Yolo County Biography
Emma C. Laugenour
As compared with the volumes that have been written exploiting the accomplishments of men in bringing California up to its present state of development, little or nothing has been said concerning the part women have taken in this same work. While from an outward viewpoint the characters they have represented in the drama have been less conspicuous perhaps than those portrayed by the men, nevertheless they have been equally necessary to bring about the ends accomplished, as many men have declared in giving the synopsis of their lives. Few of California's early settlers recognized more thoroughly than did John D. Lauge-nour the sustaining help and comfort which he received from his wife, and he frankly gave credit to her for much that he was able to accomplish during his long residence in the west. Emma Christene Watkins was born in New Philadelphia, Ohio, May 12, 1842, and was therefore about eighteen years of age when she became the wife of John D. Laugenour in 1860. Of the eight children born to them five are now living and exemplifying in their daily lives the high principles of manhood and womanhood instilled in them by the teachings of their parents. Named in the order of their birth they are as follows: Philip T., Henry W., Jesse D., William R., and Emma Carter, the wife of Walter F. Malcomb.
To the tactful sympathy, as well as conservative judgment of his wife, Mr. Laugenour attributed much of his success, and the fact that since his death she has faithfully endeavored to carry out plans of both philanthropy and business in which she deems lie would have been deeply interested, is proof of the confidence and understanding which existed between them.
As president of the W. C. T. U. of Woodland, and as the principal financial backer of the Home Alliance, a paper devoted not only to the temperance movement, but to general news as well, Mrs. Laugenour has done much to aid in the banishment of the liquor evil, and by her womanly sympathy and sunny personality, united with pecuniary assistance, has lightened many a sad heart and given more than one poor but ambitious young person a chance to prove himself. She has lived to see the cause of temperance victorious in Yolo county, but now the saloons are banished from every part of the county, with the exception of Broderick and Clarksburg. She is also happy to have lived to see the object for which she labored for twenty years - the enfranchisement of women - crowned with success, she having been the pioneer and the foremost worker in her county in pushing the cause of suffrage to a reality. In 1900 she bore a part of the expense incident to the erection of Mary's Chapel, near Yolo, in order that those who could not go to the city churches might have a place to worship, as well as to provide accommodations for funeral corteges from the outlying districts of Yolo county. She also organized the Mary's Cemetery Association, which she luis served as president about fifteen years, and it was during tins time that Mary's Chapel was built. In her home, Christene Cottage, Woodland, always open to those who seek comfort and assistance. Mrs. Laugenour dispenses true hospitality. To her, life holds nothing sweeter than doing for those less fortunate than herself, and it is meet that her name should be, as it is, a synonym for purity and beauty of character.
History Of Yolo County, California
With Biographical Sketches
History By Tom Gregory
And Other Well Known Writers
Historic Record Company,
Los Angeles, California, 1913
Pages 215-216
Transcribed by Julie Appletoft, November 2007
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