John Lathrop, son of Hon. Samuel Lathrop, M. C. (Y. C. 1792) and Mary (Mc Crackan) Lathrop, born in West Springfield, Mass., March 6th, 1809, and died in Buffalo, N. Y., June 16th, 1870.

He was fitted for College at the Westfield, Mass., Academy, then under the care of the Rev. S. M. Emerson.

After graduation he studied law in his father's office, for a year or more, but not relishing the confined life of a student, he chose the profession of a civil Engineer. One of his earliest engagements was in the construction of the Chenango (N. Y.) Canal, which occupied him from 1833 to 183Y. Soon after he was appointed Resident Engineer on a section of the Erie Canal, with his headquarters at Jordan, N. Y. He remained in this position till June, 1843, when he took charge of the laying out of a double track on the N. Y. Central Railroad between Syracuse and Utica, residing in Syracuse. In 1846 he was appointed Chief Engineer of the Syracuse and Oswego Railroad and held the place till the completion of the work, about three years later. From July 1849, to 1862, he resided in Buffalo, N. Y., as Division Engineer upon the Erie Enlargement; while he also superintended the construction of an extensive breakwater and other important improvements in the harbor of Buffalo. After a brief employment, till Dec. 1853, on the construction of a portion of the Chicago, Alton, and St. Louis Railroad, he returned to his former position, which he again resigned in the summer of 1855, to assume the charge of the Chesapeake and Albemarle Canal. This important work was near completion when interrupted by the breaking out of the civil war. During the summer of 1862 he accepted a position on the Erie and Pittsburgh Railroad, which occupied him for a year, and was his last professional work, owing to his impaired health.

Mr. Lathrop married, in 1838, Elizabeth Miller, of Oxford, N. Y., and had a son and daughter. His widow and daughter survive him.

(Yale Alumni Obituary Manuscript)