McLaughlin Brothers Collection

Among the treasures available for perusing in Special Collections is the McLaughlin Brothers Collection. The collection was donated in January 2007 by Pamela Skewes-Cox, great-grand daughter of William Law McLaughlin, a Georgetown Law alumnus. The collection spans the years 1879-1913 and is comprised of letters and other forms of correspondence, written by or to William Law McLaughlin and his young brother Daniel Joseph McLaughlin while they were students at Georgetown. William McLaughlin was a student at Georgetown Law and his brother Daniel Joseph was a student at Georgetown College. After graduating both brothers went on to practice law in Deadwood, Dakota with their father. Their letters are a unique look at Georgetown student life in the late 1800s.

The topic of the letters range from matters at home in Deadwood, love, the death of Ulysses S. Grant, Georgetown Law's Father Doonan, and the death of Georgetown University President Father Maguire as well as other topics that occupy the young student's mind of the 1880s. Forty letters within the collection are written between William and his friend Adam Clarke Wright, a fellow Georgetown Law student and a resident of Georgia. The correspondence between William (Billy) and A.C. Wright lasts three years and covers among other topics, William's uncertainty to return to Georgetown Law and finish his law degree. His dilemma was to transfer to another school or remain in Deadwood. Ultimately, he decided to return to Georgetown and finished his degree in 1884. In a letter from A.C. Wright to William, Wright presents his opinion regarding William's decision to return to Georgetown. Firstly, Wright speaks highly of the faculty at Georgetown and secondly he states "[William]…come out a graduate in June even fully as well equipped for practice as I can hope to do." Also in the collection are two notebooks from William's study of law dated 1884. One of the notebooks is on the translation of the Rhetorica and the other is on Evidence.

William begins his legal career in Deadwood, Dakota, after graduation, practicing law in a "lawless town" with his father at McLaughlin & McLaughlin. In a particular letter from Daniel to William in 1885, Daniel congratulates William on getting his client Borden acquitted. In 1886, William is elected district attorney for the county of Lawrence. William also appears as defense attorney on several murder trials, notably the trial of Charles Brown for the murder of Mrs. L.P. Stone in 1887 and for the defense of Two Sticks, a Brule Sioux Indian Chief on trial for the murder of four cowboys in 1893.

This collection presents an inside look at what life was like for a law student in the 1880s. Ideas about law and life during that time are colorfully presented in these unique capsules of our academic history.

McLaughlin Brothers Finding Aid

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For more information on the Manuscripts Collection contact Hannah Miller, Manuscripts Librarian at 202/661-6602 or Special Collections at 202/662-9172 or by email htm@law.georgetown.edu or bedard@law.georgetown.edu.

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