Born: July 6, 1791
Died: August 30, 1868 in Michigan
Married:
Children: Mrs. Gabriel Lathrop Manning
Born in Chelsea, Vermont, Azel Lathrop was an early settler; he bought 160 acres from Gerrit Smith, on which he built a house about 1850 on what would later be called Preachers Hill, on the Old Military Road, on the site that would become the Trudeau Sanatorium. The road was later re-routed along the river, leaving the Lathrop place cut off.
He had ten children, and agitated successfully for a school nearer his house than the existing one "in the pines"; the village's second school was built on the hillside near the present Trudeau Road. His wife and daughters taught in the school. 1
Adirondack Enterprise clipping from one of Alfred L. Donaldson's scrap books in the Adirondack Free Library's Adirondack Room, hand annotated
LATHROP HOME BECAME THE SANITARIUM SITE
Mrs. Lathrop Was the First Nurse of the Community.
Saranac Lake, N. Y., April 11, ‘14
Editor The Adirondack Enterprise.
Dear Sir,—Seeing the Items In The Enterprise about the finding by Judge Carney of a deed by Gerrit Smith for Adirondack land. I wish to say that the original deed given by Gerritt Smith to one of the pioneers of Saranac Lake is in the possession of his grandchildren.
Azel Lathrop, born in Chelsea, Vt., married there, Susan Ellis, sister of Loring Ellis, then a business man of Plattsburgh, well known hereabouts,, and an owner of a large tract of Adirondack land.
They lived for years in the old Lathrop homestead in Chelsea, which is still standing and occupied. After, leaving there they lived at Palmer Hill, where Mr. Lathrop held a position as boss in Loring Ellis's Iron Mine Then they removed to Ausable Forks and from there to "The North Woods." Mr. Lathrop bought 160 acres of Gerritt Smith, which lot included the present site of "The Adirondack Cottage” Sanitarium." He built a frame house,i which consisted of a large living room, pantry, "front room" and bedroom down stairs, over which were sleeping rooms, and brought his wife and ten children there.
The house faced the Old Milltary road, which was the only thorough fare, the road along the Saranac river, being built many years later. The view from the back of the house overlooked the Saranac valley. At the front of the house was a large yard [incomplete]
Footnotes
1. Donaldson, Alfred L. A History of the Adirondacks, New York: The Century Co., 1921, p. 269-270. (reprinted by Purple Mountain Press, Fleischmanns, NY, 1992)is
