Bio of Lawrence, Benjamin (b.1813) Wabasha Co., MN
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Made available to The USGenWeb Archives by: Barbara Timm and Carol Judge
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This bio comes from "HISTORY OF WABASHA COUNTY" 1884.
Check out Barbara's site for more great information on this book:
http://www.rootsweb.com/~mnwabbio/wab1.htm
There are also some pictures and information from descendents for some 
of the bios on her pages.

Lawrence, Benjamin, was born October 16, 1813, at Freetown, Bristol
county, ten miles east of New Bedford, Massachusetts. He was the son of
Spencer and Mary P. Lawrence, who, when Benjamin was seven years old,
moved to Plainfield, Vermont, in the year 1820. He had little opportunity
to acquire an education. In reciting poetry it would be difficult to find
his match, his memory is so true. At the age of twenty, for four weeks and
for the last time in his life, he attended school at Marshfield, Vermont,
while working as a farmer. The next summer he worked at farming near
Bangor, Maine, and during the winter in an iron foundry in High street,
Providence, Rhode Island, which he continued for the next two years. In
1837 he went to Van Buren county, Iowa, then part of the territory of
Wisconsin. To reach this he started with an emigrating company of
Freethinkers, led by Abnon Neeland, editor of the Boston "Investigator."
He returned to Montpelier, Vermont, where, through the summer, he worked
on a farm. and the following year was employed in Fairbank (scales)
foundry. In 1855, with A. P. Foster and others, he came to Plainview. He
left immediately to settle his business in Vermont, and returned for a
permanency in October of the same year. His lifetime has been one of
continuous hard work, being known to have repeatedly worked drawing
stakes, etc., as early as two and three o'clock in the morning. His
ambition for business life prompts him now, even in his feeblest moments,
at the age of threescore and ten, to entertain prospects and devise plans
for building a gristmill, hauling ten thousand feet of lumber, etc. He was
the first overseer of the poor by appointment of the board of supervisors,
May, 1858. It was Uncle Ben, as he is now styled, who, with A. P. Foster,
stopped over night May 31, 1855, while prospecting for a settlement, at
Mr. Bryant's, in Elgin, six miles west of the town he helped to found.
War of Rebellion (Civil War)