The Skaneateles Press, November 19, 1943
Cornelius McLaughlin, 80, a prominent and native citizen of Skaneateles, died at his home in Jordan Street, Monday afternoon, November 15, 1943, after a short illness. He attended a meeting of the village board only two weeks ago.

He was born in Skaneateles, December 7, 1862, and had been a life-long resident of this village. He was the last of a family of 10 children born to James and Ann McLaughlin.

When a young man he was associated with his brother James McLaughlin in the Glenside Woolen Mills at Skaneateles Falls. He later and for many years was a very successful teasel merchant. He retired from active business about two years ago.

For more than 20 years and at the time of his death, he was a trustee of Skaneateles Village – by far the longest that position ever was held by one person.

Mr. McLaughlin was a quiet, unassuming man, fair and honest in all his dealings. He had a host of friends. He was a member of St. Mary’s Church. His wife, the former Miss Elizabeth O’Hara, died in 1915.

Surviving are two sons, J. Ray McLaughlin of this village and Frederick D. McLaughlin of Shaker Heights, Ohio; two daughters, Mrs. Mark P. McCarthy of Syracuse and Miss Louise McLaughlin of this village; also eight grandchildren and one great-grandchild.

Services were held from his late home Thursday, November 18, at 9 a.m., and from St. Mary’s of the Lake Church at 9:30 o’clock.

Active bearers were William McLaughlin, Leo McLaughlin, George Mahlerwein and Leo Dougherty, all of Syracuse; and Hugh Shear and Ephraim Brounstein of Skaneateles.

Honorary bearers were Skaneateles Village officials: Mayor Jerome J. Murphy, George Bentley, president of the Municipal Board and Trustees Dr. A. D. Wells and Irving T. Bobbett.

Burial was in St. Mary’s Cemetery.

Syracuse Journal, January 3, 1916
Mrs. Elizabeth O’Hara McLaughlin of Skaneateles died this morning at the Womens and Children’s Hospital where she had been a patient about two weeks.

She was the wife of Cornelius McLaughlin and also is survived by two sons, Raymond and Frederick McLaughlin; two daughters, Bessie and Louise McLaughlin, all of Skaneateles, and two sisters, Miss Mary A. O’Hara of Skaneateles and Mrs. John Horne of San Jose, California, and one brother, John T. O’Hara of Skaneateles.

Mrs. McLaughlin was a cousin of E. H. O’Hara, general manager of the Syracuse Herald. She had lived at Skaneateles all her life and had many friends there.

Skaneateles Press, October 31, 1958
J. Ray McLaughlin, who has been clerk of the Village Board and the Municipal Board as well as Village Treasurer, turned over his keys yesterday when he retired from both offices where he has served for many years.

For more than 21 years the name of J. Ray McLaughlin as village clerk has appeared on all published legal documents of the village and he has been the official representative of the village of Skaneateles and manager of its offices in the municipal building for most of that time.

His tenure as village treasurer has not been so long.

The outgoing village clerk first served in a temporary capacity, being called to act in the absence of Lucien Horne, who was ill. That was June, 1937. Upon the death of Mr. Horne, McLaughlin was on April 4, 1938, sworn in as village clerk. The village board at the time was made up of Samuel A. Kane, mayor, and trustees Albert D. Wells, Lester A. Harse, Cornelius McLaughlin and Jerome J. Murphy.

The motion naming McLaughlin was made by Dr. Wells, seconded by Cornelius McLaughlin (his father).

At the same meeting Charles H. Hunt was named village treasurer.

Recalling those early days yesterday, Mr. McLaughlin said that he had been working for his father in the teasel business when Mr. Horne’s illness occurred and the mayor drove out and picked up Mr. McLaughlin and asked him to take over the affairs of the village clerk until Mr. Horne returned. Mr. McLaughlin agreed. He has been there ever since.

In April, 1951, he was appointed treasurer, succeeding Mrs. Bessie Cavell.

A veteran of World War I, Mr. McLaughlin recalled that following his attendance at Skaneateles High School and Niagara University, he was employed by Empire United Railways as Syracuse freight agent when the United States entered World War I. He was enlisted at the Syracuse recruiting station by Major Louis B. Lawton, well known in Skaneateles.

He was assigned to the ordinance and sent to the Watervleit Arsenal in Watervleit, New York. He remained three weeks and then was shipped overseas, landing at Brest, France. He was ordered then to Le Sur Tille, where he was promoted to sergeant. He later was stationed at Tours, headquarters of the Service of Supplies and at Chaumont, general headquarters of the AEF (Allied Expeditionary Forces).

