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


FRANCIS W. LAUGHLIN. The worthy descendant of an honored pioneer family of 
Stanislaus county Francis W. Laughlin has spent the major part of his life within its limits, and 
has been actively associated with its agricultural and industrial development and progress. A son 
of the late James E. Laughlin, he was born March 1, 1857, in Linn county, Kans. His grand- 
father, William Laughlin, was born in Kentucky, his parents having removed there from South 
Carolina. Becoming an early settler of Osage county, Mo., he took up land, and was there en- 
gaged in tilling the soil the remainder of his life. A native of Missouri, James E. Laughlin was 
born October 20, 1829, in Osage county, where his earlier years were passed. From there he 
migrated to Linn county, Kans., and was there prosperously engaged in farming a number of 
years. In 1862, with horse and mule teams, he came overland to California, bringing his wife 
and two children, following the wagon trail through Murphy and Copperopolis, in Calaveras 
county. At once locating in Stanislaus county, he entered three hundred and twenty acres, being 
the first person to take up land back from the river, and doing so against the protest of his 
neighbors, all of whom predicted that he would soon be starved out. He began raising grain, 
and was so successful that he afterward purchased one hundred and sixty acres of adjoining 
land, and on his ranch of four hundred and eighty acres continued his agricultural labors for 
thirty years. Selling out in 1890, he continued his residence in that locality for two years, but 
was retired from active pursuits. In 1902 he removed to Oakdale, where . he subsequently 
lived until his death, October 26, 1903, at the age of seventy-four years. He married Sarah 
E. Moore, who was born in Tennessee, but was reared in Osage county, Mo., whither her father, 
Patrick Moore, settled as a pioneer farmer. She survives her husband, and now makes her home 
with her children, having one son and one daughter, namely : Francis W., the special sub- 
ject of this sketch, and Mrs. Sarah E. Pyeatt of Madera county. 

Coming with his parents to Stanislaus county when five years old, Francis W. Laughlin here 
received all the advantages for obtaining an education that the district schools afforded. Being 
bred to agricultural pursuits, he naturally adopted farming as his occupation, and at the age of 
twenty-one years rented and operated a ranch on his own account. In 1886, having made con- 
siderable money in his chosen work, he bought three hundred and twenty acres of land, not far 
from the old homestead, and there carried on general farming for six years. Selling that farm 
in 1902, Mr. Laughlin located in Oakdale, about one and one-half miles from the village, where 
he owns and occupies a finely improved ranch of two hundred and forty-five acres. His land 
is well watered by the ditch and yields him large crops of alfalfa and grain. Most of the time 
Mr. Laughlin resides in Oakdale. 

Mr. Laughlin married, in San Francisco, Mrs. Mamie J. (Gable) Armstrong, who was born in 
Calaveras county, where her father, William Armstrong, a pioneer farmer and stock raiser, 
spent the larger part of his life, dying there in 1890. Mr. and Mrs. Laughlin have one child, 
namely: Alpha. Politically Mr. Laughlin is a strong Republican, and fraternally he is a mem- 
ber of Oakdale Lodge No. 275, F. & A. M. Mrs. Laughlin is a faithful and valued member 
of the Methodist Episcopal Church.