Yolo County CA Archives Biographies.....Laugenour, Emma C. 1842 - 
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Joy Fisher sdgenweb@yahoo.com December 5, 2005, 12:25 am

Author: Tom Gregory

MRS. EMMA C. LAUGENOUR

   As compared with the volumes that have been written exploiting the
accomplishments of men in bringing California up to its present state of
development, little or nothing has been said concerning the part women have
taken in this same work. While from an outward viewpoint the characters they
have represented in the drama have been less conspicuous perhaps than those
portrayed by the men, nevertheless they have been equally necessary to bring
about the ends accomplished, as many men have declared in giving the synopsis of
their lives. Few of California's early settlers recognized more thoroughly than
did John D. Laugenour the sustaining help and comfort which he received from his
wife, and he frankly gave credit to her for much that he was able to accomplish
during his long residence in the west. Emma Christene Watkins was born in New
Philadelphia, Ohio, May 12, 1842, and was therefore about eighteen years of age
when she became the wife of John D. Laugenour in 1860. Of the eight children
born to them five are now living and exemplifying in their daily lives the high
principles of manhood and womanhood instilled in them by the teachings of their
parents. Named in the order of their birth they are as follows: Philip T., Henry
W., Jesse D., William E., and Emma Carter, the wife of Walter F. Malcomb.

    To the tactful sympathy, as well as conservative judgment of his wife, Mr.
Laugenour attributed much of his success, and the fact that since his death she
has faithfully endeavored to carry out plans of both philanthropy and business
in which she deems he would have been deeply interested, is proof of the
confidence and understanding which existed between them.

    As president of the W. C. T. U. of Woodland, and as the principal financial
backer of the Home Alliance, a paper devoted not only to the temperance
movement, but to general news as well, Mrs. Laugenour has done much to aid in
the banishment of the liquor evil, and by her womanly sympathy and sunny
personality, united with pecuniary assistance, has lightened many a sad heart
and given more than one poor but ambitious young person a chance to prove
himself. She has lived to see the cause of temperance victorious in Yolo county,
but now the saloons are banished from every part of the county, with the
exception of Broderick and Clarksburg. She is also happy to have lived to see
the object for which she labored for twenty years—the enfranchisement of
women—crowned with success, she having been the pioneer and the foremost worker
in her county in pushing the cause of suffrage to a reality. In 1900 she bore a
part of the expense incident to the erection of Mary's Chapel, near Yolo, in
order that those who could not go to the city churches might have a place to
worship, as well as to provide accommodations for funeral corteges from the
outlying districts of Yolo county. She also organized the Mary's Cemetery
Association, which she has served as president about fifteen years, and it was
during this time that Mary's Chapel was built. In her home, Christene Cottage,
Woodland, always open to those who seek comfort and assistance, Mrs. Laugenour
dispenses true hospitality. To her, life holds nothing sweeter than doing for
those less fortunate than herself, and it is meet that her name should be, as it
is, a synonym for purity and beauty of character.


Additional Comments:
Extracted from

HISTORY OF YOLO COUNTY CALIFORNIA
WITH
Biographical Sketches
OF
The Leading Men and Women of the County Who Have Been Identified With Its Growth
and Development From the Early Days to the Present

HISTORY BY
TOM GREGORY
AND OTHER WELL KNOWN WRITERS
ILLUSTRATED COMPLETE IN ONE VOLUME

HISTORIC RECORD COMPANY
LOS ANGELES, CALIFORNIA [1913]

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