William Loughridge
Wm. Loughridge, who removed so many years ago to Iowa, that not a half dozen members of the bar of 1894 know anything of him. Once he was a partner of Thomas H. Ford, but their joint labors did not assure a large clientage or well-filled purse, and Loughridge saw the need of obedience to the counsel and half-way command of Horace Greeley: "Go west, young man". West he went. In his purse was scarcely sufficient to pay the passage money. He once a few years ago told me the laughable story of his first few weeks stay at the county seat, then a mere village, of the county, on the bench of which he afterward presided, and which county and others he for years represented in the Congress of the United States. He told me the story as we sat in the parlors of a finely constructed and equipped hotel in Oskaloosa, Iowa, the property of Wm. Loughridge, and in substance it was: "When I arrived at Oskaloosa it was a mere village, but my means were exhausted and I could not go further on had I wished. So I sought the village taverns, engaged room and board, and going to my room displayed my belongings, which included an accordion. Great shades! Wm. Loughridge a musician! In my soul may have been harmony of sweet sounds, but in my voice and ear were no inception or conception thereof. I then looked at the village to find a room for an office. Found my landlord was building a little house on a lot he owned; he would not rent it, but insisted I should buy it. I told him I was short of money, but that made no difference, for he did not want cash, but sold it to me on time, and more, he sold me forty acres adjoining the village on same terms. Came back to the tavern and the daughter of mine host had spied the accordion and a sale to her mother of it secured a receipted board bill for many weeks. The village grew. I laid out the forty acres in an addition, and my fortune was made." So it was. Mr. Loughridge, when I called on him, was worth more than one hundred thousand dollars, and had been judge and congressman. His only son was at Yale, and he was the "biggest" man in the city of Oskaloosa, Iowa. He is not now living, but died only a few years ago. He was tall, angular, but fairly brainy. I close the sketch. The career of Loughridge is an argument why some young men in the crowded lines of Ohio's bar should go west and command fame and fortune.
From The Richland Shield & Banner: December 1, 1894, Vol. LXXVII, No. 29