USA > Pennsylvania > Colonial and revolutionary families of Pennsylvania; genealogical and personal memoirs, Volume II > Part 24
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Nathaniel Irish, son of Nathaniel Irish, of Saucon, Northampton county, Pennsylvania, and Union Furnace, Hunterdon county, New Jersey, was born at Saucon, May 8, 1737, and died at Pittsburgh, Pennsylvania, September 11, 1816. He was an earnest patriot in the American Revolution, and was commissioned February 7, 1777, captain of a company of artillery in the regiment of Colonel Benjamin Flower. He was in command of his company until December, 1780, when the regiment was reorganized. He was among the early settlers of Pitts- burgh, Pennsylvania, of which he was elected the first assistant burgess. Cap- tain Irish was twice married, his first wife, whom he married in 1758, was Eliz- abeth, daughter of John Thomas. She was born in 1735 and died in August, 1790, near the mouth of Plum creek, Pitt township, Allegheny county, Pennsyl- vania. His second wife was Mary. Issue, all by first wife: William Beek- ford Irish ; Ann Irish, married Major George McCully ; Mary Irish (Mrs. Smith).
Major George McCully served in the Revolutionary War under General Wash- ington, and was an intimate friend of the great commander. He was one of the original members of the Society of the Cincinnati, a man of courage and
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high principle. After the treaty of peace was concluded with Great Britain, Major McCully was sent in command of a detachment of soldiers to Fort Duquesne to protect the settlers against attacks of the Indians. Afterwards he was appointed assistant commissary-general and intrusted with the duty of es- tablishing Fort Washington (Cincinnati). While in the performance of this duty, he was attacked with fever at the fort and died there, November 24, 1793, aged forty-one. He married Ann Irish, daughter of Captain Nathaniel and Elizabeth (Thomas) Irish and had issue. His daughter Eliza McCully became the wife of Boyle Irwin.
The ancestors of the Irwin family of Western Pennsylvania, were originally from Ayre, Scotland. The tradition of this family is that his brothers emi- grated from that part of Scotland in 1690, and settled in Donoughmore, County Moneghan, Ireland.
John Irwin, the youngest of three brothers who came from Ayre, Scotland, and settled in County Moneghan, Ireland, in 1690, is the ancestor of the Irwin families of Western Pennsylvania of whom Boyle Irwin and Captain John Irwin are the American progenitors. He participated in the historic Battle of the Boyne, in which William III, Prince of Orange, overthrew the forces of James II, and for his valor was knighted by his monarch and received a grant of a coat-of-arms as follows: Arms: Argent, a fesse, gules, between three holly leaves, vert. Crest : a gauntlet fessewise, issuing out of clouds, holding a thistle, all proper. Motto (beneath the arms) : Sub sole sub umbra vivescens. Motto (over crest) : Nemo me impune lacessit.
John Irwin, son of John of Donoughmore, County Moneghan, Ireland, and known as John Irwin of Donoughmore, was born in 1702 and died January 29, 1776. He never left his native land. He was a man of upright life, favoring ed- ucation, liberty and progress. He was twice married. His first wife, Elizabeth, was born in 1698, and died February 9, 1748 or 1749. She bore him six children, the eldest of whom was James Irwin, of Mulloughmore, who was the father of Captain John Irwin, of Pittsburgh, Pennsylvania. His second wife was Mary Boyle, born 1728, died May 3, 1776. She bore him three sons and a daughter, the youngest of whom was Boyle Irwin, of Pittsburgh, Pennsylvania.
