Franklin D. Roosevelt: Typed Letter Signed "FDR" as New York Governor....

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March 10, 1932 memorandum to Louis McHenry Howe from FDR, on State of New York, Executive Chamber, Albany letterhead. FDR writes: "Here is Lathrop Brown's check. It has been thanked for by me. I have made it payable to you. Will you account for it?/ FDR." This memorandum most probably concerns FDR's first run for the Presidency, accepting a contribution from a long-time personal friend. Lathrop Brown, a United States Representative from New York, was born in New York City February 26, 1883. Along with FDR, he graduated from Groton School, in Massachusetts, and from Harvard University in 1903. Lathrop then became engaged in the real estate business, and served in Squadron A, National Guard of New York, for five years. Elected as a Democrat to the sixty-third Congress (March 4, 1913 to March 3, 1915), Lathrop unsuccessfully contested the election of Frederick C. Hicks to the sixty-fourth Congress, and then became special assistant to the Secretary of the Interior from March 1917 to October 1918, and served as a private in the Tank Corps during the Great War. Lathrop was also joint secretary of President Woodrow Wilson's Industrial Conference in 1919, a delegate to the Democratic National Conventions in 1920, 1924, and 1936. Lathrop studied monetary theory at the Graduate School of Harvard University 1928 to 1932, and moved to California in 1946 and settled on a cattle ranch. Lathrop was elected to the sheriff's posse of Monterey County in 1947, and was also named a member of the committee to supervise the Graduate School of Public Administration of Harvard University in 1954 and 1955. Lathrop died in Fort Myers, Florida, November 28, 1959. FDR's Groton and Harvard classmate also served as FDR's best man when FDR married Eleanor Roosevelt on March 17, 1905. A fabulous memorandum from FDR to his key advisor Louis McHenry Howe concerning his old classmate and friend's financial support for FDR's presidential hopes.