History of Lawrence County Tennessee United States of America

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Lawrence County was erected in 1817 out of part of Hickman and Maury counties and named in honor of Capt. James Lawrence, of the Chesapeake, who, when mortally wounded, said to his men: 'Don't give up the ship.'

The earliest settlement was made near Henryville on the Big Buffalo River, and soon were established (about 1815) a grain mill, a distillery and a Primitive Baptist Church. From this time population increased rapidly and, in a few years, Lawrence became one of the most enterprising of the pioneer counties of the section. Prominent among the early settlers were: The Parkes family, the Striblings, Sykes brothers, Simmses and Bentleys.

Soon after the county was organized David Crockett arrived and lived there for several years. He became a member of the County Court and of the building committee which erected the first courthouse. Having gotten in debt, he sold his lands and moved to West Tennessee. Last year a splendid monument was erected to his memory in Lawrenceburg.

Lawrenceburg was chartered on November 23, 1819. In the years preceding the Civil war, Wayland Springs was noted as a resort for health and pleasure.

Lawrence County is justly proud of its record in war. On the public square of Lawrenceburg stands a monument to those who lost their lives in the Mexican war, the only memorial of the kind, it is believed, in the State of Tennessee. It was erected in 1849 and the state contributed $1,500 toward the cost of it.

Statistics of Lawrence County: Population, 1920, 23,593. Assessed valuation of taxable property, 1921, $11,386,098. Area, 676 square miles. Number of farms, 3,590. Railway mileage, sixty-two. Drained by tributaries of the Tennessee River. Surface diversified and well timbered. Good deposits of iron ore and phosphate are found in the county. Staple products are corn, wheat, cotton, oats, grass and live stock. Lawrenceburg, the county seat, has a population of 2,461, and is a flourishing town, with good schools, and churches, two weekly newspapers, banks, manufacturing establishments, general stores, and electric light plant. Scholastic population of county, 8,375; high schools, one; elementary schools, sixty.

From: Moore, John Trotwood. Tennessee, The Volunteer State, 1769-1923. Vol. 1. Chicago, IL, USA: S. J. Clarke Publishing Co., 1923.

History of Lawrence County Tennessee

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