Old Emma, then the county seat of Crosby County, Texas, boasted a population of about 250 citizens. In the county at that time there were 22 qualified voters and one bathtub, the latter 16 miles away.

On this Christmas Day R. R. Travis and his wife, with their son, and two daughters, migrated to Crosby County and settled upon a large tract of land lying immediately west of the village. A couple of months later W. E. McLaughlin, with his wife, four sons, and one daughter, arrived at their newly purchased ranch just east of the county seat.

One of the Travis girls was named Pearle; one of the McLaughlin boys was named Edd. Both immediately enrolled in the little wooden school building in the village and began the task of growing up and getting an education. During the intervening years until 1910 each saw and indifferently endured the other as just another kid in school.

Having been reared on a ranch, Edd, with his brothers, spent many hours, when not in school, riding the range in the cowboy's garb (of that day‑not to be confused with the glamorous trappings of the modern movie and television conception), "tailing up" cattle, fixing greasy windmills, mending wire fences, digging postholes, branding, driving cattle to market, breaking "broncs," and riding out the sandstorms of the Spring, the blazing heat of the Summer, the northers and the rains and the snows of the Winter.

Shortly after settling in the county, Edd's father became a director of the local bank, to which Edd gradually acquired the habit of repairing when in town during his occasional idle hours. Shortly Edd noticed that the cashier and other employees were always "dressed up" on weekdays, while he himself spent his working hours in the dusty, greasy, uncomfortable garb of the range. He also began to notice that the "bankers" apparently worked not at all, while the cowboy's work was never done.

As the result of this comparative study, the apparent ease and comfort of the banking profession made a deep impression upon Edd and led him to the conclusion that he, too, would like to be a banker.

Graduating from the little school in Old Emma in 1910, he spent the following Summer in the arduous labor of carrying the chain and driving the stakes in the surveying and laying out of the new town of Ralls just then being founded on the open prairie about four miles from Old Emma. Following this, in September of that year, and upon the opening of the West Texas State College in Canyon, Texas, he enrolled as one of the first students of that institution. As he had constantly importuned his father to open a bank in the new town of Ralls, the latter finally agreed to do so, and built a small, one-room building at one corner of the public square on the new townsite. Thus was established the McLaughlin financial institution that is today housed in its beautiful new and commodious building, operated under the direction of Edd and his brother Marvin as its executive officers.

Two years after Edd graduated at Old Emma and enrolled in the college in Canyon, Pearle also graduated and herself enrolled in the same college‑not because Edd had done so, but because it was the only institution of higher learning in all of west Texas‑a territory as large as the State of Pennsylvania. Her primary purpose was to obtain a teacher's certificate; her secondary interest may have been directed toward the college bachelor students. Be this as it may, it has been definitely established that upon her return home for the Christmas vacation and holidays, she and Edd "saw" each other for the first time in their lives; this ripened into an ardent courtship, and they were married June 4, 1916. Thus was formed the team of "Pearle and Edd" as they have been known through the years to their friends and neighbors, in banking and civic circles throughout Texas, across the U.S.A., and later in Rotary circles around the world.

With the opening of the bank in Ralls, almost coincidentally with the opening of the town itself, and for the next two decades thereafter, many civic problems presented themselves for solution: the removal of the Post Office from Old Emma to the new town; the fight with the railroad companies to compel the stopping of their trains in Ralls; the procuring of electric power, water, telephone, telegraph, and gas; the organization of a chamber of commerce and of women's civic clubs; provision for public schools; establishment of churches and buildings for various religious faiths represented among the rapidly growing populace; the fostering of immigration to Ralls and its territory of northern and western Texas; and the innumerable other benefits and improvements of like nature.