McLaughlin in his high school days was a baseball player and played third base for the Skaneateles Lakeshores. He is a communicant of St. Mary’s Church and a member of its Holy Name Society.

He is a member and past commander of Robert J. Hydon Post 239, American Legion, and a former member of the Knights of Columbus.

McLaughlin served under five mayors – Kane, Murphy, Grant, Grapotte and Smith.

He is married and resides at 50 West Genesee St.

Commenting on his long service he said, “I can only say that over the years I have worked with a bunch of wonderful people.”

Auburn Citizen-Advertiser, August 14, 1953
Cornelius "Neil" McLaughlin, 24, of Skaneateles, died early today of injuries received in an auto accident on July 29. He was to be married to an Auburn resident on October 24.

The accident occurred when a car driven by McLaughlin and a second one operated by Randall F. Waterson, 34, of RD3, Skaneateles, collided on Jordan Road, just outside Skaneateles.

Wedding plans were being made by the accident victim and Miss Catherine Kierst, 29, of 52 Bradford St.. They were planning to be married in St. Alphonsus Church, Auburn.

In the collision, McLaughlin sustained a fractured pelvis and other injuries. After the collision, his car knocked over a fire hydrant, broke a tree off and careened into the front yard of a home owned by Dominic Patronelli of RD3, Skaneateles.

The door of McLaughlin’s car was torn off and hurled through the front door of a grocery nearby. McLaughlin was found lying some distance from the auto. Trooper Frank Nichols and Amos May investigated.

The victim was a car salesman. He worked for an auto dealer in Auburn for some time before joining an Elbridge dealer recently.

He attended Skaneateles High School and entered the Navy, serving in the Pacific Theatre during World War II.

Surviving him are his parents, Mr. and Mrs. J. Ray McLaughlin of Skaneateles and a sister Miss Ann McLaughlin.

Helen Casey Purcell
Helen Casey Purcell was Cornelius McLaughlin's second wife, but wasn't mentioned in his obituary, an unfortunate oversight; she seems to have been an interesting, noteworthy person.

Helen Casey was born in Templemore, Ireland, in 1867, daughter of Margaret Purcell and James Casey. When she emigrated to America, I do not know, but there was a mention in the Skaneateles Free Press on Saturday, August 14, 1886, of a Miss Nellie Casey, a saleslady at E. C. Purcell's dry good emporium, who the week before had visited friends in Rochester and Syracuse.

And, indeed, in those days that's what she was called. Records shows that on April 18, 1888, Nellie Casey married Edward C. Purcell, her boss, who was twenty years her senior. Purcell, a native of Killeenleigh in County Tipperary, Ireland, not far from his wife's birthplace, came to the United States in 1865 and for several years worked as a clerk in the dry goods business in four different Central New York communities before setting up his own business in Skaneateles in 1883.

His brother, Rev. Francis J. Purcell, was well known throughout the Skaneateles area. He was pastor at St. Mary's of the Lake Church in the village, but also served neighboring communities, helping to get at least two Catholic Churches started. Father Purcell officiated when his brother Edward and Nellie Casey were wed at St. Mary's.

Edward Purcell died just ten years later. His death was reported in the Skaneateles Press on Tuesday, February 1, 1898, in an article that, unfortunately, was not entirely legible on the page that was available online.

On Friday, January 28, Purcell experienced difficulty walking home from work. His home was on a hill and he was unable to make the climb. Ironically, the man who came to his assistance was Dennis McLaughlin, brother of the man who several years later would marry Purcell's widow.

McLaughlin gave Purcell a ride to his home, where, in typical male fashion, Purcell spurned his wife's advice to call a doctor. He went to his chamber on the second floor and sat in a chair, claiming his problem was merely indigestion.

His wife cared for him throughout the night, but at 4 a.m. went downstairs to take a nap. When she awoke at 7 a.m., she went upstairs to find that her husband had undressed and gone to bed where he died soon thereafter. She summoned the family physician, who pronounced the cause of death as heart disease.

Besides his wife, Purcell was survived by four daughters, his brother and a sister, Mrs. J. M. Purcell, both of Skaneateles, and two brothers and a sister in Ireland.

According to the newspaper, Purcell was "an affectionate husband and father. He was a man of domestic habits and fairly worshiped his family, being especially indulgent to his wife and children ... He was a member of St. Mary's Catholic Church. In politics he was always a Democrat, though not an active political worker. He was a good citizen, a good neighbor, a kind-hearted and charitable man."

