Editing Lathrop, California (section)

==History==
Lathrop was developed around railroad interests. The town was founded around 1868 when the [[first transcontinental railroad]] was extended to the area after a dispute between the president of the [[Central Pacific Railroad]], [[Leland Stanford]], and the [[Stockton, California|City of Stockton]].<ref name="Sentinel">{{cite news |author=Lee, Ralph |date=December 16, 2005 |title=Lathrop founded by Stanford to bypass Stockton |url=https://news.google.com/newspapers?id=_-Y0AAAAIBAJ&sjid=HSEGAAAAIBAJ&pg=7164%2C5414177 |access-date=October 28, 2015 |work=Lodi News-Sentinel |pages=14}}</ref> The two parties had struck a right-of-way agreement to build a railroad through Stockton, but when city officials delayed in deciding where the alignment should go, Stanford decided to instead build the railroad around Stockton and set up a new town along the route.<ref name=":0" />

The new town was [[plat]]ted into 16 subdivisions<ref name="Sentinel" /> around the site of a train depot named Wilson's Station at a [[Wye (rail)|wye]] built for switching train cars.<ref name=":0">{{Cite web |last1=Lea |first1=Ralph |last2=Kennedy |first2=Christi |date=December 16, 2005 |title=Lathrop founded by Stanford to bypass Stockton |url=https://www.lodinews.com/features/vintage_lodi/article_9c0f72cc-6e58-5263-9d32-42036a9f1d8d.html |access-date=February 6, 2024 |website=Lodi News-Sentinel |language=en}}</ref> A merchant store and schoolhouse were built soon after.<ref name=":1">{{Cite web |title=Lathrop History |url=https://www.ci.lathrop.ca.us/community/page/lathrop-history |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20230330005937/https://www.ci.lathrop.ca.us/community/page/lathrop-history |archive-date=March 30, 2023 |access-date=February 6, 2024 |website=City of Lathrop CA |language=en}}</ref> In 1869, the area was renamed in honor of the family of Leland Stanford's wife, [[Jane Stanford]] (née Lathrop), and her brother, Charles Lathrop, who worked for Leland as an engineer at Central Pacific.<ref name="Sentinel" /><ref>{{Cite web |title=Lathrop Historical Marker |url=https://www.hmdb.org/m.asp?m=20006 |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20201018193837/https://www.hmdb.org/m.asp?m=20006 |archive-date=October 18, 2020 |access-date=February 6, 2024 |website=The Historical Marker Database |language=en}}</ref><ref>{{Cite web |last=Swarts |first=Aaron |date=May 17, 2005 |title=Lathrop Days: A look at history |url=https://www.eastbaytimes.com/2005/05/17/lathrop-days-a-look-at-history/ |access-date=February 6, 2024 |website=East Bay Times |language=en-US}}</ref>

