The Governor’s Violin Fell Silent at the Bohemian Club

Charles B. Laughton died suddenly yesterday at the Bohemian Club in Tacoma. He had come from Olympia last Saturday, where he had been during the legislative session, and became ill. His son Ray was telegraphed for. At 8:15 that evening he felt better and was assisted to the parlor of the club. Ten minutes later he complained that the room was too warm. His son Ray went to open a window when Laughton exclaimed, 'Oh, my God,' and expired, sinking in his chair. The book he was reading, 'The Sunny Side of Politics,' fell in his lap. Funeral arrangements are not made. Mrs. Laughton and two daughters are in San Francisco. Laughton was an Elk, a Thirty-third degree Mason and a Mystic Shriner.

Charles B. Laughton was born in Penobscot County, Maine, June 4, 1845. He graduated from Friends’ College at Vassalboro, Maine. In 1861 he began the study of law immediately thereafter. He enlisted in the Second Maine regiment the same year, but was under age and his parents prevented him from carrying out his intentions. He then removed to Boston, completed his law studies, and enlisted again in 1862. He was cashier of the sutler of the Fourteenth Maine regiment until the close of the war, when he returned home and renewed the study of law, but his health failed and he was obliged to discontinue. In 1868 he went to Omaha and was appointed postal clerk on the Union Pacific Railroad. He afterward went to Sacramento, Cal., and was married there in 1871. He became connected with the Virginia & Truckee Railroad in the same year, and in 1873 was appointed auditor of said road. He held this position until elected lieutenant governor of Nevada in 1882. At the expiration of the term of four years he removed to the western part of Stevens County, now Okanogan County, this state. He was admitted to the bar in Tacoma in 1888, and was largely interested in mining enterprises in Okanogan County. In November 1890, he was elected to the territorial legislature as joint representative from Stevens, Okanogan and Spokane counties. He was elected lieutenant governor the same year, and became acting governor in December 1891, by reason of the absence of Gov. Ferry from the state. As governor he vetoed certain bills in restriction of corporations, and for this action he was universally condemned. He was afterward mixed up in the school-book scandal at Olympia. In 1892 he was a candidate for representative from Okanogan County, and was defeated. During the early part of the recent legislative session he was at Olympia. Mr. Laughton was a violinist of rare merit, and no little part of his political success was due to his music to charm a crowd of miners or a cultivated audience.