Chester County PA Archives Biographies.....William John LAWRENCE (1857 - )
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Author: Thomas J. Ingham (1899)

WILLIAM JOHN LAWRENCE is a well-known contractor and builder of Dushore, senior
member of the firm of Lawrence Brothers, of whose skill and ability many notable
examples are seen at various points in this region. Thoroughly reliable in all
things, the quality of his work is a convincing test of his own personal worth,
and the same admirable trait is shown in his conscientious discharge of the
duties of the different positions of trust and responsibility to which he has
been chosen in business and political life. He is now acceptably serving as
prothonotary, register and recorder, and clerk of the courts of Sullivan county,
and makes his home in Laporte.

    William Lawrence, our subject's grandfather, was born in Northumberland
county, Pennsylvania, in 1803, and came to Sullivan county about 1828,
purchasing a farm in Cherry township, where he was engaged in tilling the soil
until his death. He took an active part in the organization of the county and
was one of the commissioners first elected. He married Miss Eliza, daughter of
Horatio Ladd, and to them were born four children: Ann, who married Andrew
Jackson, of Dushore, now deceased; Celinda, wife of Freeman Wilcox, of New
Albany, Bradford county, Pennsylvania; John H., justice of the peace in Dushore;
and Fidelia, deceased. For his second wife he married Mrs. Ann Gage, daughter of
Thomas Manley, and to them were born two children: Ida, deceased; and William
T., of East Canton, Pennsylvania.

    John Horatio Lawrence, our subject's father, was born in Cherry township,
April 11, 1833, was educated in the district schools, and on attaining his
majority embarked in mercantile business in Dushore. Two years later, however,
he sold out and bought a farm in Cherry township, which he has since
successfully conducted. He has not confined his attention alone to agricultural
pursuits, but has again engaged in merchandising in Dushore, has engaged in
lumbering to a considerable extent, and also acted as insurance agent. He has
taken quite an active and prominent part in political affairs, has held the
offices of school director, auditor and constable; in 1865 was elected sheriff
of the county on the Democratic ticket, and was appointed justice of the peace
in 1893 and again in 1898, being the present incumbent. He married Miss Hannah
C., daughter of John Dieffenbach, of Cherry township, and they have become the
parents of twelve children: Elizabeth, Mrs. D. W. Pealer, of Lopez,
Pennsylvania; Ida E., Mrs. D. H. Larah, of Sonestown, Sullivan county; William
J., our subject; Clarence, deceased; Charles T., a contractor and builder, of
Dushore; Clinton E., a contractor and builder of Lopez; Jennie F., Mrs. J. P.
Little, of California; Howard, deceased; Orville H., a manufacturer, of Waverly,
New York; Celinda A., a resident of California; Laura, Mrs. A. J. Bradley, of
Laporte; and Frank W., a journeyman machinist.

    William J. Lawrence was born in Cherry township, Sullivan county, February
27, 1857, and was there educated in the district schools. At the early age of
sixteen years he taught one term of school, and in the spring of 1874 secured a
position in the office of a lumber firm in Wilkes-Barre, Pennsylvania. A year
later he entered the office of Broderick & Company at Luzerne, Pennsylvania, as
bookkeeper, remaining in their employ one year. The following two years he
worked at the carpenter's trade in the summer and in the mines during the
winter, but being injured in the mines he returned to Sullivan county and worked
at his trade in Dushore through the summer and taught school during the winter
for three years. He then moved to Milton, Pennsylvania, and later to Chester,
but in 1884 returned to Sullivan county, and in the fall of the same year he and
his brother, Charles T., began contracting and building. In the conduct of this
business they have been eminently successful and among the prominent buildings
which they have erected are the Hotel Eaglesmere at Eaglesmere; the Catholic
church at Overton; the Episcopal church at Laporte; the Catholic churches at
Wilmot and Laporte; and the court-houses at Troy and Laporte; besides many other
public buildings and residences in Sullivan and Bradford counties.

    In May, 1877, Mr. Lawrence was united in marriage to Miss Annie B., daughter
of Mrs. Harriet Baker, of Luzerne, and to them have been born five children:
Bertha G., a successful teacher, who is a graduate of the Bloomsburg State
Normal; Eva Blanch; William S.; Hattie Winifred: and John R.

    Mr. Lawrence is a director of the First National Bank of Dushore, and has
always been counted as one of the representative and most enterprising citizens
of the place. In the fall of 1889 he was the Republican nominee for sheriff and
was defeated by a small majority. He was elected school director at Dushore in
1891, and resigned that position in 1896 on his removal to Laporte. In the fall
of 1895 he was elected to the offices which he is now so creditably and
satisfactorily filling. Again in 1898 he was re-elected as prothonotary,
register and recorder and clerk of the courts. Upright and honorable in all his
dealings and true to every trust reposed in him, he has the confidence and
esteem of all with whom he has come in contact either in public or private life,
and his friends are many throughout Sullivan county.


Additional Comments:

            Extracted from: 
                
              History of Sullivan County Pennsylvania
              by Thomas J. Ingham
                
                 Compendium of Biography
                
           The Lewis Publishing Company
              Chicago: 1899
 

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