On September 6, 1869, four months after the [[golden spike]] ceremony at [[Promontory Summit]], the San Joaquin Railroad Bridge at Mossdale Crossing in Lathrop was finished by [[Western Pacific Railroad (1862-1870)|Western Pacific]].<ref name="sac union 1869">{{cite web |title=From Stockton - September 6th |url=https://cdnc.ucr.edu/?a=d&d=SDU18690907.2.8.2&srpos=5&e=------186-en--20--1--txt-txIN-%22san+joaquin+river%22-ARTICLE---1869---1 |access-date=December 6, 2019 |website=UCR: California Digital Newspaper Collection |publisher=Sacramento Daily Union, Volume 37, Number 5755, September 7, 1869 |quote=The Western Pacific Railroad bridge across the San Joaquin river was finished to-day [September 6th], and three trains of cars crossed it, one for San Jose and two for Alameda.}}</ref> This completed the last westbound link of the transcontinental railroad to the Pacific coast,<ref name="HMdb 2006">{{cite web |title=Site of Completion of Pacific Railroad - First Transcontinental Railroad |url=https://www.hmdb.org/m.asp?m=11380 |access-date=December 15, 2019 |website=HMdb.org}}</ref> with the first through train arriving that evening,<ref name="alta ca 1869">{{Cite web |title=The first through train on the Western Pacific Road |url=https://cdnc.ucr.edu/cgi-bin/cdnc?a=d&d=DAC18690907.2.6&srpos=66&e=01-06-1869-31-12-1869--en--20--61--txt-txIN-western+pacific-------1 |access-date=September 6, 2019 |website=cdnc.ucr.edu |publisher=Daily Alta California September 7, 1869 — California Digital Newspaper Collection}}</ref><ref name="moss 1869">{{cite news |date=April 2005 |title=Moss' crossing linked continent by rail |url=https://www.lodinews.com/features/vintage_lodi/article_d0895d12-aaed-5455-a5a9-3ecabd647b0c.html |access-date=May 20, 2020 |issue=Special to the News-Sentinel |quote=Lathrop photographer J. B. Atwood took this early photograph of the first railroad bridge to span the San Joaquin River at Mossdale. The bridge, built in 1869, was the final link in the transcontinental railroad that made travel possible from the East Coast to the edge of San Francisco Bay in Oakland. The wooden tower in the center sat on a turntable that swung parallel to the riverbank to allow steamboats to pass. |agency=lodinews.com}}</ref> making Lathrop an important division point and rail stop.<ref name=":1" /> In 1871, a post office opened in Lathrop.<ref>{{cite web |title=San Joaquin County |url=http://www.postalhistory.com/postoffices.asp?task=display&state=CA&county=San+Joaquin |access-date=October 28, 2015 |publisher=Jim Forte Postal History}}</ref> That same year, the railroad built a hotel for $50,000 called Hotel Lathrop, said to be one of the largest in the state of California at the time.<ref name=":0" />

Throughout the 1870s, Lathrop was an important rail stop for the transcontinental railroad. This generated steady growth in the area, with the population increasing to about 600 by 1879.<ref name=":1" />

In February 1886, the railroad's hotel caught fire and was destroyed.<ref name=":0" /> That, along with the railroad deciding to move its roundhouse and machine shops to nearby [[Tracy, California]] around the same time, caused Lathrop to enter into a period of economic and population decline until [[World War I]].<ref name=":1" />

[[File:Lathrop railroad station 1889.png|thumb|left|Lathrop railroad station (1889) where former California Chief Justice David Terry assaulted US Supreme Court Justice Stephen Field and was shot by Field's bodyguard]]
On August 14, 1889, former [[Chief Justice of California]] [[David S. Terry]] assaulted [[Associate Justice of the Supreme Court of the United States|United States Supreme Court Justice]] [[Stephen J. Field]], at the train station in Lathrop. Field's bodyguard, [[United States Marshal]] David Neagle (formerly assigned to [[Tombstone, Arizona]]), shot and killed Terry.<ref name="examiner 1889">{{cite news |title=The Daily Examiner |url=https://www.newspapers.com/newspage/457415745/ |access-date=May 20, 2020 |agency=The San Francisco Examiner |issue=Thursday, August 15, 1889}}</ref> The events led to the [[United States Supreme Court]] decision ''[[In re Neagle]]'', which granted immunity from state prosecution to federal officers acting within the scope of their federal authority.<ref>{{cite web|title=History - The U.S. Marshals and Court Security|url=https://www.usmarshals.gov/history/neagle/neagle5.htm|website=usmarshals.gov|access-date=March 10, 2017|ref=2}}</ref>

During the 1940s, Lathrop expanded from its original townsite to an area of about five square miles. Following [[World War II]], housing tracts were built and several large industrial employers moved there. Residential growth slowed during the 1950s and 1960s, but picked up again in the subsequent decades, doubling in population to 2,137 in 1970 and reaching 6,841 by 1990.<ref name=":1" />

Lathrop was incorporated in 1989, and its first General Plan adopted in 1991.<ref>{{Cite web |title=About Lathrop |url=https://www.ci.lathrop.ca.us/community/page/about-lathrop |url-status=live |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20240202035424/https://www.ci.lathrop.ca.us/community/page/about-lathrop |archive-date=February 2, 2024 |access-date=February 20, 2024 |website=City of Lathrop CA |language=en}}</ref>