• General Notes

  [3084.ftw]
  
  [Brøderbund WFT Vol. 1, Ed. 1, Tree #3084, Date of Import: Dec 4, 1998]
  
  !Other records record his death 4/10/1885, and his birth place as Chelsea,
  Vermont. Marriage info from copy of marriage certificate.
  !(from notes of Georgia Cole) Lathrop Chapter from A.L. Donaldson's History.
  !Another pioneer who moved to Saranac Lake at about the same time as Col. Baker
  was Azel Lathrop.  He does not figure as conspicuously as the others in the
  annals of progress or the memory of old inhabitants, for he moved away in the
  early 70's.  His coming, however, is of much Historical interest for he bought
  and built on the land now occupied by the Adirondack Cottage Sanitarium,
  although it is very generally supposed that Dr. Trudeaus "Little Red" was the
  first building ever erected on or near that site.
  !The Lathrop house, however, stood there for many years before Dr. Trudeau ever
  saw the spot, and when he did, the house was no longer there.  The only trace
  of it left was the overgrown foundations.  Even these have been obliterated now.
  !Although there may be others, I have found one person only who remembers this
  vanished home, and that is Mrs. E.E. Martin, (the widow of Wm. A. Martin whose
  name I have already had occasion to mention).  She is the grand-daughter of the
  Lathrops, and was born and spent her childhood in the 1st house on Preachers
  Hill.  To this only descendent of the Lathrops in Saranac Lake, I am indebted
  again for the following details.
  !Azel Lathrop was born in Chelsea, VT, where he married Susan Ellis, a sister
  of Loring Ellis, a prominent business man of Plattsburgh.
  !The newly married couple lived for several years in the "Old Lathrop
  Homestead" at Chelsea, which is still standing and occupied.  They later moved
  to Palmer Hill, where Mr. Lathrop took the position of foreman in an iron mine
  owned by Loring Ellis, the next move was to Ausable Forks, then Mr. Lathrop
  bought 160 acres of Adirondak land from Gerritt Smith.  This included the
  present site of "Trudeau" and on it he built a home into which he moved with
  his wife and children.  The house stood directly back of the present woodshed
  of the Sanitarium.  It was a very plain but well built house.  The sides were
  clapboarded and the roof was shingled, but these were never painted.  In front
  of the house was a large flower garden, at the back was a vegetable and fruit
  garden.  Here also some apple trees and two red plum trees.  These trees are
  still standing.  The dwelling faced the Old Military Road, with it's back
  overlooking the Saranac Valley.  This road was then the only highway
  here-abouts.  Approaching from Bloomingdale it turned from the river and
  climbed the Sanitarium hill then as now, it passed the Lathrop House and came
  out through what is now Highland Park, descending Grove St. to the river again
  and crossing the old wooden bridge, which was the forerunner of the present
  iron one near "Bakers".  The road that follows the river to Sanitarium Hill,
  was built much later, when it came however, it naturally diverted traffic from
  the hill route and left the Lathrop house in an isolation which ultimately had
  to do with its abandonment and removal.  When the Lathrops settled here, there
  was no school nearer them than the one in "The Pines" more than a mile away.
  Mr Lathrop consequently began agitating for educational opportunities nearer
  home, and his brood of ten gave numerical sanction to his efforts.  He succeeded
  in having a school-house built on the hill leading to his house.  It still
  stands although altered and enlarged into a comfortable dwelling.  It is the
  white house on the right side of the road, half way up the ascent into
  "Trudeau".
  !Mr Lathrop, a sturdy Vermonter, standing six feet two in his stockings helped
  to "raise" the original building and many another in the vicinity.  Here his
  children went to school and here his wife, and later his daughter, taught.
  Indeed it was so much of a family affair that one rather wonders why it was not
  carried on under the Lathrop roof.
  !Mr Lathrop hoped that as his children grew up they would settle around him on
  the ample but barren acres he had to give them.  His dream was to found a
  little Colony that should perpetuate the name of Lathrop.  His dream was to
  come true, but not on the spot he had chosen.  His children showed no fondness
  for the rather bleak parental acres, his eldest son Azel Lathrop Jr., had gone
  West to seek his fortune, and had found it.  He bought land thirty miles from
  Escanaba, MI, and began farming and Real Estate operations, that became both
  large and successful, and resulted in putting a new name on the map, Lathrop,
  MI.  Here, as the rest of the family began to scatter, the parents moved and
  spent the remainder of their lives.  Only one daughter stayed behind in the
  Adirondak homestead, Mrs. Gabriel Manning (Sarah Ellis Lathrop).  She
  eventually sold part of the land including th present site of "Trudear" to
  Robert Smith, who owned an adjoining farm, and whose house is still standing.
  The Smiths tore down the Lathrop house and when Dr. Trudeau bought the land for
  his proposed Sanitarium he was unaware that any building had ever stood there
  before.  The remainder of the Lathrop lot was, several years later, sold to
  Stearns Williams who built the house with the water-trough that is still a
  "land mark" on the "River road".
  !There is a certain poetry of coincidence in the fact that around the site of
  the vanished Lathrop home a colony of human helpfulness should have been
  permanently established.  For Mrs. Lathrop combined in her strong body and big
  heart these qualities of sacrifice and sympathy which brought the Sanitarium
  into being.  Before the day of Doctors and Nurses she combined the
  ministrations of both among her widely scattered neighbors.  She knew the
  therapeutic value of roots and herbs and how to prepare and administer them.
  She went far and near to births and deaths and illnesses, and was loved an
  honoured by every one.  Her memory has faded with the vanished house and
  passing years, but her spirit still survives on the hillside dedicated to the
  alleviation of disease and the softening of sorrow.   END
  !(note from Mrs. E. E. Martin)  "This has been corrected in several places.  In
  one place it says Robert Smith tore down the old house.  Father tore it down
  himself and the material went into the new house on the River road, but it is
  mainly like this.  E.E.M.  Pardon poor work but you know I cannot work at
  anythin without incessant interruptions". 

Details of Azel's family with Susan Ellis