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May it please Your Honor
The Committee appointed by your Honor
to prepare a memorial commemorative of the life, character, and services of our late
distinguished friend and brother, Hon. B. F. McLaughlin, with melancholy pleasure make the
following report:
Benjamin Franklin McLaughlin, nestor
of
Mr. McLaughlins success was at
once phenomenal, the usual hardships of the young lawyers life seemed but to serve
as inspiration to impel him on to greater zeal and high endeavor. In a bar composed at that time of some of the most
brilliant men in
Mr. McLaughlin always took an active
interest in the civic life and welfare of his town, county and state. Three terms he served as Mayor of Greenville,
always showing great interest in all things, that pertained to the welfare and upbuilding
of the community. In 1896 he was elected to
the legislature where he rendered this county and State splendid service and gave his
valuable support to the passage of the present law providing rules and requirements for
admission to the bar. In 1914, he was elected
Senator from this, the 36th senatorial district. While
in the House and Senate he was regarded as a safe, sound and sane leader on all public
questions and held prominent places on all important committees of both houses.
Mr. McLaughlin was not only a State
figure in his professional and political life, but was prominent and successful in
business affairs of life. He was one of the
organizers of the Greenville Banking company, one of the leading county banks of the
State, and also devoted a great deal of his time to agricultural pursuit and carried on
extensive farming interest in this county.
Mr. McLaughlin was married
As a husband, father, citizen, friend
and neighbor he was devoted, patient, loving, loyal, helpful and forgiving.
As a man and lawyer, he was plain and
simple, both in manner and taste. There was
nothing ostentatious or spectacular about him - in fact he disliked the veneer, the
unreal, the camouflage-and simplicity was in the very warp and woof of the man.
Lord Coke said: When a learned man, long in the making, dies,
great is the loss. Our friend and
brother was profoundly learned in his noble profession, and great therefore is the loss of
our bar. As an antagonist and in the trial of
cases he was fair but almost invincible. He
gave hard blows and at all times received them as the brave gladiator that made him worthy
to test any foemans steel. In this court house and in the old one that stood here
before it, our distinguished friend has been heard in many hard fought legal battles and
his arguments before the court and juries will be remembered as masterpieces for their
fervid eloquence and convincing logic, and whether he came out Conqueror or conquered, he
could give sanction to the sentiment, The law is supreme, long live the law:
Our departed brother had passed the
high meridian, and as the shades of the eventide were lengthening and his face turned
toward a setting sun, night fell suddenly upon him When no man can work, and
without warning to family or friends, on May 5, 1923, he was called to join
The innumerable caravan, which
moves
To that mysterious realm where each
shall take
His Chambers in the silent hall of
death. Peace be to his ashes, and may
God give eternal rest to his soul.
This Committee respectfully requests
that this memorial be entered upon the minutes of this court, and that a copy be furnished
the family or our departed brother.
J.
R. Terrell, Chairman
N.
F. Culpepper
J.
F. Hatchett
Committee.
It is ordered by the Court that the
above and foregoing memorial on the life and character of Honorable B. F. McLaughlin, late
of Meriwether County, be spread upon the minutes of this Court and a copy be by the Clerk
of this Court furnished the family of the deceased. This
C.
E. Roop, J.S.C.C.C.
Note: Retyped from a typed copy of the original as recorded in the office of the Meriwether County Clerk of Court. Effort was made to retype as the original was written. There is no date shown as to when the document was actually written.