FRANK B. LAUGHLIN

FRANK B. LAUGHLIN
1835 – []

Frank B. Laughlin, iron manufacturer, was born in 1835 in Pennsylvania. Both of his parents were born in Ireland.

He married Margaret B.

In 1880 their household included:

- Frank B. Laughlin, 45

- Margaret B. Laughlin, 42

- A. Bailey Laughlin, son, 19 (printer) (married Mary F. Jones before 1895)
- Maggie (Margaret) B. Laughlin, daughter, 16 (married Mr. John M. S. Allison, the son of Dr. James A. Allson of whom more below, who died in 1894). Their son and his namesake becam ea professor at Yale and the Margaret Laughlin Marshall-John M.S. Allison Traveling Fellowship at Yale was established in their honor.

- Frank M Laughlin, son, 9 (married Annie J. Jenkinson before 1895)

- Harry M. Laughlin, son, 6 (married Eleanor Seymor before 1912)

The Laughlins lived on Penn Avenue opposite Murtland in the 22nd ward of Pittsburgh and near neighbors included the SFF&HC members: Woodwells, Aaron French and John Leishman’s future bride Julia Crawford (at her parents’ home, Mr. and Mrs. Edward Crawford). Thomas & Lucy Carnegie also lived near by.

Laughlin was associated with the Lucy Furnace Company (the first Lucy furnace, so called after the wife of Thomas M. Carnegie, the daughter of Mr. Coleman,). 1877, August 12-The Lucy Furnace Company. Organized by Andrew Carnegie, Thomas M. Carnegie and Henry Phipps, Jr. He was also the secretary of the Solar Carbon and Manufacturing Company.

Frank B. Laughlin was a member of the Duquesne Club, organized June 11, 1873. Laughlin, H C Frick and George Dillworth were the three founding members who appeared for the chartering, before the Allegheny County recorder of deeds.

The Social Mirror of 1888 says, “Mrs. Frank Laughlin is a Western woman. Margaret, Mrs. Laughlin's daughter, several years ago married Mr. John M. S. Allison. His sad death a year ago has left her a young widow.”

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Dr. James A. Allison...

James Allison, D.D., Pittsburgh, is a native of Pittsburgh, Pa., born September 27, 1823. James Allison, Sr., his father, was born in 1792 in the Cumberland Valley, and was of old Scotch Presbyterian stock. He came to Pittsburgh in 1811, and was married there to Elizabeth, daughter of George and Lydia Brickell. The Brickell family settled in Pittsburgh in 1760, and owned and farmed a large amount of property in Birmingham. James Allison was a tanner, and later in life a farmer in Deer (now Richland) Township, Allegheny County, Pa., where he died aged seventy-five years. Politically he was identified with the whig and afterward with the republican party. Dr. Allison graduated at Jefferson College, class of 1845, and at the Western Theological Seminary, Allegheny, in 1848, after which he was pastor of the Presbyterian Church at Sewickley for sixteen years, and for several years was connected with the late Rev. Dr. McKinney as editor of the Presbyterian Banner. Dr. Allison, in 1864, along with Robert Patterson, bought the Presbyterian Banner, which they have published and edited ever since, and its circulation has been quadrupled under their management. Dr. Allison is a director of the Western Theological Seminary; trustee of Washington and Jefferson College; one of the managers of the Pennsylvania Reform School at Morganza, which position he has filled fourteen years. He has been a member of the Presbyterian General Assembly seven times; from 1865 to the present time he has been a member of the Presbyterian Board of Missions for Freedmen; has been a member of the Pittsburgh Chamber of Commerce for several years, and has always taken an active part in public movements in church and state. He has been twice married; first, Aug. 20, 1851, to Miss Mary Anderson, of Sewickley, Pa., and second, November 6, 1856, to Miss Caroline Snowden, of Pittsburgh. His only son, John M.S. Allison, seven years connected with him in the Banner, a young man of great ability and high promise, died of typhoid fever Dec. 27, 1887. His only daughter now resides in Boston, the wife of S.W. Reinhart, general auditor of the Atchison, Topeka & Santa Fe railroad.