George Van Ness Lothrop

Background

George Van Ness Lothrop was born on August 8, 1817 at Easton, Bristol County, Massachusetts, United States. His ancestor, Mark Lothrop, came to Massachusetts in 1643, settling first in Salem and then in Bridgewater. Howard Lothrop, father of George, served in both branches of the Massachusetts legislature and as member of the governor's council; his wife, George's mother, was Sally Williams, daughter of Edward Williams of Easton. George owed his middle name to his father's friend, C. P. Van Ness, at one time governor of Vermont. His early years were spent on his father's farm.

Education

Lothrop acquired his preparatory education at the Wrentham Academy and in a private school at Taunton. In 1834 he became a freshman at Amherst and in 1835 entered the sophomore class at Brown, where he graduated in 1838. Immediately after his graduation he went to Harvard to study law under Joseph Story and Simon Greenleaf. One year later, however, impaired health compelled him to give up his studies. Later he came back to study law for a short time in Detroit. He was admitted to the bar in 1843.

Career

Around 1839 Lothrop moved to Prairie Ronde, Kalamazoo County, Michigan, where his brother, Edwin H. Lothrop, was living on a farm. Here he practised farming with marked success. In 1843 Lothrop entered law practice with D. Bethune Duffield in Detroit, whose partner he presently became. He practised also in the federal courts, interesting himself especially in Admiralty law.

In 1848 he became attorney-general of Michigan, but resigned three years later. In 1853 he accepted a position as recorder of Detroit. He was a Democrat, and in 1860 was a delegate to the convention at Charleston. From 1879 to 1896 he was president of the Detroit Bar Association. He was general solicitor for the Michigan Central Railroad for twenty-five years.

In Detroit he acquired valuable property and in various parts of eastern Michigan he owned extensive farms. His real-estate holdings were valued at about $2, 000, 000. In May 1885 he was appointed minister to Russia by President Cleveland, who had met him at Buffalo the previous year and had been struck by his fine appearance and apparent ability. Returning to Michigan in 1888 on account of his health, he spent his last nine years in peaceful retirement at Detroit.

Achievements

• Lothrope rose to the recognized leader of the Michigan bar and maintained it to the close of his professional career. During his forty-odd years of practice before the Michigan supreme court, he secured the invalidation of several laws as unconstitutional. Among these measures were an act providing for taking the vote of soldiers in the field and acts authorizing municipalities to aid in the building of railroads.

Works

More photos

• book

  • A Plea For Education As A Public Duty: An Address (1878)

    (This scarce antiquarian book is a facsimile reprint of th...)

Politics

Lothrop was active in the Democratic Party.

Personality

Lothrop was a man of irreproachable manners, modest, dignified, courteous, affable, a master of correct English and a painstaking scholar.

Connections

On May 13, 1847, Lothrop married Almira Strong, daughter of General Oliver Strong of Rochester, New York. Of seven children born to them, two sons and two daughters survived their father. One of his daughters was married to a Russian baron.

Father:

Howard Lothrop

Mother:

Sally Williams

Spouse:

Almira Strong

Brother:

Edwin H. Lothrop

Grandfather:

Edward Williams

References

• A Genealogical Memoir of the Lo-Lathrop Family in This Country: Embracing the Descendants, as Far as Known, of the Rev. John Lothropp, of Scituate and ... Mass., And the First Generation of Descen
• Bench and bar of Michigan: a volume of history and biography.