James Laughlin (industrialist)

James Laughlin
Born	(1806-03-01)March 1, 1806 County Down, Ireland
Died	December 18, 1882 (1882-12-19) (aged 76) Pittsburgh, Pennsylvania, US
Occupation	Financier
Known for	Jones and Laughlin Steel
Spouse	Ann Irwin ​ ​ (m. 1837; died 1882)​
Children	Henry Alexander Laughlin Irwin Boyle Laughlin George McCully Laughlin Eliza Irwin Phillips James Laughlin
Parent(s)	James Laughlin Eliza Boyd
Relatives	Irwin B. Laughlin (grandson) Duncan Phillips (grandson) James Laughlin IV (great-grandson)
Signature

James H. Laughlin (March 1, 1806 – December 18, 1882) was an Irish-American banker and capitalist, a pioneer of the iron and steel industry in Pittsburgh, Pennsylvania.

Early life

He was born near Portaferry in County Down, Ireland, the son of Jane (née Boyd) Laughlin (1763–1814) and James Laughlin, Sr. (1748–1831).^[1] Among his siblings was brother Alexander Laughlin, whose son, Alexander J. Laughlin married Mary Franklin Jones (a daughter of his business partner Benjamin Franklin Jones).^[2]

He was educated at Belfast, and after leaving school he assisted his father in taking care of his estate until age twenty, when his mother died in 1814 and the family came to America. Upon his arrival he entered into partnership with his brother Alexander.^[2]

Career

In 1854, Laughlin bought the retiring Bernard Lauth's interest in the steel partnership with Benjamin Franklin Jones.^[3] The company was renamed Jones and Laughlin in 1861, later reorganized as J&L Steel.^[4][5]

In 1844, Laughlin was appointed as a corporator to the board responsible for establishing the Allegheny Cemetery.^[6] In 1852, Laughlin and his associates, including B.F. Jones, founded a banking organization that, when chartered, was the First National Bank of Pittsburgh,^[3][7] later Pittsburgh National Bank.^[8]

Laughlin was the first president of the Western Theological Seminary in Pittsburgh.

He was a founder of the Pennsylvania Female College,^[3] which later became Chatham University.

Personal life

In 1837, Laughlin was married to Ann McCully Irwin (1813–1891), a daughter of Boyle Irwin and Eliza (née McCully) Irwin.^[9] Together, they were the parents of:

• Henry Alexander Laughlin (1838–1922), who married Alice B. Denniston in 1860. After her death in 1873, he married Mary B. Reed, a daughter of Colin McFarquhar Reed, in 1876.^[10]
• Irwin Boyle Laughlin (1840–1871), who married Mary Wood Bissell, a daughter of John Bissell, in 1870.^[11]
• George McCully Laughlin (1842–1908), who married Isabel Bowman McKennan, a daughter of Judge William McKennan of the Third Circuit Court of Appeals, in 1865.^[12][13]
• Elizabeth "Eliza" Irwin Laughlin (1844–1929), who married Duncan Clinch Phillips, a Pittsburgh window glass millionaire, in 1883.^[9]
• James Laughlin (1847–1919), who married Sidney Ford Page,^[14] the youngest child of John Harding Page.^[15]

Laughlin died at his home in Pittsburgh on December 18, 1882.^[3][16]

References

1. Boucher, John Newton (1908). A century and a half of Pittsburg and her people. Lewis Pub. Co. pp. 213. James Laughlin County Down. |OCLC=13928977
2. Boucher, John Newton; Jordan, John W. (1908). A Century and a Half of Pittsburg and Her People. New York: The Lewis Publishing Company. pp. 214–215.
3. Thurston, George H. (1888). Allegheny county's hundred years. Pittsburgh: University of Pittsburgh, Digital Research Library. pp. 258–260.
4. "Family's Fourth". Time. No. April 13. April 13, 1936. Archived from the original on October 25, 2012. Retrieved August 9, 2008.
5. "Jones-Laughlin Steel to be Reorganized" (PDF). The New York Times (Aug. 6). 1922. Retrieved August 9, 2008.
6. Allegheny Cemetery, Pittsburgh, Pa (1910). The Allegheny cemetery, Pittsburgh, Pa: its origin and early history, also a report of its condition, progress and business during the last ten years, June 1, 1900-May 31, 1910. Pittsburgh: University of Pittsburgh, Digital Research Library. p. 13.
7. White, Edward (1903). A century of banking in Pittsburgh. Pittsburgh, Pa: University of Pittsburgh, Digital Research Library. p. 19.
8. "Corporate History". PNC Legacy Project. PNC Financial Services. Archived from the original on February 28, 2015. Retrieved November 4, 2013.
9. Revolution, Daughters of the American (1898). Lineage Book of the Charter Members of the Daughters of the American Revolution. Daughters of the American Revolution. p. 9. Retrieved May 5, 2023.
10. Jordan, John Woolf (2004). Colonial And Revolutionary Families Of Pennsylvania. Genealogical Publishing Com. p. 834. ISBN 978-0-8063-5239-8. Retrieved May 5, 2023.
11. Cutter, William Richard (1926). American Biography: A New Cyclopedia. Pub. under the direction of the American Historical Society. p. 17. Retrieved May 5, 2023.
12. A century and a half of Pittsburg and her people, Volume 4. Lewis Publishing Company. 1908. pp. 216–7.
13. Jordan, John W. (1978). Colonial and Revolutionary Families of Pennsylvania. Genealogical Publishing Com. pp. 834–7. ISBN 9780806352398.
14. MacNiven, Ian S. (November 18, 2014). "Literchoor Is My Beat": A Life of James Laughlin, Publisher of New Directions. Macmillan. p. 16. ISBN 978-0-374-29939-2. Retrieved May 5, 2023.
15. The Family Book of Bakewell, Page, Campbell: Being Some Account of the Descendants of John Bakewell, of Castle Donington, Leicestershire, England, Born in 1638. Benjamin Page, Born in 1765, at Norwich, England. William Campbell, Born July 1, 1766, at Mauchline, Ayrshire, Scotland. John Harding, of Leicester. Wm. G. Johnston & Company, Printers and Stationers. 1896. pp. 77–78. Retrieved May 5, 2023.
16. "Mr. James Laughlin, Sr". Pittsburgh Post-Gazette. December 19, 1882. p. 4. Retrieved October 27, 2024 – via Newspapers.com.

External links

• Jones & Laughlin Steel Corporation Historical Records, 1871-1953, AIS.1973.07, Archives Service Center, University of Pittsburgh.
• Records of the Jones and Laughlin Steel Corporation, MSS#33, Historical Society of Western Pennsylvania.