Laughlin, Patrick, who was prominent in Kansas politics for a short time in 1855, came from Scott county, Ky., where he had kept a small store on the Frankfort and Georgetown turnpike. After getting in debt and borrowing all the money he could, he came to Kansas about the time he was twenty-three years of age. Holloway says he was a "chubby Irishman of some ability." He was first pro-slavery and then free-state; was a delegate to the Big Springs convention from Doniphan county; later published in the Squatter Sovereign an exposition of the free-state society called the Danites (q. v.), which led to a quarrel between him and Samuel Collins, in which Collins was killed and Laughlin was severely wounded. He was taken to Atchison by his friends, and a few nights later an effort was made by some free-state partisans to gain access to his room, but were prevented from doing so by a guard which had been stationed. When he had recovered sufficiently to be removed, he disappeared from the arena, and no more mention of him can be found in Kansas history.