Boyle Irwin, youngest son of John and Mary (Boyle) Irwin was born in County Tyrone, Castle Wellbrook, Ireland, November 23, 1772. He entered Dublin college intending to complete a course of study and acquire a classical education, but was attracted to the new world before graduation. Locating at Pittsburgh he established a commission business in a building located on "the Diamond", which he conducted for many years with great success. He was enterprising and progressive, reaching out after things that were new, pros- pecting and developing the natural resources with which the state was sup- plied so abundantly. As an incident of his business worth recording, it may be mentioned that the contract for making the rigging for Commodore Perry's fleet was awarded to him and while the work was in progress his place was struck by lightning, set on fire and entirely destroyed. He bored the first salt well opened west of the Allegheny Mountains, in 1824. This well was located on Nine Mile Run and continued his property until his death. The products of his labor and enterprise were large, enabling him to accumulate a comfortable fortune which he administered honestly and justly to his own and the public
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good. To the last he was a busy man, directing his affairs wisely and equitably. At a ripe age he was "gathered to his fathers," loved by his family and intimate friends, esteemed by the public as a man of great moral worth, a Christian devoted to his church and cherishing the good wherever found. Politically, he was a Whig, later a Republican, from conviction, exerting his influence in a commendable way to promote the triumph of the principles advocated by the party and incidentally for the election of its candidates. He was not self seeking or ambitious for political honors, but his excellent character and good business ability commended him and the partiality of his fellow-citizens selected him for service in the Pittsburgh City Council. He was an exemplary member of the First Presbyterian Church of Pittsburgh, always standing for truth and righteousness in the daily affairs of life. He lives in the memory of old citizens, and the leaven of his influence for good has not ceased to be a blessing in the community. He died in Pittsburgh, Pennsylvania, July 26, 1860. Five grand- sons of Boyle Irwin fought in the War of the Rebellion, viz: Major George McCully Laughlin, James A. Irwin, Charles Irwin, John McClure and Irwin McCully. Boyle Irwin married, in Pittsburgh, Pennsylvania, April 21, 1803, Eliza McCully (b. 1786, d. July 26, 1867), daughter of Major George and Ann (Irish) McCully. The issue of this marriage: 1. Mary Ann Irwin, born April 13, 1804, died January 27, 1885, married Rev. Joseph Painter, and had Boyle Irwin Painter, died in infancy; Ann Eliza Painter (Mrs. Olynthus J. Brown) ; Joseph Painter, never married; Mary Irwin Painter, she married John Gates, who for three years served in the Civil War as a drummer before he was sixteen years old. 2. A son, died in infancy. 3. Elizabeth W. Irwin, born March 24, 1807, died March 24, 1891. She married William Denny McClure and had issue : John McClure, married Mary Belle Orr; Boyle Irwin McClure, married Julia Pardon Brooks; Ann Eliza McClure, died unmarried; George McClure married Charlotte C. S. D'Arcy; Agnes Toppin McClure; Caroline Irwin McClure; William Denny McClure; Ella McClure married Kerr J. Orr. 4. Sarah Irwin, born October 6, 1808, died September 26, 1874, married Robert Arthurs and had issue: Anne M. Arthurs; Margaret Given Arthurs ; Jane Steel Arthurs; Caroline Irwin Arthurs; Isabella Arthurs married John E. Kuhn. 5. George W. Irwin, born August 3, 1810, died October 8, 1888, married Anna Ewalt and had issue: Charles Hays Irwin; George McCully Irwin, married Louisa Graff; Jennie Ewalt Irwin, married William Bell; Boyle Irwin, married Nancy Hallowell; Richard Ewalt Irwin, unmarried; James Irwin ; Harris Ewalt Irwin; Addison Mowry Irwin, married Carrie Dunlap Snanan. 6. Ann McCully Irwin, born March 23, 1813, died November 6, 1891. She married James Laughlin.
JAMES LAUGHLIN, one of the most prominent bankers and iron masters of Pittsburgh and for twenty years a member of the well-known firm of Jones & Laughlin (now Jones & Laughlin Steel Company), was born near Portaferry in the county of Down, Ireland, March 1, 1807, and died at his home in Pittsburgh, December 18, 1882. His father, James, senior, was an intelligent and thrifty farmer. In the neighboring city of Belfast, James Laughlin received his education, after which he returned to his home to assist his father in the management of the estate. His mother died before his twenty-first year, and this bereavement had much to do in determining his father to consent to
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emigrate to America, where another son, Alexander, had been established for some years in Pittsburgh. The family property was sold, and James with his father and two sisters embarked for America. After a somewhat eventful passage they arrived at Baltimore, then proceeding to Pittsburgh, where James engaged with his brother Alexander in the provision business. The new firm was known as Alexander Laughlin & Company, and besides the main store at Pittsburgh, they established a branch at Evansville, Indiana, where they erected a pork packing establishment. The management of the Evansville branch was the special charge of James Laughlin, and to promote its interests he spent the greater part of every winter there. The journey from Pittsburgh to Evansville in those days was a matter of two weeks or more, depending on the weather, and was made by stage or horseback. The firm of Alexander Laughlin & Company was dissolved in 1835, but the business was continued by James Laughlin, who then placed the Evansville branch in charge of Samuel Orr, a fellow countryman and trusted friend. Some time after this Mr. Laugh- lin formed a partnership with Mr. Orr, to carry on