Family Trees –––– Recollections–––– Read All About It–––– Strictly Solvay–––– Sandy Pond–––– Etc
Will the real John McLaughlin please stand up?
In going through the many newspaper archives that are available via www.fultonhistory.com, I often find myself wishing people of previous generations had used a greater variety of names for their children. This was especially true when I searched for information on John McLaughlin, my maternal great-grandfather. My search request produced more than 5,000 articles, none of which, so far as I could determine, referred to my great-grandfather, though several of these articles involved people who could be found somewhere on my family tree.

One such article jumped out at me because it indicated that more than 100 years ago, there were folks who wished some McLaughlin parents who had named their sons John might have gone instead with Jonah or Joshua, Jeffrey, Jerome or maybe Sean. Those who raised the issue in this article did so for a self-serving purpose, desperate as they were to overturn a vote that might affect their livelihood.

Frankly, this article left me more than a bit confused. I'm not exactly sure what it says about Skaneateles, New York, in 1895. No doubt, the spirit of prohibition was growing, but with about 20 saloons in the town, it's clear a lot of residents enjoyed a drink or two. I wish I had found at least one follow-up article. I assume the claim made by the saloon-keepers was ruled frivilous and tossed out of court.

And I remain uncertain just which John McLaughlin was at the center of this controversy.
Syracuse Daily Courier / February 18, 1895


SKANEATELES, Feb. 17 – Skaneateles last Tuesday elected a no-license excise commissioner, John McLaughlin, and, as G. W. Hoagland, no-license, was elected a year ago, Skaneateles is assured for two years a prohibition regime. As Skaneateles occupies a unique position in Onondaga, the workings of this system will be watched with interest.

Skaneateles tried no-license ten years ago and, as the law was not enforced, people became disgusted with the working and went back to license. While the excise commissioners were reasonably lenient, the license people ran in their own men year after year without difficulty. Two or three saloonkeepers have become over-bold, running at all hours weekdays and Sundays, and the excise commissioners were apparently satisfied. Former excise men went against the excise candidate and Mr. McLaughlin was elected.

All town licenses expire May 1 and the saloon-keepers expect to get no more. More than that they know Mr. McLaughlin well enough to know no licenses being granted every effort will be made to have the excise laws enforced. Saloons and saloon fixtures and saloon goodwill can be purchased at the lowest figure known in years in Skaneateles, possession to be taken May 1.

Some will keep open avowedly to sell small drinks and run their pool tables, really to see what the course of the commissioners is to be. If the law is enforced, most of them – and there are twenty of them – will close out, for the present regime is for two years at least, the next excise commissioner to retire being a license commissioner.

The saloon-keepers looking about for a means to escape the inevitable, have decided to push into court the claim that there are four men in Skaneateles named John McLaughlin and that the John McLaughlin who was elected was really John McLaughlin jr. The claim is made that men can be brought into court who will swear they voted for other John McLaughlins. The majority given Mr. McLaughlin was 32, enough to make improbable that the court would ask the defense to make its arguments.

It is understood that the saloon-keepers have raised $300 to press their case and that they will stand together not only on this point but also in defense of saloon-keepers who are charged with violation of the law in case they are prosecuted, as they stood together for Proprietor Williams of the Lake View house when W. Martin Jones came down from Rochester to use him up.

 

Contact:
JMajor9863@aol.com
Family Trees –––– Recollections–––– Read All About It–––– Strictly Solvay–––– Sandy Pond–––– Etc