Distribution of the estate of Kate D. McLaughlin, widow of Charles McLaughlin, railroad contractor.

Kate Dillon married Charles McLaughlin in Indiana in 1857. McLaughlin and his wife moved to California, where he was the contractor for the San Francisco and San Jose Railroad, and later with Western Pacific Railroad and Central Pacific Railroad. McLaughlin is said to have been second only to Leland Stanford in terms of land ownership in California. He was shot and killed by a former employee in 1883, and his estate passed to Kate McLaughlin. She died in 1888, leaving a fortune which was estimated as being between $2,000,000 and $4,000,000, which passed to her niece, Kate M. Dillon, and to her friend, Mary V. Ives Crocker.

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