Carroll-Benton-Tippecanoe County IN Archives Biographies.....Lathrope, John 1841 - ************************************************ Copyright. All rights reserved. http://www.usgwarchives.net/copyright.htm http://www.usgwarchives.net/in/infiles.htm ************************************************ File contributed for use in USGenWeb Archives by: Joy Fisher sdgenweb@yahoo.com March 19, 2006, 5:55 pm Author: John C. Odell (1916) CAPT. JOHN LATHROPE. No man in Carroll county is better known to the world of music than Capt. John Lathrope, the veteran band master, who is considered the most expert cornetist in the United States for a man of his age. Some of the greatest cornet players of recent years drew their first inspiration from John Lathrope. A few years ago, John Philip Sousa was featuring Walter Rogers as the greatest cornetist of modern times. Yet there are many who can remember when Walter Rogers took his first lesson on a cornet from Capt. John Lathrope in Delphi, a little more than thirty-five years ago. The Captain has more than a state-wide reputation as a cornetist and band leader and has refused dazzling offers to conduct traveling and city organizations. He is intimately acquainted with Inness, Liberati, "Pat" Gilmore, Arbuckle, Albert Cook, leader of the Kilties (Canadian) Band, and with other leaders in the musical world. He knew Ole Bull, the celebrated violinist, and was intimately acquainted with C. G. Conn, the famous instrument manufacturer of Elkhart, Indiana. When a lad of ten, just after arriving from England, he played a trombone solo in Boston and received a flattering comment from well-known critics. Grey haired citizens of Delphi remember when, as lads, they followed "Johnny's" band through the streets of Delphi. He was the pride of grandfathers and is the pride of grandsons. The venerable Capt. John Lathrope, who is still vigorous, at the advanced age of seventy-four years, was born at Penzance, Cornwall, England, on October 27, 1841. His parents, John and Phillippe Lathrope, were natives of England. John Lathrope was their only child. The father was a wool comber in England and came to America in 1849, locating in Benton county, near Oxford, where he worked for five dollars per month, his board and washing. In 1851, when he had saved money enough to send for his family, he did so. They landed in Boston in that year and immediately came West to Lafayette, where the father and son worked on the railroad. Later, John Lathrope, Sr., was leader of a band for some years. Subsequently the family removed to a farm four miles east of Delphi, where they lived until 1858, when they moved to the north fork of Wild Cat and thence to Delphi, which has since been the Captain's home, with the exception of five years spent in Warsaw. Both the father and the mother have been dead many years. They were members of the Episcopal church. John Lathrope, Sr., was mustered for service in the great Civil War in 1861, but, on account of having left his wife at home, was mustered out again. His son, John Lathrope, Jr., was mustered in as a leader of the Ninth Indiana Volunteer Regimental Band, and his bugle sounded many victorious charges. A few years ago he told the following story of an incident of the war: "It was at the battle of Cheat Mountain," said Mr. Lathrope. "The Confederates seemed to be getting the best of us; the storm of bullets was slowly driving us back. On a smoke-enveloped knoll, the colonel ordered me to the rear to blow the retreat. I started to obey. A short distance from the spot, I was met by the battle-grimed figure of Major John B. Milroy. He had a horse-pistol in each hand. 'What are you going to do, sir?' he snapped. I told him. Said he, 'If you touch your lips to that bugle, you're a dead man!' I did not blow the retreat. Our men rallied and the day ended in a victory for the Union." The Ninth Indiana Infantry was ordered into service in western Virginia, after having been recruited in 1861, and reported for duty at Camp Elk Water. It was in the engagement at Buffalo Mountain where the above incident took place. It was nearly sixty-five years ago that the Lathrope family, including John, shook the English soil from their shoes and voyaged westward for a new home in America. Practically ever since that time, and especially since the Civil War, John Lathrope has been identified with band music and, as a professor, for years has been engaged in band instruction. He has been the director of many fine bands. During his life in Delphi he has engaged in different occupations, the last of them being in the confectionery business, but commercial life has never claimed him. His ambition lay in his art. Captain Lathrope's wife, before her marriage, was Caroline C. Assion, who was born in Delphi, Indiana, on December 28, 1851, the daughter of Joseph and Elizabeth Assion. Mrs. Lathrope died on February 2, 1905, at the age of fifty-four years. She was a member of the Catholic church and a noble Christian woman, a faithful friend and companion to her children— one in whom all the unselfish attributes of love and affection predominated. As a girl, she was known and admired by all. As she grew up, she developed into a splendid young womanhood. Her parents were natives of Germany, excellent people, and early settlers in Delphi. Her father had been a soldier in the German army before coming to America. To Capt. John and Caroline C. (Assion) Lathrope were born eight children, Litta, Emma C, Joseph, Ada, Emerson, Lillian, Beatrice and Harry. Of these children, Litta died when a child; Emma C. took a course in the conservatory of music at DePauw University and is a fine musician, being organist in the Presbyterian church at Delphi; Joseph, who is a mail carrier and lives in Delphi, married Josephine Mitchell and they have two children: Ada married Louis Inglee, of Denver, Colorado, and they have two children, Harry and Martha; Emerson has charge of a department store in Kansas City, Missouri; Lillian is at home; Beatrice married Roy O. Campbell, of Albuquerque, New Mexico, and they have two children, John D. and Dorothy; Harry is head clerk in the postal service of the Santa Fe railroad and lives in Albuquerque, New Mexico. He is married and has one child. Professor Lathrope has in his possession a handsome badge presented by the Warsaw band and orchestra on the occasion of his fifty-sixth birthday. He is very proud of the badge, and well he may be. It has a background of black plush, and the badge proper is affixed to a dark blue ribbon. The top part, where the pin is affixed, is a music note book, wide open; from this, a harp hangs, with a handsome brilliant setting, and to that is hung a miniature cornet. The bottom of the badge is trimmed with gold fringe. On the reverse side of the badge is the following legend: "Presented by the members of Lathrope's Cornet Band and Orchestra." On his seventieth birthday, with the weight of his years resting no heavier than the figurative feather on his baton-arm, he directed his famous band in celebration of his birthday. The concert was enjoyed by hundreds of people from Delphi and vicinity. The old director led with the same snap and vigor that has distinguished him throughout his career, and his difficult, triple-tongued solos were played without a falter, a performance considered marvelous, because of the fact that he has not one of his natural teeth. The concert was interrupted by a torch-light parade formed by Delphi business men, who presented him with a beautiful watch. Captain Lathrope is ex-president of the Tri-state Musicians Association, composed of military and orchestra bands in the three states of Ohio, Indiana and Michigan. He is an honorary member of the American Federation of Musicians, and belongs to the Masons, the Independent Order of Odd Fellows, the Knights of Pythias, the Grand Army of the Republic, and the Improved Order of Red Men. In the Masonic order, he is a Knight Templar and a member of the Indianapolis Consistory of the Scottish Rite. Captain Lathrope is justly proud of the esteem in which he is held by the people of Delphi. He is a gentleman of affability and fine address and one whom the citizens of Carroll county have been pleased to honor. Additional Comments: Extracted from: Biographical Section of HISTORY OF CARROLL COUNTY INDIANA ITS PEOPLE, INDUSTRIES AND INSTITUTIONS BY JOHN C ODELL With Biographical Sketches of Representative Citizens and Genealogical Records of Many of the Old Families ILLUSTRATED 1916 B. F. BOWEN & COMPANY, Inc. Indianapolis, Indiana File at: http://files.usgwarchives.net/in/carroll/bios/lathrope127nbs.txt This file has been created by a form at http://www.genrecords.net/infiles/ File size: 8.8 Kb