was born in Royalton, Vt., on the 18th of July, 1800, where he remained until 1822, when he married Miss Pamelia Cleveland, and removed to Pike, Allegany county, N.Y. Here he was engaged in hotel keeping, and acting as Deputy Sheriff for 12 years, at the end of which time (1834) he came to the West, and purchased land of the Government in Richfield township, now Lucas county, he commenced the long, tedious and self-denying work of establishing a home in the very heart of the wilderness, with no neighbor nearer than four miles. Here, subject to all the trials and sufferings incident to pioneer life, he remained until 1848, when he went to Sylvania Village, which has been his residence since that date. Col. Lathrop was a man of more than ordinary ability and influence. Being ordained as a preacher by the Universalist Church, he labored in that capacity for about ten years. In 1850 he was elected as a Representative in the Legislature from Lucas county, served as Postmaster in Richfield for many years, and always commanded the confidence and respect of his fellow-citizens, not having an enemy among all his acquaintances. Mrs. Lathrop died in 1844, and in 1848 deceased married Miss Larissa Titus, who survives him, and though an invalid, was unremitting in her attentions to him during his long illness. He laves four sons - Lorenzo, Luther C. and James J., of Richfield, and Miles Lathrop of Toledo; and two daughters-Mrs. Mary Ann Wilson and Mrs. Helen Roberts, of Richfield.
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MISCELLANEOUS RESEARCH:
1. Lucian Lathrop worked for the Cleveland & Toledo Railroad Company. He was working for them in 1860. Unknown how long. Research Railroad Company records.
2. Wilbur H. Siebert interviewed Hon. James M. Ashley of Toledo in August of 1894. We need to read his notes on this interview. Ashley was said to be involved in the Underground Railroad in Lucas County. Does he mention Lathrop?
3. Wilbur H. Siebert referred to a letter from Colonel D.W.H. Howard of Wauseon, Ohio dated 8-22-1894. We need to read this letter. Does he mention Lathrop?
4. Wilbur H. Siebert mentions in his book the following people of Lucas County being involved in the Underground Railroad:
David Anderson
James M. Ashley - Congressman
Mavor Brigham
James Conlisk - Irishman
Richard Mott - Quaker - Congressman
Dr. H. Scott
William H. Merritt, Negro
We need to research these people and see if they ever wrote any notes/diaries of their involvement in the Underground Railroad or any mention of Harroun or Lathrop families.
5. BOOK - Ayer Company Publishers - Annals of the American Pulpit - William Sprague - Volume 8 - Unitarian Congregational - Call #BR569.572. See if Lathrop is mentioned.
6. We have the article in the October 1939 issue of the Historical Society of Northwestern Ohio that reported that when Fallis remodeled a concealed room was found in its cellar (formerly reached by an outside stairway), with the beds still in it….. Who has the records of the Historical Society of Northwestern Ohio from 1939? I have talked to the Local History Librarians and they seem to think that this society is today, the Maumee Valley Historical Society. I have talked to them and they have nothing. We need to research this. According to the 1939 article the President-Editor at that time was Silas E. Hurin, 1425 Nicholas Building, Toledo, Ohio. I was told that this Nicholas Building today in the Fifth-Third Bank building?
7. We need to find out who acquired all of Linton and Helen Fallis' personal belongings after they died. They may have taken pictures of the concealed room or wrote something about it somewhere. Linton's obituary notice lists survivors as his wife Helen, and Edward Hengerer, Jr. of Buffalo as his son and Mrs. Martha Fallis Oliver, sister of New York City. (Linton died 3-7-1963). We need to find these people.
Helen Tillotson Fallis died on 5-25-1981. Her obituary notice said that there were no immediate survivors. The second floor of Toledo Hospital is named Helen Tillotson Fallis Cardiovascular Unit. Why? Who got Helen's belongings?
8. Looking for information on the Anderson Harper family (a black family) who lived next to the Lathrop family at the 1870 census. Anderson Harper was 43 years old and born in Mississippi; His wife was Matilda, 24 years old and born in Ohio; Son Corren was 11 years old and born in Canada; Daughter Henrietta was 7 years old and born in Michigan; Son Augusta was 5 years old and born in Canada; Son James was 4 years old and born in Ohio; Son Wallace was 1 year old and born in Ohio. Anderson Harper may have been a slave who escaped to Canada and stayed at the Lathrop house and then came back after the war to see the Lathrops.
9. The 1880 census shows a black family living next door to the Lathrops. S Manuel was 62 years old and born in North Carolina; Wife Rosanna was 26 years old and born in Canada; Son Robert Smith was 15 years old and born in Canada; Son Isaac Smith was 11 years old and born in Michigan; Daughter Francis was 7 years old and born in Ohio. S. Manuel may have been a slave who escaped to Canada and after the war returned to look-up the Lathrops.
10. One reference said that "From Sylvania, slaves went to Petersburg, Michigan and Monroe, Michigan" records from these communities need to be researched. Any mention of the Lathrops?
NOTES: The following items would help to support the Lathrop's involvement in the Underground Railroad:
Signed anti-slavery petitions.
Minutes of anti-slavery societies.
Correspondences with other abolitionists.
Published accounts of a fugitive slave that may have come through Sylvania.
Obituary notices.
Accounts written by direct descendants.
Court cases involving fugitive slaves in Lucas County. Did they testify at a trial?
NOTE: UGRR stories have been known to be found in family bibles, land transfers, census records, diaries, church records, cemetery records or political speeches.
11. We need to locate direct descendants of Miles and Julia Lathrop. Since they were the last Lathrops to live in the house, after Lucian and Larissa died, it is my guess that they ended up any family bibles, letters, etc.
Miles and Julia Lathrop had a son Frank, born 10-18-1854. He married Virginia Padgett, born 6-8-1875. Frank and Virginia had four children: Claude K. Lathrop - born 7-3-1894; Ernest Miles (Dick) Lathrop - born 1-13-1896; Dorothy G. Lathrop - born 11-23-1905 (Married Lloyd Fickies); and Harriett Alma Lathrop born 4-29-1912 (married Andrew J. Thomson). WHERE ARE THEIR DESCENDANTS? Frank Lathrop died in 1922. (Update - we have found descendants - so far they have nothing to share with us).
Miles and Julia Lathrop had a daughter, Sarah Pleadies Lathrop, born 3-18-1856. She married Cassius Crum. They had a son Hurbert Crum born in 1877. Cassius died in 1878. Hurbert married Catherine Harvey in 1896. Hurbert and Catherine had the following children: Harold Crum, born 1898; Harriett Crum, born 1905, (married Harold Avery); Helen Mable Crum, born 1897 (married Fred F. Longfellow). WHERE ARE THEIR DESCENDANTS?
Sarah and Cassius Crum also had a son Alfred Crum born in 1878. He married, but unknown who. He died on 11-5-1929 in Arizona Soldiers Home. Buried in Danville, Soldiers Home, Illinois. Spanish-American War Veteran.
