Matthew Laflin
Matthew Laflin (December 16, 1803 – May 20, 1897) was an American manufacturer of gunpowder, businessman, philanthropist, and an early pioneer of Chicago, Illinois. == Biography == === Early life and ancestors === He was born on December 16, 1803, an American of Ulster Scots and early New England ancestry, at the Laflin-Phelps Homestead in Southwick, Hampden County, Massachusetts.