[2] A large part of his service was on detached duty as expert recorder of important military tribunals and he participated in the engagements around Murfreesboro.

[4] Homer then moved to New York where he worked with his brother Shakespeare Moore Laughlin as an importer of English earthenware.

In 1873, they built a pottery in East Liverpool, Ohio, which they ran as Laughlin Brothers until 1879, when Homer bought out Shakespeare.

[2] Their crockery became so popular that the company was accused of counterfeiting English trademarks by British manufacturers.

In 1889, William Edwin Wells joined Homer Laughlin, and seven years later the two incorporated the company.

The company moved operations across the Ohio River to West Virginia land purchased from the Newell family.