a general merchandise and iron business in Evansville. The business was continued for about twenty years. Mr. Laughlin was largely interested in the organization of the Fifth Ward Savings Bank of Pittsburgh in 1852 and was elected its president. This institution was succeeded by the Pittsburgh Trust Company, organized under a state charter, July 12, 1852. Five years later this company, having sur- rendered its charter, was organized as an association with the same officers. It filed an application for a charter under the National Currency Act of April II, 1863, and on August 7, of the same year was incorporated as the First National Bank of Pittsburgh, Mr. Laughlin continuing in the presidency. At that time the idea of national banking was far from being popular, indeed, many of the best business men viewed it with distrust. It is therefore worthy of note that the application of the Pittsburgh Trust Company to the Secretary of the Treasury was the fifth in the order of those filed, and that this insti- tution was the first organized bank in Allegheny county, Pennsylvania, that made application for a charter under the new federal banking system. In 1855, Mr. Laughlin retired from the provision business and turned his attention to the manufacture of iron, which had been for some years the chief industry of Pittsburgh. He associated himself with Mr. Benjamin F. Jones in the firm of Jones & Laughlin, which took a leading position from the start. He brought into this new field of effort the same intelligent and strict attention to business which had characterized all his previous enterprises. In 1860 was founded the firm of Laughlin & Company, which became the owner of the Eliza Blast Furnaces, Mr. Laughlin being the principal owner. Step by step the firm of Jones & Laughlin steadily arose and developed in the great iron industry and became, as the Jones & Laughlin Steel Company now is, one of the greatest commercial and industrial powers of the iron world. James Laughlin remained a member of the firm until his death, and since then the place has been filled by his sons and grandsons. He also remained president of the First National Bank of Pittsburgh until his death. In point of continuous service he was one of the oldest bank presidents in the State of Pennsylvania. His services to the public and to those whose financial interests received such loyal and safe attention at his hands can scarcely be overestimated. "We bear testimony", declared the
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directors of the bank at a special meeting held soon after his death "that in all our personal and business relations with Mr. Laughlin extending in some instances over thirty years, we have found him a type of the successful Ameri- can banker, readily grasping opportunities, difficulties and dangers of extended financial operation; meeting all questions with extraordinary freedom from all personal bias or prejudice, keeping pace even in advancing years with the liberal progressive principles of finance and business, conciliatory and kind in personal intercourse, yet always just in business relations."
Mr. Laughlin served a term as member of the Select Council of Pittsburgh, in which he represented "the old Fifth Ward", but he had no taste for politics and persistently refused to allow his name to be used in connection with any public office. His religious affiliations were with the First Presbyterian Church of Pittsburgh, of which he was one of the oldest members and most liberal supporters. He was also one of the founders and deeply interested in the Western Theological Seminary of Allegheny, and served as president of its board of trustees until his death. He was one of the incorporators of the Western Pennsylvania Institution for the Deaf and Dumb, located at Pitts- burgh, and one of its trustees from its foundation until his death. The higher education of women was a subject in which he took sincere interest and his views and wishes on the subject found cordial expression in the Pennsylvania Female College, of which he was the founder and first president, and to which he contributed liberally. Mr. Laughlin was always in full sympathy with those employed by him and as careful of their interests and feelings as though he were personally related to them.
James Laughlin married, September 10, 1837, Ann McCully Irwin, born March 23, 1813, died November 8, 1891, sixth child of Boyle and Eliza (Mc- Cully) Irwin. The children of this marriage are:
Henry Alexander Laughlin, eldest son of James and Ann McCully (Irwin) Laughlin, was born in Pittsburgh, Pennsylvania, December 12, 1838. He is a graduate of Brown University, class of 1860. In youth he displayed artistic talents of a high order and desired to make the study and execution of art his life work. Some of his paintings (all of which were executed before his twentieth birthday) indicate much natural ability. His father opposed his desire and insisted upon his following a business career. In 1861 he entered the firm of Jones & Laughlin (Limited) at the Eliza Furnaces, and all of his business life has been devoted to the interests of this concern, which was the pioneer in mining the rich ores of Lake Superior and smelting them with Connellsville coke at Pittsburgh. Mr. Laughlin acted as general superintendent and chairman of Laughlin & Company until the business was absorbed by the Jones & Laughlin Steel Company. Since that time he has been closely identified with the marvelous growth of the iron and steel industries which have made the city of his birth the manufacturing center of the continent, and perhaps of the world, and is largely interested in the Pittsburgh and Lake Angeline Iron Mining Company of Michigan. Mr. Laughlin is a director of the Jones & Laughlin Steel Company. He is a member of the Duquesne Club of Pittsburgh and the New York Yacht Club of New York City. Through the services of his ancestors he holds membership in the Society of the Sons of the American Revolution.
