WILLIAM HENRY LATHROP (1816 - 1904)

Lathrop Avenue bears the name of a Racine pioneer and entrepreneur who arrived here in 1840. His name was William Henry Lathrop. After purchasing sixty feet of land opposite Market (now Monument Square) Square and a 240-acre farm just beyond the Racine Rapids, Lathrop returned to Vermont to marry Miss Harriet A. Munroe (1821-1887). The newlyweds arrived in the Racine harbor aboard the steamer "Chesapeake" on a Sunday morning in July of 1844. Mrs. Lathrop was appalled to hear the loud noise of cannons and human voices on the Sabbath, until she learned the "Chesapeake" was the first steamer ever to enter Racine’s harbor.

While her husband went on to prosper as a grain dealer and elevator owner, real estate and railroad speculator, as well as bank director and brick manufacturer, Mrs. Lathrop did not fare as well. The Lathrop’s only daughter, Genevieve, died of croup on February 3, 1846; she was 22 months and three days old. Their only son, Frank, died at the age of five months.

On a bitterly cold December night in 1887, Mrs. Lathrop walked from her home at 802 South Main Street into Lake Michigan. Her body was not recovered until the following spring, when it was found along the lakeshore just north of Kenosha. A female statue, poised in anguish above the graves of the Lathrops, speaks to the suffering inflicted upon this family.

—Submitted by Deborah Crowell