ABOUT
MCLAUGHLIN'S COFFEE COMPANY

W. F. McLaughlin  started his coffee business in 1852 on State Street in what is now called “the loop”(of elevated railway tracks) of downtown Chicago. In 1863 his “Union Coffee and Spice Mills” moved further up State Street. Then, in response to the ever increasing volume of imported coffee, he built a fine new plant directly on the Chicago River at 58 – 60 South Water Street. (Where Michigan Avenue now crosses the Chicago River.) The move took place in 1870, just prior to the “Great Chicago Fire” of 1871 that left the new plant and half of the city in smoking ruins.  W.F. , a most determined man, was back in business at 82 – 84 South Water Street within two years. The earliest trade cards, printed in 1882, will show an address of 82 - 88 S. Water Street, with that location soon expanding to 82 – 96. A final move in 1919 relocated to 610 North LaSalle Street, which facility still remains as a commercial location.

Frederic McLaughlin
Frederic was the Harvard educated son of the WF McLaughlin Coffee Company founder. Upon the death of his father, brother George took the helm of the company, while Frederic served in the capacity of Secretary and Treasurer. He enlisted in the Illinois National Guard in 1916 at the age of 39.  When joining Battery C, 1st Illinois Field Artillery he listed his occupation as coffee importer.  He was mobilized into federal service the same day he enlisted and served in Texas on the Mexican Border patrolling for Pancho Villa.

After his Guard service he joined the 85th Division (the "Black Hawk" division) a federal division formed when America entered WWI.  As a Major he commanded the 333rd Machine Gun Battalion during the war.

After the war, and back in the family coffee business, he (and a consortium of Chicago businessmen) purchased the Portland Rosebuds of the Western Hockey League for $200,000.  He moved the franchise to Chicago renaming the team Blackhawks, to honor his wartime unit, and his wife, Irene Castle McLaughlin designed the first team uniform.  The Blackhawks played their first home game on November 17, 1926 in the old Chicago Coliseum. He was inducted into the Hockey Hall of Fame in 1963.

George McLaughlin continued at the head of the coffee company while also expanding the company warehouse facilities into a bonded import warehouse and liquor distribution, a dual role he would hold until killed in an automobile accident in 1931. Frederic then brought George’s sons, Goerge Jr. and Herbert, into the coffee business while other family members and partner J. Wallace Wakem attended the warehousing and liquor business. Frederic McLaughlin died of a heart attack on December 17,1944 while still active in both coffee and ice hockey. 

The “Great Depression” was actually kind to the company as the public maintained its demand for coffee during the hard times. But much had changed in the coffee industry with the advent of telephones and automobiles and population settlements. Chicago, St. Louis, Kansas City, and Milwaukee were major cities, connected by telephone and roads. When, in 1919, the city of Chicago forced the company to relocate in favor of a major lake front redesign, a new plant was built at 610 N. La Salle Street, scaled to reach a smaller region closer to the plant but still ambitious enough to constitute “big business” demands and rewards. Henceforth the company goal would be to operate its plant at an efficient level of plant capacity. And its fate was sealed when the South American plantations were taken over by strongly pro-German governments during World War II. The company's reach would drop to a 300 mile radius of Chicago.

When the One Hundredth Anniversary was celebrated in 1952 it was an older and wiser company. Unbeknownst at the time, it was facing a generation of reduced coffee consumption and threatening corporation mergers. The competitive edge for coffee as a food product would be reduced from a stand-alone role to merely a piece of the wider grocery industry, controlled by major food companies and new grocery conglomerates. In 1967 the McLaughlin Coffee Company would be absorbed into the mix of “National Dairy Products” to be run by its Kraft Foods Division. It followed in the wake of more than 30 Chicago-based coffee roasters, as well as other major area pioneers.

In 1850 Chicago had beckoned to all with the pluck to master their own destiny. Eastern companies relocated to the city just as others originated in Chicago, Omaha, and Kansas City in the shadow cast by the western railroads. Pullman of course, and also Swift, Armour, Cudahay, and Hormel in meat packing, Morton with salt, Jelke (margarine), and a flury of inventors of “modern” farm equipment —McCormick, John Deere. Not to be overlooked were Montgomery and Ward, Sears & Roebuck, and J.C. Penny’s. All started following the growth of Chicago in the marsh lands of Lake Michigan as proprietory businesses, expanding into profitable corporations, to be ultimately engulfed by their own successes.

We hope you enjoy the tasty sampling of McLaughlin’s Coffee Company’s memorabila you will find on this web site. And be sure to look for the highly detailed series of books coming soon that are written by the company’s founders grandson William F. McLaughlin. If you have any interesting information about the company or anecdotes you would like included in the books please contact Bill at:
wfmcl@embarqmail.com

McLaughlin's XXXX Coffee provided refreshment and shade at a Blackfoot Grass Dance in Montana about 1888.

W.F. McLaughlin - founder of
the coffee company that carried
his name.

W.F. McLaughlin's son Frederic and his grandson Bill - your humble author. Below: Irene Castle, the distinguished dancer and humanitarian, wife of Frederic and mother of Bill.