Homer Laughlin

Homer Laughlin (March 23, 1843 in Little Beaver, Ohio – January 10, 1913 in Los Angeles, California) was an American businessman and potter who, with his brother Shakespeare, formed the Laughlin Pottery Company in 1871 in East Liverpool, Ohio.

The son of a miller, merchant and postmaster, Matthew Laughlin (1799–1876), of Scotch-Irish descent, and Maria (née Moore; 1814–1888), Homer Laughlin was educated at public schools and later at Neville Institute (now defunct). He did Civil War service from 1862 to 1865. A large part of his service was on detached duty as expert recorder of important military tribunals and he participated in the engagements around Murfreesboro.

After he was mustered out of the army, he worked in retail in Pittsburgh for a while, and later he worked in petroleum development in Pennsylvania for a year, boring twelve oil wells. He then became a travelling salesman of Rockingham style crockery throughout the Midwest.

Homer then moved to New York where he worked with his brother Shakespeare Moore Laughlin as an importer of English earthenware. In 1873, they built a pottery in East Liverpool, Ohio, which they ran as Laughlin Brothers until 1879, when Homer bought out Shakespeare. Their crockery became so popular that the company was accused of counterfeiting English trademarks by British manufacturers. In response to this accusation, Laughlin devised an anti-English trademark of a lion supine mounted by a rampant eagle standing on the lion's belly. The company became the largest manufacturer of crockery in the country.

Laughlin Pottery then became the Homer Laughlin China Company. In 1889, William Edwin Wells joined Homer Laughlin, and seven years later the two incorporated the company. Laughlin sold his interest to Wells shortly thereafter. The company moved operations across the Ohio River to West Virginia land purchased from the Newell family. Laughlin moved to Los Angeles in 1897, where he developed the Homer Laughlin Building on Broadway, the first fire-proof office building in Southern California. It was also the first reinforced concrete building erected in Southern California. Laughlin was an intimate friend of President William McKinley for over thirty years and presided over the reception committee when McKinley visited Los Angeles.

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