John G. Laughlin. The name Laughlin had been well known in Atchison County and other sections of Kansas for nearly half a century. John Gregory Laughlin of this family is a prominent young banker and is cashier of the Devon State Bank in Bourbon County.
He was born at Atchison, Kansas, April 25, 1889. The previous generations of the family came out of Ireland. Grandfather Patrick Laughlin came from Ireland to the United States in 1852, first locating in Wisconsin, and from there coming to Kansas in 1867. He was a farmer and stone mason, lived retired after coming to Kansas, and died at Atchison in 1889, the same year that John G. Laughlin was born.
P. T. Laughlin, father of John G., was born in Ireland November 4, 1847, came to this country when five years of age, and grew up in the State of Wisconsin. He was at the vigorous age of twenty years when he arrived at Atchison in 1867, and he spent the rest of his active career as a farmer in that section of the state. He died at Atchison March 7, 1912. He was a democrat, and a man of great personal popularity and influence. This is well indicated by the fact that though his party was normally about six hundred in the minority, he was elected twice a member of the Kansas Legislature, and served four years. He belonged to the Catholic Church and was a charter member of Topeka Council of the Knights of Columbus.
P. T. Laughlin married Anna Catherine Purcell, who was born at Jacksonville, Illinois, December 28, 1854, and is now living at Atchison. She became the mother of eight children: P. E. Laughlin; Mary G., at home with her mother; Arthur Philip; Margaret, who is principal of the Horton Ward School and makes her home with her mother; Theresa, with her mother; John G.; Anna Pauline, a teacher in the high school at Atchison; and Mona, a student in the Atchison High School. Three of the sons, including John G., have taken up the profession of banking. P. E. Laughlin, the oldest, is a man of state-wide reputation. In 1912 and 1914 he was a candidate on the democratic ticket for state treasurer of Kansas. He was appointed assistant bank examiner, filled that position until July, 1916, when he resigned to accept his present post as cashier of the Midwest National Bank of Kansas City, Missouri. Arthur Philip Laughlin is assistant cashier of the Citizens State Bank of Norcatur, Kansas.
John G. Laughlin grew up on the farm in Atchison County, attended the rural schools and in 1907 completed the high school course at Muscotah. He had the benefit of commercial training in the Saint Benedict’s College at Atchison and in 1909 graduated from the Central Business College of Kansas City, Missouri. The first direction to which he applied his efforts was farming. He continued an active farmer in Atchison County until the fall of 1915, when he entered the banking business as cashier of the Devon State Bank.
The Devon State Bank was opened for business September 1, 1915. It is chartered by the State of Kansas, and had a capital stock and surplus of $11,000. Its officers are: M. A. Thompson of Blue Rapids, Kansas, president; L. L. Ritchie, a lumber merchant at Devon, and J. L. Kepley, vice presidents; and J. G. Laughlin, cashier.
Mr. Laughlin is a member of the Catholic Church, of Fulton Council of the Knights of Columbus, of Devon Camp of the Modern Woodmen of America, and belongs to the Bourbon County, Kansas State and American Bankers’ Association.
May 2, 1911, at Horton, Kansas he married Miss Olive Miller. Her parents, J. D. and Myrtle (Bushey) Miller, live at Muscotah, her father being a farm owner. Mr. and Mrs. Laughlin have one child, Margaret, who was born November 1, 1915.