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Mr. Laughlin married, September 10, 1860, Alice B. Denniston, who died in 1893. He married (second) Mary B. Reed. Issue of Henry Alexander and Alice B. (Denniston) Laughlin: I. James B. Laughlin, born August 20, 1864; he married, October 10, 1888, Clara B. Young, daughter of William W. Young, of Pittsburgh. He was educated at Pittsburgh and at Princeton in the class of '86, and began business life with Laughlin & Company and Jones & Laughlin, at the Eliza Furnaces. From 1900 to 1904 he was identified with the ore and coal interests of the Jones & Laughlin Steel Company, and since 1904 has been treasurer of that corporation. He is president of the Pittsburgh and Lake Angeline Iron Mining Company, vice-president of the Lake Superior and Ish- peming Railway, and is interested in many other corporations. He was general superintendent of the Eliza Furnaces, 1894 to 1900. He is a member of the Duquesne, Union, Pittsburgh and Allegheny Country Clubs of Pittsburgh; and of the Princeton Clubs of Philadelphia and New York. The issue of James B. and Clara B. (Young) Laughlin are two sons and a daughter: Leslie Irwin Laughlin, born April 25, 1890, now a student at Princeton University, class of 1912; Henry Alexander Laughlin (2), born March 18, 1892, student at St. Paul's School, Concord, New Hampshire; Alice Denniston Laughlin. 2. Anne Irwin Laughlin, only daughter of Henry Alexander Laughlin. 3. Edward B. Laughlin, youngest son of Henry Alexander Laughlin, was born November 6, 1870. He was educated at Shady Side Academy, Pittsburgh, Lawrenceville, New Jersey, Academy, and Princeton University, class of 1894. He also graduated from Princeton Theological Seminary, and entered the min- istry of the Presbyterian church in Philadelphia. He married May, daughter of Judge Wilson, of Philadelphia, and has a daughter, Ethel Laughlin.
Irwin Boyle Laughlin, second son of James and Ann (Irwin) Laughlin, was born December 21, 1840, and died at Nice, France, April 9, 1871. He married, in 1870, Mary Bissell, and left a daughter, Mary Irwin Laughlin, who married, October 30, 1907, Frederick Houghton, of Boston, Massachusetts.
The late GEORGE MCCULLY LAUGHLIN, the third son of James and Ann (Irwin) Laughlin, was born in Pittsburgh, Pennsylvania, October 21, 1842, and died in Pittsburgh, December 1I, 1908. He was married, November 16, 1865, to Isabel B. McKennan, daughter of Judge William McKennan, of Washington, Pennsylvania, of the United States Circuit Court, Ninth District. He was educated in private schools in Pittsburgh and in Washington and Jefferson Col- lege. He was a member of the class that completed the course in 1863, but at the close of his junior year left college to enlist as a volunteer in the Union army. The call to patriotic service in preserving the honor and integrity of the nation, was, to him, a duty paramount to the pleasure and self-advantage of pursuing his studies and graduating with his class. He was mustered as a private, but immediately received from the governor a commission as second lieutenant of Company E, 155th Pennsylvania Volunteer Infantry. This military service was begun in August, 1862, and continued without interruption, hon- orably and effectually, until the surrender of Lee and the close of the war. He participated in every engagement of the Army of the Potomac from Antietam to Appomattox. His courageous performance of every duty in the campaigns and marches of the Fifth Army Corps won for him deserved promotion until he attained the rank of captain of Company E, 155th Regiment, Pennsylvania
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Volunteers, and finally was brevetted major for "distinguished services" in the battle of Quaker Road, Virginia. His last year of service was on detached duty as member of the staff of Major General Charles Griffin, who was placed in command of the Fifth Army Corps by General Sheridan during the battle of Five Forks, and continued on staff duty to the close of the war.
