Lavinia Latham

Lavinia Latham (1781-1859) was the mother of eleven children, and the widow of Obadiah Latham, Sr., a local builder when she attended the First Women’s Rights Convention. She understood all too well how women’s lack of legal and economic rights had forced her into dependence on sons, who were little more than boys when their father died. Once grown, those sons became the areas leading building contractors, the Latham Brothers. One of her daughters, Hannah, attended the convention with her and joined her in signing the Declaration of Sentiments. In 1848 Lavinia Latham lived at 37 Bayard Street, Seneca Falls. The house was originally built in the 1830s, is still standing, and has been extensively altered.