His widow was active in church and village affairs, but by 1915 she must have moved to Syracuse where she was appointed by Bishop John Grimes to become the first matron of The Ludden Club, a home for working Catholic girls. Three years later, however, she resigned that position when she married Cornelius McLaughlin of Skaneateles.

She died in November 1933 and was survived by her husband and four daughters, Mrs. Marie Katherine (William F.) Ludington of Skaneateles, Mrs. Philip Morris of Bristol, Rhode Island, Miss Marguerite Purcell of Schenectady and Miss Catherine Purcell of Syracuse, plus a brother in Ireland and six grandchildren.

Syracuse Post-Standard, April 9, 2015
Mary Elizabeth "Marybeth" McCarthy O'Leary, 86, of Skaneateles, NY, died peacefully at home on April 1, 2015. Marybeth was the daughter of Mark McCarthy and Elizabeth McLaughlin McCarthy, who owned McCarthy's Seafood Restaurant, a family restaurant open for over 100 years in Syracuse, NY.

She was a descendant of the McLaughlin family who started the teasel industry in Skaneateles.

Marybeth was a graduate of Most Holy Rosary High School. She graduated from the College of Mount Saint Vincent in Riverdale, NY and received a master's degree in Social Work (MSW) from Fordham University.

She was a social worker in the Syracuse City School District for 34 years and dedicated her career to helping kids and families in need.

Marybeth loved to spend time with her children and family, especially her sister, Connie and her brother, Mark. Marybeth also loved to decorate, travel, go to the beach and read. She also volunteered with the Skaneateles Laker Limo and Meals on Wheels and enjoyed many friends in Skaneateles that brought her much joy these last several years.

Marybeth was predeceased by her husband of 25 years, Thomas P. O'Leary; son, Thomas, and her sister, Connie Coates.

Marybeth is survived by three sons, Brian P. (Karin) of West Windsor, NJ, John T. of Camillus, NY, and Paul J. of Hoboken, NJ; two daughters, Betsy O'Leary of Syracuse and Anne C. O'Leary (Joy Maurer) of Columbus, OH; four grandchildren, Brendan, Justin, Jennifer and Michelle O'Leary, all of West Windsor, NJ.

Marybeth is also survived by her brother, J. Mark McCarthy (Peggy); brother-in-law, Alan F. Coates and several nieces and nephews.

The O'Leary family would like to thank Celeste Stevens for her kind and compassionate care for the last three years.

John Mark McCarthy, known as Mark (and sometimes J. Mark), passed away peacefully at his home on June 25, 2024.

Mark was born in Syracuse, New York on November 29, 1937. He was immediately welcomed with great joy by his older sisters, Mary Elizabeth (Mary Beth O’Leary) and Ann Cornelia (Connie Coates), as well as his maternal aunt, Louise McLaughlin, and his parents, Mark Patrick “Mac” and Elizabeth “Bess” (nee McLaughlin) McCarthy, who all continued to dote upon and adore him for the rest of their lives.

Mark’s family operated the famous McCarthy’s Seafood House on Salina Street, known far and wide for its bar, restaurant, and delicatessen during its years of operation from 1873 through 1973. The family lived catty-corner from Maloney’s corner store on Stinard Ave. and Mark attended nearby Most Holy Rosary school. 

Mark graduated from high school in 1955 and went on to study on an ROTC scholarship at the College of the Holy Cross in Worcester, Massachusetts. Upon his graduation from Holy Cross with a degree in economics in 1959, he married his high school sweetheart and the salutatorian of his high school class, Margaret Ann “Peggy” Kerwin, on the 4th of July.  Mark and Peggy were married at Most Holy Rosary Church.

After a short honeymoon, Mark reported for duty at the Marine Corps base in Quantico, Virginia for an officer training program in the summer of 1959. Mark served in the Marines, stationed at Camp Lejeune in North Carolina, where Mark and Peggy’s first two children were born. 

While he was proud of the restaurant’s legacy, the life of a restaurateur is not an easy one and Mark had planned a career in the military. His plans changed after the untimely death of Mark’s father in 1962. Mark was honorably discharged from the Marines and returned to Syracuse so that he could assist in running the family’s restaurant business. While running the restaurant, Mark attended Syracuse University College of Law, graduating in 1969 and commencing his 40-plus year career as a lawyer.