Through the fortune of war, Major Laughlin was destined to perform, in the campaigns of General Grant, conspicuous service in both the opening and closing of the series of battles that practically ended the rebellion. On the morning of May 5, 1864, when the Fifth Army Corps, commanded by General Warren, leading the advance of the Union army, penetrated "The Wilderness", several companies of the 155th Regiment, with details from other regiments, were ordered to serve on the advance line, and Captain Laughlin was assigned to the important duty of commanding this advance. These skirmishers were slowly pushing their way through the many obstructions in the dense woods, unable to see the enemy concealed in the thick foliage. Up to this time no shot had been fired by either side. Captain Laughlin, hearing noises from unseen troops, ordered the men in his command to fire in the direction of the noises to check the advance of the enemy. The orders were promptly obeyed, and when firing opened the enemy responded and the battle then opened all along the line, and continued with great fury and heavy losses on both sides during the entire day. The distinction of ordering the first shot in the opening of the sanguinary battle of "The Wilderness" was thus earned by Captain Laughlin. At Appomattox, April 9, 1765, the 155th Regiment was in advance of the Fifth Army Corps in pursuit of the retreating Confederate Army under Generals Longstreet and Gordon. In the midst of the severe fire from infantry and artillery at the final stand made by the enemy, a mounted Confederate courier, with a flag of truce, rode rapidly across the space be- tween the two armies, and reached that part of the skirmish line held by the 155th, and explaining his commission, was conducted to General Griffin, com- manding the Fifth Army Corps. General Griffin directed Captain Laughlin, then serving on his staff, to ride out to the advance skirmish line, still under the enemy's fire, and order each regiment engaged to "cease firing". In dis- charging this hazardous duty, Captain Laughlin rode along the Union battle line under the continuous and severe fire of the Confederates, and, returning, reported to General Griffin, compliance with his orders. The Confederates not ceasing the heavy fire, the General at once ordered Captain Laughlin to return to the advance skirmish line and deliver to each command orders to "resume firing". These orders were delivered by Captain Laughlin and firing was at once resumed by the Union skirmishers and continued until the firing along the Confederate line ceased. Captain Laughlin was then dispatched to the battle line with General Griffin's final orders to all the regiments to "cease firing". No hostile shot was fired by either army after this last command had been delivered, and the peace at Appomattox was assured. It is thus a note- worthy fact, even amidst all the famous actions of a great war, that one indi- vidual should deliver the orders that opened and closed one of the greatest campaigns in history. General Griffin was one of the three commanders desig- nated by General Grant to arrange the details of the surrender of Lee's army, and Captain Laughlin accompanied him as personal aide, and was therefore
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witness of the meeting between Generals Grant and Lee at the McLean House at Appomattox, where the terms of surrender were agreed upon. Captain Laughlin was mustered out with his regiment at Harrisburg in June, 1865.
Upon returning home immediately after the close of the war, he associated himself with the firm of Jones & Laughlin in the iron and steel industry, and into this field of effort he brought the same intelligent and strict attention to duty which had characterized his previous army experience. His active par- ticipation in the affairs of this concern continued for thirty-five years. His retirement as vice-chairman of the board in 1900, marking the beginning of a period of comparative leisure, in which he indulged himself as the evening of life came on. For nearly two decades he was treasurer and vice-chairman of the old firm of Jones & Laughlin (Limited), retaining that position until the re-organization of the concern as the Jones & Laughlin Steel Company, when the active management of the affairs of the company were assumed by the second and third generations of the original founders. He remained, however, a director and member of the advisory board until his death. During all these years he was a power in the steel world, as the deaths of the founders, the late B. F. Jones and the late James Laughlin, threw the burden of the business on the second generation. Major Laughlin was also connected with some of the conspicuous financial organizations of Pittsburgh. He was one of the incorpora- tors of the Keystone National Bank of Pittsburgh, and a director from its begin- ning until his death. He also served the bank as president from 1899 until his death. He was one of the incorporators of the Pittsburgh Trust Company, and a director from its organization until his death. "We bear testimony", declared the directors of the Trust Company at a meeting soon after his death, "that the responsibility of office was not lightly esteemed by him, and when in the city and able to be there, he was never absent from his place on the board. His mental gifts enabled him to quickly and accurately understand a proposition and the clearness of vision and open-mindedness with which he thoroughly analyzed every question, made his conclusions convincing. In our intercourse with him we found not only an ideal banker, but a most genial friend. We knew him in times of financial ease and financial stress, as never rendered careless by the former nor dismayed hy the latter. His judgment was disin- terested and sound, and we will miss his counsel more than language can express".
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