Laura Emma Thweat was born on 31 October 1865 in Calvert, Texas. She was the only child of James Harvey Thweatt and Sarah Adeline Harwell. Laura attended school at Calvert, just south of the family plantation. She married farmer James Edmond McGlaun, 1 June 1882, when she was sixteen years old. They resided in Robertson County, Texas, for the first years of their married life. Their children were Velma, Della, Cora, Lila, and Carl McGlaun. The Storm of 1900 played havoc with Jimmy's financial condition, so it was decided that he would seek gainful employment at the boomtown Guffey, Texas (later known as Spindletop). He arrived at Guffey in 1903 but Laura and the children didn't join him that time because their oldest daughter had just given birth to their first grandchild. In November of the same year, after harvesting their crops, Laura and the children left Lavaca County in four wagons during a terrible rainy season. The flood-choked streams and muddy roads presented quite a problem in their travel. It took the family two months to cover the 195 miles from Lavaca County to Liberty. The last 45 miles were made by train with young Carl Smith, husband of their oldest daughter, as wagon master. James worked for the Yount-Lee Oil Company and Laura operated a small boarding house, renting the upstairs of their home to men who came to work in the oilfield. The teenage daughters assisted their mother in the preparation and serving of meals when they were not attending school. The boarding house was operated until 1909. Their daughters each met and married their husbands at Guffey, but they and their families had all moved away by 1911. James and Laura continued to live in Guffey until 1916 when they bought their home on the corner of Brandon and Essex in Beaumont Driving Park Addition (now South Park). Laura assisted Dr JM Gober, who delivered many of the babies in Spindletop and South Park. She also sold cosmetics for the Franco-American Hygienic Company out of Chicago, with "Cutigene" cleansing cream and night cream being the most popular product. It was the poor ladies' godsend-good for everything from cuts and burns to bruises. Laura Thweatt McGlaun died in 1936, aged 70, in Beaumont, and was buried with her husband at Magnolia Cemetery.