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Clell J. McLaughlin

One of Fayette county's splendid young business men, who is the proprietor of as fine and up-to-date drug store as is to be found in the West, and who deserves special mention in a history of Fayette county as a man of enterprise, push and originality, is the subject of this review. Clell J. McLaughlin was born in Monticello, Iowa, on January 29, 1879, the son of Michael and Joanna McLaughlin. His father was born in New York, his mother in Vermont. His father was one of the first settlers of the state of Iowa, coming to Monticello in 1837, to which place his wife came about 1850. They were married in 1868. Michael McLaughlin has passed his life in the honorable occupation of farming, and still living, a substantial citizen of Jones county, and he is now the oldest living inhabitant of the county. His wife is also living. Clell J. McLaughlin attended the public schools of Monticello, and Northwestern University at Evanston, Illinois, graduating from the latter institution. For three years after graduation he was employed as a traveling salesman for a Chicago wholesale drug firm. He then embarked in the drug business for himself at Hawkeye, Iowa, where he remained for three years. Coming to West Union at the expiration of this time, he purchased the drug store then operated by E. M. Philips & Company, and still continuing the business. He carries a full line of drugs and all articles found in a first-class drug store, and keeps his store in a neat, attractive, and well appointed condition so that it is a tempting place to passers-by. Mr. McLaughlin is a skilled pharmacist, and a courteous, accommodating gentleman, while he is not afraid to assert his original ideas, and he has accomplished the somewhat difficult task of putting individuality into a drug store, of making his store, while thoroughly modern and up to date to the minute, so different from the ordinary drug store as at once to impress whoever enters.

Mr. McLaughlin was married on April 12, 1899, to Lettie A. Bright, the daughter of Henry BRIGHT, of Union, Illinois. To this union have been born two sons, Stuart, on March 21, 1907, and Donald, on May 10, 1910, bright and interesting children. In politics Mr. McLaughlin is a Republican. Fraternally, he is a member of the Masonic order at West Union. He is one of the able young business men of his town and county, whose enterprise is bringing to him its reward, both financially and in the standing which he holds in the community. Every inch a gentleman, he is one whom it is a pleasure to meet, and whose genial disposition, accommodating nature and true worth have made many friends for him, while the public have absolute confidence in him as a business man and in the line of goods which he sells. As "The Druggest" of West Union, he has gained a wide and enviable reputation.

~transcribed for the Fayette County, IAGenWeb Project by Ann Borden