According to the 1880 US Census, H.P. Laughter, born abt 1841 in North Carolina, was an overseer on the railroad. He married Martha ?, born abt 1841 in NC. They moved to the Bluefield, W. Va. area and appear in the 1900 US census. Family members and descendants later appear in Welch, W.Va. and Bluefield-Springfield-Tazwell areas of Virginia, as well as Bluefield, W.Va.

James "Jim" Laughter, a direct descendant of Hampton P. Laughter's son, Henry Alonzo "Lon" Laughter, has confirmed that H.P. and Hampton P. are the same. Lon Laughter died in Bluefield, W.Va. in 1959. Information has been corrected and updated beginning with Samuel Laughter(4); John J. Laughter(5); through Hampton P. Laughter(6) and to the end of the tree, as of November 2006.