Mr. Lothrop was born in Atchison county, Missouri, July 25, 1842, and on both the paternal and maternal sides is of English descent, his ancestors being among the early New England colonists. His great-grandfather, Rev. Ruel Lothrop, was chaplain in the Continental army in the struggle of the colonies for independence, and participated in the battle of Brandywine and various other engagements, undergoing great suffering in the cause of freedom. Mr. Lothrop's father, Ruel Lothrop, Jr., was born in New Hampshire and was reared and educated in his native state, whence he removed to Missouri in 1840. By trade he was a carpenter, and he there engaged in contracting and building. He married Miss Mary M. Fowler, a descendant of Thomas Fowler, who emigrated from England to Virginia in 1697. Her grandfather, Captain John Fowler, commanded a company in the Revolutionary war. His people were all residents of the south.

In 1852 Ruel Lothrop and his family joined a band of brave pioneers in their perilous journey across the plains to California, but he was never permitted to reach his destination, as he died while on the Platte river, June 11, 1852, of cholera, which was epidemic that year and made terrible ravages among the emigrants on the plains. The brave wife and her six small children were thus left without husband or father there on the plains. It being impossible for her to return to her friends, Mrs. Lothrop and her children continued on to the land of promise. John was at that time a bright boy of ten years, and has a vivid recollection of the journey and the trials and discomforts they were forced to endure. The mother first stopped at Oroville, California, but not long afterward removed to Marysville, where she washed for the miners in order to support her family. Later she returned to Oroville and opened the Opher Hotel, which she conducted until 1861, that year removing with her family to Dayton, Nevada. In 1878 she married N. W. Siles, and on the 27th of March, 1891, departed this life at the age of about seventy-eight years. She had carefully reared and educated her children, and was a brave and noble woman, a pioneer of three different states where for many years were lacking those comforts to which she bad been accustomed in her youth. Her son has no words of praise too high for such a faithful and self-sacrificing mother.

Mr. Lothrop was about nineteen years of age on his arrival in Dayton, which has been the scene of his entire business life and his creditable official career. He received a good public-school education and was graduated at the high school of Oroville, California, in 1857. He studied law at Dayton under the direction of Hon. W. H. Sewell and Hon. Richard Rising, and was admitted to the bar on the 1st of July, 1891.

In politics Mr. Lothrop has not been a strict partisan, but has voted with the party that held his views on great political questions, and was an ardent supporter of the government during the Civil war. Since the age of twenty-two he has held some official position of honor and trust in his city. In 1864 he was appointed deputy county clerk; was later deputy county assessor and still later deputy sheriff, succeeding which he served as deputy county treasurer for a time. In 1874 he was elected county recorder and auditor, which office he faithfully filled for six years. He was also postmaster of Dayton for four years, and in 1888 was elected district attorney, to which office he has been re-elected every succeeding two years and is still filling the position most creditably to himself and to the entire satisfaction of his fellow-citizens, who have the fullest confidence in his integrity and ability. His public record is one of which he may be justly proud, and it is a question whether it has been equaled by any other resident of the state.

Mr. Lothrop was married on the 10th of May, 1864, to Mrs. Emma A. Britton, and to them have been born six sons and six daughters, but three of the little ones were taken from them by death in early childhood. Those still living are as follows: Mary is now the wife of R. B. Davis, a merchant of Tonopah; Jason Franklin is a resident of Sodaville, Esmeralda county, Nevada: Susue E. is now Mrs. Braun, a resident of Dayton; James D. is in business in Tonopah; Lilly is a teacher of Dayton; Ida May is the wife of Thomas Peppril: and Daisy E., Lawrence and Henry Richmond are all at home. The wife and mother is a member of the Presbyterian church, but Mr. Lothrop is a Baptist in religious belief, having been reared in that church, to which his parents belonged. He is an active and valued member of the Independent Order of Odd Fellows, has passed all the chairs in both branches of the order and is past grand patriarch of the state of Nevada. He is also a prominent member of the Ancient Order of United Workmen and is chairman of the finance committee of the grand lodge of the state. His is one of the very pleasantest homes of Dayton, and he and his family are held in high esteem by a very wide circle of friends. Over his life record there falls no shadow of wrong: his public service has been most exemplary; and his private life has been marked by the utmost fidelity to duty.

Source:
A History of the State of Nevada: Its Resources and People
By Thomas Wren, Lewis Publishing Company
Published by The Lewis publishing company, 1904