Ferdinand Claiborne Latrobe

Ferdinand Claiborne Latrobe (October 14, 1833 – January 13, 1911) was a seven-term Mayor of Baltimore, state legislator and attorney during the 19th century.

Ferdinand Claiborne Latrobe
Ferdinand Claiborne Latrobe
Mayor of Baltimore
In office 1875–1877
Preceded by	Joshua Van Sant
Succeeded by	George Proctor Kane
Mayor of Baltimore
In office 1878–1881
Preceded by	George Proctor Kane
Succeeded by	William Pinkney Whyte
Mayor of Baltimore
In office 1883–1885
Preceded by	William Pinkney Whyte
Succeeded by	James Hodges
Mayor of Baltimore
In office 1887–1889
Preceded by	James Hodges
Succeeded by	Robert C. Davidson
Mayor of Baltimore
In office 1891–1895
Preceded by	Robert C. Davidson
Succeeded by	Alcaeus Hooper

Biography

Latrobe was born in Baltimore, the son of patent lawyer and Latrobe stove ("Baltimore Heater") inventor John H.B. Latrobe and Virginia Charlotte Claiborne, and the grandson of the American architect and engineer Benjamin Henry Latrobe. In his mother's line, he was the grandson of Gen. Ferdinand Leigh Claiborne and the great-nephew of William C. C. Claiborne, Governor of Mississippi, the Louisiana Territory, and the State of Louisiana.

Latrobe was educated at the College of St. James in Washington County, Maryland. Latrobe worked as a clerk in a mercantile house in Baltimore and as counsel for the Baltimore and Ohio Railroad in 1858. He then studied law with his father and was admitted to the Maryland bar in 1860. In 1860, he was also appointed judge-advocate-general by then Governor of Maryland, Thomas H. Hicks and assisted in reorganizing the Maryland state militia under the Act of 1868, which he authored.

He was elected to the Maryland House of Delegates in 1867, serving until 1872, and was Speaker of the House in 1870. While serving in the House he held the position of Chairman of the Ways and Means Committee.

In 1875, he was elected Mayor of Baltimore and served until 1877. The same year, Latrobe and then Maryland Governor John Lee Carroll, were present throughout strikes and outbreaks of violence during the Baltimore railroad strike of 1877 that erupted in as part of the Great Railroad Strike of 1877.[1]

He was reelected in 1878 and served two more terms until 1881. In 1883 he was again elected mayor, serving until 1885. During this latter term, a seven-mile tunnel was built to direct water from the Gunpowder River to Baltimore.

He was again elected mayor, serving from 1887 until 1889, and served a final two mayoral terms from 1891 until 1895. He served as speaker of the House of Delegates in 1901.

In 1860, Latrobe married Louisa Sherlock Swann, daughter of Thomas Swann, who was formerly Mayor of Baltimore and Governor of Maryland. They had one son, Thomas, before she died in 1865. Latrobe married Ellen Penrose, the widow of Thomas Swann, Jr., in 1880 and together they had three children: Ferdinande Charlotte(b. 1881), Ellen Virginia (b. 1883), and Ferdinand Claiborne Latrobe, Jr., (b. 1889-d. 1944).

References

• Wilson, J.G., Fiske, J., and Klos, S.L. (eds.) (1889). Appleton's Cyclopedia of American Biography. 6 vol. New York: D. Appleton & Co.
• The Political Graveyard, http://politicalgraveyard.com/bio/latno-lavorato.html

Quotes

• "We have always had the most beautiful women and the finest oysters in the world, and now we have the best baseball club." (speaking of the first, short-lived incarnation of the Baltimore Orioles, in 1894)

References

1. McCabe, James Dabney; Edward Winslow Martin (1877). The History of the Great Riots: The Strikes and Riots on the Various Railroads of the United States and in the Mining Regions Together with a Full History of the Molly Maguires. National Publishing Company. p. 15. The History of the Great Riots and Full History of the Molly Maguires.

External links

• Ferdinand Claiborne Latrobe papers, 1833–1922 at the University of Maryland, Baltimore County
• Resources at the Maryland State Archives
• Digitized copies of Latrobe's hand-written speeches are available through the Maryland Digital Cultural Heritage program