The Lathrops of Sylvania, Lucas County, Ohio

The Lathrops of Sylvania, Lucas County, Ohio. . , In 1850, Lucian Lathrop (1800-1873) and his second wife Larissa Titus Lathrop (1803-1878) built this two-story Greek Revival home on South Main Street, where they lived with his children Helen and James Jerome and his mother Azubah Putnam Lathrop. Called to be a Universalist minister, Lucian also served as county commissioner and Ohio representative. Larissa raised the family and managed the household. These abolitionists hid runaway slaves in a secret basement room behind an oven door and provided them refuge, food and clothing. The ravine to the east connected their home with the David and Clarissa Dodge Harroun farm. Fugitives were transported from Maumee via the farm and from Delta. Conductors then moved them to Petersburg or Bedford Township, Michigan, across Michigan to the Detroit River and finally to southwestern Ontario, Canada and freedom. By opposing the 1850 Fugitive Slave Law with their Underground Railroad station, not only did the Lathrops risk fines but also the loss of their freedom. They dedicated themselves to the "good cause" in accordance with a familial tradition of personal sacrifice and a belief in God who embraces everyone., The Underground Railroad was neither underground nor a railroad, but a system of loosely connected safe havens where those escaping the brutal conditions of slavery were sheltered, fed, clothed, nursed, concealed, disguised and instructed during their journey to freedom. Although this movement was one of America's greatest social, moral and humanitarian endeavors, the details about it were often cloaked in secrecy to protect those involved from the retribution of civil law and slave-catchers. Ohio's history has been permanently shaped by the thousands of runaway slaves passing through or finding permanent residence in this state.