Latrobe, J. H. B. (John Hazlehurst Boneval), 1803-1891

John Hazlehurst Boneval Latrobe was born on May 4, 1803, in Philadelphia, Pennsylvania to Benjamin Henry Latrobe and Mary Elizabeth Hazlehurst. He attended the U.S. Military Academy at West Point from 1818 to 1821, where he studied engineering. After his father’s death, he returned to Baltimore and studied law under Robert Goodloe Harper and, after passing the Bar, he worked as a lawyer for the Baltimore and Ohio Railroad from 1828 until his death. John Latrobe was an advocate for establishing a colony of former African American enslaved in Liberia and served as the President of the Maryland State Colonization Society from 1832 to 1853. He served in the same capacity for the American Colonization Society from 1853 to 1891, succeeding Henry Clay in the position. Latrobe helped to found the American Bar Association, Druid Hill Park, and was one of the judges that helped to launch the career of writer and poet, Edgar Allen Poe. He was also one of the early proprietors of the Green Mount Cemetery in Baltimore, Maryland, where his brother, Benjamin H. Latrobe, Jr. designed the walkways. He is also credited with the invention of the “Latrobe Stove,” which is also known as the “Baltimore Heater,” a coal fired parlor heater of cast iron that was made to fit into fireplaces as an insert. John Latrobe was married twice. He married his first wife, Margaret Caile Steuart on November 29, 1828, and together they had a son. He remarried the year after her death to Charlotte Virginia Claiborne and together they had seven children. John H. B. Latrobe died on September 11, 1891 and was buried with his family in Green Mount Cemetery.