John H. B. Latrobe

John Hazlehurst Boneval Latrobe (May 4, 1803 – September 11, 1891) was an American lawyer and inventor. He invented the Latrobe Stove, also known as the "Baltimore Heater", a coal fired parlor heater made of cast iron and that fit into fireplaces as an insert. He patented his design in 1846. The squat stoves were very popular by the 1870s and were much smaller than Benjamin Franklin's Franklin stove.

Personal life

John Hazlehurst Boneval Latrobe was born on May 4, 1803, in Philadelphia, Pennsylvania, to Mary Elizabeth (née Hazelhurst) and Benjamin Henry Latrobe. His father was a noted engineer and architect. John Latrobe secured an appointment to the U.S. Military Academy at West Point, New York, where he studied engineering (1818-1821). However, he ultimately decided to become a lawyer, and returned to Baltimore after his father's death to read law under the director of Robert Goodloe Harper. He married twice. He married his first wife, Margaret Caile Steuart (1795-1831) on November 29, 1828. She had one son, Henry Boneval Latrobe (1830-1877) before her death. He remarried in Natchez, Mississippi on December 6, 1832, in Natchez, Louisiana, to Charlotte Virginia Claiborne, (1815-1903) who would survive him and also bear seven children.

Career

A lawyer after admission to the Maryland bar, this Latrobe initially practiced with his younger brother, Benjamin Henry Latrobe II, until the younger Latrobe decided to concentrate on civil engineering, as had their father. John H.B. Latrobe became a lawyer for the Baltimore and Ohio Railroad, initially arranging for land acquisitions (and publishing a work about conveyancing in 1826). Latrobe wrote the dedication speech of President Thomas at the railroad's July 4, 1828 dedication. He later incorporated its telegraph service and became its chief counsel for decades. He would negotiate with the Choctaw, Chickasaw and other tribes, as well travel to Russia before the American Civil War to negotiate financing.