Amos Gager Throop (/ˈtruːp/TROOP; 1811–1894) was an American businessman and politician in Chicago, Illinois during the 1840s and 1850s. Most famously he was known for being a staunch abolitionist prior to the Civil War. He served as a Chicago alderman from the 4th Ward from 1849 through 1853.[1] In Chicago, he lost two campaigns to be that city's mayor in 1852 and 1854. In both elections he was the nominee of the little-known Temperance Party, facing tough opposition from the Democratic Party. At the time of the Great Chicago Fire Throop was the City Treasurer of Chicago.[1] He was instrumental in securing financing from New York to rebuild the wooden frontier town into a city of brick and mortar. Grateful Chicagoans renamed Main Street to Throop Street. Many years later and after moving to California, he was finally elected mayor—of Pasadena, California in 1888.
A fervent adherent to a liberal religion, Throop established a Universalist group in Pasadena in 1886.[3] The church still survives as Throop Unitarian Universalist Church. He is now best known for founding in 1891 (with a gift of over $100,000) the California Institute of Technology, which is today one of the world's most selective universities.[4] In fact, it was known through its first thirty years as Throop University, Throop Polytechnic Institute, and Throop College of Technology, before its administrators decided on its current name which took effect in 1920. Also part of the Throop Polytechnic Institute was Polytechnic School which separated from the Institute in 1907. It is currently a private college preparatory school across the street from Caltech with grades ranging from K-12. His motto was "learn by doing".
He was allegedly a descendant of Sir Adrian Scrope, the famous regicide, possibly of the English Scrope family. Amos Gager Throop's daughter, Martha married John C. Vaughan, founder of The Vaughan Seed Company.[6]
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