During his law school and young lawyer days, Mark often catered popular clam bakes for friends and colleagues using the resources of the restaurant. He was a member of the Onondaga County Bar Association, the New York State Bar Association, and the New York State Trial Lawyers Association. He was admitted to practice before the United States Court of Appeals for the Second Circuit and the United States Supreme Court.

Mark and Peggy’s family had grown to seven children by 1973. The family took annual camping trips for years, cramming into a Volkswagen camper and later a van, traveling first to California and back, and then off to various locations — Montreal, Maine, Delaware, Washington, D.C. (where the family visited Mark’s law school classmate Joe Biden, then a U.S. Senator for the state of Delaware. Usually, the family made a stop to see the horse races at Saratoga. Mark once won the trifecta, sealing his victory with a bet on a horse named Heloise (joking that the family always followed all her cleaning tips), winning enough to treat the family to a rare visit to Kentucky Fried Chicken for dinner instead of the usual Coleman stove Spaghettios. 

Mark’s robust sense of humor was often on display through his various practical jokes and puns. Mark was a yo-yo champion in his youth and continued to delight family and friends with yo-yo tricks like “walk the dog” followed by “dog bite” throughout his life, often performed while in a tuxedo on Christmas.

Mark was active as a baseball coach for South Side Little League during the years 1967 through 1979, coaching many of his children and their friends and neighbors. All games, wins or losses, ended with loading the team and any fans into the VW bus for a trip to Marble Farms for ice cream. His children recall only one significant disagreement between Mark and Peggy during the 64-plus years of their marriage, that resulted after Mark in his capacity as baseball coach voted one of his twin boys and not the other onto the all-star team.

Later, when the children were all mostly out of the house, Mark took up golf and for decades played weekly as a member of the Skaneateles Country Club. He was an avid jogger for most of his life and completed the Marine Corps marathon in Washington D.C. in the early 1980s.

For Mark and Peggy’s 50th Wedding Anniversary in 2009, seventeen members of the immediate family traveled to Ireland, setting up base in a town where Mark’s longtime friend and Holy Cross roommate Charlie McCabe owned a house looking over the Atlantic on the Northwest Coast. The family traveled up near Donegal in the North to find the birthplace of Mark’s maternal grandparents and were amazed to see how similar the landscape in the northern part of Ireland was to the landscape in Skaneateles where the McLaughlins later settled, fleeing Ireland’s potato famine in the 1840s, and making their fortune in the teasel business.

In 2017, after years of petitioning anyone who would listen, Mark succeeded in securing an award of the Purple Heart for his father, who also was a Marine and was injured in his early 20’s when gassed at the Battle of Belleau Wood in France during World War I.  At the time of injury, the Armed Forces of the United States took the view that a Purple Heart could only be awarded if blood was shed during the enemy attack. This position was later changed so that a Purple Heart may be awarded if the injury was caused by an enemy-released chemical, biological, or nuclear agent such as the mustard gas used on Mark’s father. The Purple Heart for Mark Patrick McCarthy was awarded in a ceremony at Skaneateles Country Club on July 4, 2017 (which also happened to be Mark and Peggy’s 58th wedding anniversary).

In more recent years until her death in September 2023, Mark had been lovingly keeping company with wife Peggy at their home in the Strathmore area of Syracuse. Mark received a diagnosis of Parkinson’s Disease in 2015 and as his physical needs increased, Peggy’s ability to care for him, which was what she wanted most to do, became diminished substantially by her own diagnosis: dementia. The family is blessed by the loving care Mark and Peggy received from home health aides Kerri, Gloria, Ashley, Kiarra, Hope, Amanda, Stephanie, Harley, Tracy, Ariana, Ivelis, Kelley, Kaliece, and others, which permitted Mark and Peggy to stay together in their home, where they received great comfort from each other’s love and presence and visits from lifelong friends and family.

Mark is predeceased by his wife of 64 years, Peggy McCarthy, and is survived by their seven children, Mark Patrick, Kathleen Elizabeth (Gennaro Bruni), Patrick Matthew (Karen), Michael Paul, Kerry Louise (Patricio Camacho), Matthew Patrick (“Moody”) (Molly Mandell) and Sara Ann, thirteen grandchildren, Mark Paraskevas, Luke Bruni, Madeline McCarthy, Sean McCarthy, Megan McCarthy, Carly McCarthy, Catherine McCarthy, Elizabeth McCarthy, Ruby McCarthy, Lola McCarthy, Mia Scott, Omar Robinson and Cassius Robinson, and numerous nieces and nephews.

Obituary edited from one published by Edward J. Ryan & Son Funeral Home, Syracuse, NY