California Biographies

Transcribed by Peggy Hooper

This file is part of the California Genealogy & History Archives 
http://www.rootsweb.ancestry.com/~cagha/index.htm

Source:
History of the state of California and biographical record of the San Joaquin 
Valley, California. An historical story of the state's marvelous growth from 
its earliest settlement to the present time.
Prof. James Miller Guinn , A. M.
The Chapman Publishing Co., Chicago 1905
Notes: Missing Page: 865-866,983-984,1175-1176


GEORGE LAUGHEAD. Until the early part of the year 1904 the roll call of the courageous men who 
came to California in 1849 included the name of George Laughead, to whose remote home in bleak 
Nova Scotia penetrated the glad news of discovered gold, and whose ambitious nature responded 
to so rare an opportunity of acquiring a fortune. Working in his little shop in the English dependency 
yielded him a fair income, for he was a good blacksmith, doing thoroughly and well whatever task 
came his way to perform, yet at best there was little promise for the future, more especially of the 
large kind held out by the practically unknown west. He was a single man when he crossed the Isthmus 
of Panama and sailed up the coast to San Francisco, having no one to care for but himself, and no 
hindrance in his way save that of absence of money and influence. 

After an unsuccessful mining experience Mr. Laughead more fully appreciated the advantages 
of his trade, and, locating in Stockton, applied it with fair results. First and foremost he was 
a lover of the soil, and his shop became restricted and unsatisfying as he saw around him the 
chances of land ownership and development. Coming to the San Joaquin valley, he farmed on 
the west side of Stanislaus county, finally acquiring large tracts of land, which he set out in 
wheat, becoming one of the largest grain raisers of his section. He thought nothing of having 
a thousand acres under wheat, and at present his family own his farm of six hundred and forty 
acres near Westley, another one-hundred-acre tract in the same locality, and a mountain ranch 
of over eighteen hundred acres. After years of successful tilling of the soil, acquired solely 
through his own efforts, and maintained in order by his excellent management and enterprise, he 
was counted one of the progressive agriculturists of Stanislaus county. His death was not un- 
expected, but was nevertheless deeply regretted by appeciators of true and capable manhood, and 
he was followed to his last resting place by many who had known him in the early days, as well 
as by those who had shared his later years of prosperity. He was respected by all who knew 
him, and was held up as representative of a class of men who stand alone in the history of the 
county, both as to the courage required 'of them, and the nature of the work they accomplished. 
In San Francisco, October 1, 1897, Mr. Laughead was united in marriage with Mrs. Isabell 
Langille, who is the mother of two children, Samuel and Howard Langille, who reside with 
their mother. Mr. Laughead was a Republican in politics, and fraternally was connected with 
Modesto Chapter No. 49, R. A. M. Mrs. Laughead, who is a native of Nova Scotia, is a consistent 
member of the Presbyterian Church at Grayson.