Ohio Biographies



William McLaughlin


A native son of western Pennsylvania; his birthplace so near the Ohio line that it may be said he was a Buckeye. In his early manhood on the farm, then removed to Richland County. In his purse no scrip or coin, on his back nearly his all of worldly goods, with a brain not cultured, but with more of cunning than most men, tall, straight, and strong. On his arrival in Mansfield he gave the world of that hamlet and the country about it to understand that he was a lawyer and ha come to cast his fortunes with the early settlers of "old Richland". He possessed one faculty in large measure, that of making and retaining friends, and was gifted with another that largely aided to make him a success professionally and in that field of political endeavor, and that gift was this: He took counsel of himself and of men in the opposition to him when he had weighed and determined them to be honorable, rather than seeking the advice of those in accord with him, whom he judged to be as ambitious as himself. His education was very meager and text books were to him hardly half open, but he studied the book of nature; studied the make-up of his fellows, their weaknesses rather than their strength. He attached himself to the few, but made much of the multitude. His special friends in partisan matters were always of the opposite party, and his greatest fear was of men in his own political organization. His success at the bar was phenomenal in the early years of his practice for Bartley was a close student, Brinkerhoff had keen and quick perceptions, Stewart was possessed of commanding figure, a voice unequalled, and a superb equipment in every way save one; he lacked industry. Newman had all the qualities of Stewart with great ambition and great industry added, and McLaughlin was possessed of none of the gifts which these four had, and yet in all his early years he attained success. He was elected prosecuting attorney and discharged the duties well. He was advanced to the Senate of Ohio, and made Speaker thereof, and he was recognized as a most excellent and able presiding officer, and he once told me that he was always cognizant of his inability and realized that if his party associates should once put him in peril as a presiding officer his position would be as unstable as the crown of a king -- but that his rule was to get close to the leading honorable man of the other party and be guided greatly by him. Oh, the genius and the cunning combined! He was, in fact, a popular and successful Speaker, much more so that Thomas W. Bartley, who succeeded him in the State Senate and in the Speaker's chair. He was an advocate rather than a counselor. In the days of his largest practice actions-at-law were more based on injuries to person and reputation than on commercial transactions and for damages, for breaches of marriage contracts and crim con. McLaughlin possessed a good clientage among the old men of the county, and varied were his experiences. Fertile in resources of the ad-captandum kind, he won many victories before the juries of the county, and if the law of the case were against him, he would, though not rich in reasonings, have the court leave undisturbed the verdicts; shrewd enough to suggest to the judge to keep his hands off the findings of the twelve good and honorable men in the box. I have referred to his soldierly instincts. He was commissioned a major general commanding a division of Ohio militia, and was such when the Mexican War occurred. Volunteers were called for, Ohio's quota was three regiments of infantry. I well remember the training day. The command was put through the facings and maneuvers in the grove on the south side of Park Avenue East. There as nature grew, in 1846, was an amphitheater; a bubbling spring of pure water near by, the umbrageous oaks and elms standing here and there and the carpet of green under their feet, and the canopy of the sky above. The command was at a parade rest. The call was read. A neat speech or two were made and "attention" was the next command. The whole division came to a shoulder arms, and those who were willing to volunteer were ordered to march ten paces to the front. The boys marched forward. McLaughlin of the number. Thomas H. Ford, James Cantwell, Wm. Smith, Wm. L. Tidball, M.R. Dickey, John Crall, Joseph Reisinger and as many altogether as made two companies. McLaughlin was commissioned captain of one company and Ford of the other, and soon they marched away to camp Washington, near Cincinnati, and became a part of the 3rd. Ohio, whose colonel was another Mansfield man, Samuel R. Curtis. The year went by and peace came, and a new empire came with it from Mexico, to increase and add to the area, extent, greatness and glory of the Republic; but with it came the seeds of discontent and disunion, increase of slavery in the south, and so on and up to 1861, when the war for the Union was waged. McLaughlin was an old man then and military spirit had declined. In all Ohio but little if any organization was maintained, but when Abraham Lincoln called, the old man responded, went to the front again as captain and served three months. Then authorized to raise a squadron of cavalry and was commissioned the major, and with his command went into the highlands of Kentucky. The sands were running out. Broken in health, he was ordered home on a sick leave, and on the Big Sandy, with his face to the sun, ere he had reached his loved ones, or they him, the soul left the body and the old soldier's campaigning was ended.

 

From the Richland Shield & Banner, August 11, 1894, Vol. LXXVII, No. 13]

 


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