In 1870 he helped organize the Cincinnati chapter of the American Institute of Architects; that year, he was selected as a Fellow of the AIA, serving on its board.

[1] His family was "largely" Scots-Irish and his father William was an early Cincinnati merchant who had moved in 1818 to the developing city from Sewickley, Pennsylvania outside Pittsburgh.

When the American Civil War broke out, McLaughlin left his architectural practice to serve in the Union Army.

[3] After the war he published "a book illustrated with his vivid vignettes of army life based on his experiences with General Fremont in California.

[2] McLaughlin's design for the Cincinnati Zoological Gardens (1874–1875) "produced the earliest completed structures specifically for that purpose in the United States, and displayed his sense of humor and flexibility in housing specimens in buildings inspired by their geographical and ethnically associated origins.