Rio Blanco County CO Archives Biographies.....McLaughlin, Farrell April 25, 1843 - ?
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Judy Crook jlcrook@rof.net March 14, 2006, 10:33 pm

Author: Progressive Men of Western Colorado

     More than sixty years ago the useful life which it is the purpose of this

writing to briefly outline began in the western portion of Ireland.  The subject

is a descendant of long lines of Irish ancestry, who turned the glebe in the

isle of flowers for many generations, or otherwise added by their labors to the

commercial or industrial wealth of the country.  He was born on April 25, 1843,

and is the son of Henry and Bridget McLaughlin, who emigrated from their own

hospitable shores to the larger liberties and greater opportunities of the

United States and settled in the state of New York at Troy.  The father was a

farmer, and took an earnest interest in the political activities of his adopted

land as a leading Democrat in his locality.  Both parents died a number of years

ago leaving three of their eight children to survive them, all of whom are yet

living, Hugh, Henry and Farrell.  The last named attended the common schools in

his boyhood and early youth, but has learned his best and most useful lessons in

the exacting but thorough school of experience.  In 1863, when he was twenty

years old, he left his father’s home, and after following a number of different

vocations, in 1874 opened a produce commission house which he conducted two

years without much success.  In 1876 he became a resident of Blackhawk in Gilpin

county, this state, and during the next three years engaged in mining for wages

and prospecting on his own account.  In 1879 he moved to Leadville, then one of

the busiest camps in the state, and for five years thereafter he did a thriving

butchering business in partnership with William L. Otterpach.  Then selling out

his interest there, he changed his residence to Rio Blanco county and gave his

attention to raising cattle on the open range.  At this time he located the

ranch now occupied by James Ed Hall which he afterward sold to that gentleman. 

He then bought another on Piceance creek which he held until 1890, when he moved

to his present home near Rangely.  He now owns two quarter-sections and has two

hundred acres of good land under cultivation.  He is also extensively engaged in

the cattle business with profitable returns.  His land is well irrigated from

two ditches which he owns, and as he omits no effort needed for its proper

cultivation, he realized abundant harvests from its fertile soil.  Although by

nature and desire a peaceful man, Mr. McLaughlin has not escaped the common lot

of the pioneers in trouble with the Indians. He assisted in driving the hostile

Utes out of his section of the state in 1879, and did not hesitate to take his

place in other engagements with the savages from time when occasion required it.

 In the public life of the county he has ever been active and serviceable.  He

served as county commissioner four years, and is generally conceded to have been

one of the best men the county ever had in this office.  He was elected as a

populist, but had previously been a Democrat.  He was united in marriage with

Mrs. Conway Fitzpatrick, a native of Macon, Missouri, and they have seven

children, Belle, Catherine, Hannah, Eliza, Ora, Reba, and one other.  The

parents belong to the Catholic church. 

Additional Comments:
From Progressive Men of Western Colorado.  Chicago:  A.W. Bowen & Co., 1905

File at: http://files.usgwarchives.net/co/rioblanco/bios/mclaughl287gbs.txt

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