James McLaughlin & Rhoda Lawrence

James McLaughlin, my 4th great grandfather and father of Mary McLaughlin, was born June 1, 1806 in Hillsborough, New Hampshire.  He was the youngest of 10 children born to John and Bethiah McLaughlin.  He married at the age of 26, rather old for the time, but despite that he and his subsequent three wives did their share to populate New England, having 20 children.  His first wife and my 4th great grandmother was Rhoda Russell Lawrence, born February 22, 1815 in Temple, Maine.  They married on New Years Eve of 1832 in Temple.  They settled in the adjacent town of Weld, Maine located in the south central part of the state, and which had been founded in about 1800 and officially incorporated in 1816.  James engaged in farming.  In 1860 he is listed in an agricultural census as growing 40 bushels of oats.  He had 2 horses, 1 milk cow, and 4 Oxen.

Together James and Rhoda had 15 children; Lafayette, Mary Lucretia, Joseph, Samuel, Rhoda, Harrison, Alma, Laura, James, Zachary, Hesta, Frank, Emily, Willis, and Nellie.  Rhoda died when Nellie was about one year old, on June 6, 1856.  She appears on the 1850 US census but not on that of the 1860 census. She is interred at the Mountain View Cemetery in Franklin Co. Maine along with multiple of her children.

James married Rebecca Dolley 6 months later, on November 20, 1856 in Weld.  They had 4 children; Chandler, John, Albert, and a child who died in infancy.  She appears on the 1860 US census but not that of the 1870 census.  She likely died between 1861 and 1866.

James' third wife was Elizabeth Hopwood Pease who was born in England about 1835.   They married on July 21, 1867 in Coloma, Wisconsin.  Their only child was Frank. 

James passed away in Coloma on July 10, 1884.  I have not found his grave site.