All this took money‑lots of money; and, more than this, it took individual effort. In this entire civic endeavor, through approximately 20 years, Edd took a leading part. He served as president of the Ralls Chamber of Commerce; he later became active in the Regional West Texas Chamber of Commerce; he served as chairman of innumerable committees charged with procuring, building, and establishing the various facets of progress noted above; he travelled the miles then (as he has in later years for Rotary) to promote the welfare, expansion, and growth of his beloved town. As his experience and ability in the banking profession grew and became recognized throughout Texas, he was elected president of the South Plains Bankers Association and district chairman (for west Texas) of the Texas Bankers Association. In the latter organization he held many committee appointments through the years, as well as serving as its treasurer.

IN the early 1920s Edd was one of the organizers of ‑the Boy Scout movement in Ralls; and with the formation of the South Plains Council shortly there‑, after, Edd became the Council's financial chairman, which post he held, to the financial profit of the Council, for many years. He is holder of the Silver Beaver Award in the Council and has held one or more offices on the regional level.

And by his side, then, as she has always been since, Pearle took her turn at leadership among the ladies, serving as president of the Civic Club, as president and chairman of various women's organizations in the local Methodist church (of which they are charter members), and in innumerable similar organizations, not only locally, but throughout northwest Texas. As a result of the community efforts over a period of some 15 years, the town of Ralls acquired practically all necessary utilities and conveniences of life and indeed became one of the most noted towns in all of northwest Texas.

One day in the late fall of 1927 there came to Ralls a group of six men from near‑by Lubbock calling themselves by the strange name of "Rotarians," and representing an organization then almost wholly unknown in Crosby County. They interviewed several local citizens of known experience and interest in public service and civic affairs and proposed organization of a Rotary Club in Ralls. They were met, if not by rebuff, with an almost solid lack, interest and opposition; they were told that t formation of a Rotary Club would "ruin the Chamber of Commerce" and other much beloved civic organizations. But the persistency of the Lubboc Rotarians was not to be denied, and on March,'' 1928, an organizational meeting was held and. Rotary Club of Ralls was formed, with Edd as First Vice‑President. He succeeded to the Presidency in July, 1929, and thereby began a Rotary career which has carried him to the supreme heights as President of Rotary International.

Edd served as the first Governor of the old Rotary District when it embraced 65 Clubs, and elected a Director of Rotary International in I He served, thereafter almost annually, in various capacities on divers Committees on the international level. He was Chairman of the Rotary International Convention Committee in Detroit in 1950, and was elected President of Rotary International for 1960-61 at the 1959 Convention in New York City.

During the years since he became a Rotarian, Edd has attended 24 Conventions of Rotary International. In consequence, he is intimately acquaint with thousands of Rotarians in the 116 different lands of the globe where Rotary is organized

WHILE Edd and Pearle have no children, they do have a host of nephews and nieces to whom they have given counsel and, when needed, financial assistance in college careers and business ventures. For years Edd has financed boys in the Farmers of America and in the Four‑H Clubs, well as girls in the Future Homemakers Of America, in their annual projects (strictly on their individual notes, and without parental or, other guarantee), inviting each of them to visit him at his bank office at any time for purposes of consultation or other business, regardless of any other visitors then present‑unusual procedure for a busy bank president.

Probably it should also be noted here that for 14 years Edd has been one of the directors of the Federal Reserve Bank of Dallas, Texas.

And Rotarians everywhere will undoubtedly be interested to know that the President of Rotary International for 1960‑61 has a perfect‑attendance record since March 2, 1928.

Unless his business or Rotary commitments require his attention, Edd goes fishing in the mountain streams of the Western United States at stated intervals in the year. Likewise, on regular occasions, he makes his annual pilgrimage to the hunting grounds in the Rockies for the purpose of bagging an elk, a moose, or a deer. He is an inveterate golfer and on convenient occasions can be found on some golf course pursuing that old but (until now) elusive hope of "breaking 80."

Every man of us in the Rotary Club of Ralls assures you that during the year 1960‑61 the welfare of our beloved organization of Rotary International is in sure and competent hands, under the leadership of its new President, J. Edd McLaughlin.

Written for The Rotarian, by Lawyer Lloyd A. Wicks, Rotarian, Ralls, Texas