Written by Charles Collett
Huntington, WV, Newspaper – no date given
Submitted by Lorena Marks
(Brief Historical Sketch, Lawrence County)
OUR COUNTY – Sandra Anderkin, a student at Mansfield, O., writes Clarence Clements, manager of Wilson Athletic Goods Mfg. Co. is seeking information . . . She says each student has been assigned to write the history of one of Ohio’s 88 counties and she is assigned Lawrence and needs help . . . Mr. Clements doesn’t know how he got in the picture but would appreciate suggestions, so here goes.
Lawrence, the most southern, was named in honor of Capt. James LAWRENCE, a naval officer of the War of 1812 . . . Burlington, across the Ohio River from West Virginia, was the first county seat in 1817 . . . The fastest growing was Hanging Rock, on the river in the rich iron ore section . . . The first pig iron furnace at the Rock was in 1826 . . . At the time of the Civil War, eleven charcoal iron furnaces were in operation . . . Most famous was Hecla, built in 1833, which furnished iron for the celebrated cannons, called “Swamp Angel,” which bombarded Charleston, S.C., and is mentioned in war history.
Ironton, founded in 1849, became county seat Oct. 23, 1852 . . . After Civil War eight more iron furnaces were built – Big Etna in Ironton, from 1875 to 1917, was largest in the world . . . Lawrence, the hilliest in the state, was widely known for apple orchards previous to the invention of cold storage . . .
In 1914 the first apple show in the state was held in Ironton . . . At that time there were 156 apple orchards with 212,916 trees according to a state report . . . The Rome Beauty and Jonathan both were named in this county and the State of Ohio placed a monument at the Lawrence County Fair Ground honoring the birthplace of Rome Beauties.
More coal is dug in the county than any other in the state . . . Some of the largest strip mine machines in the state are within a half-mile of the Ohio River . . . Two cement plants in the county are the nation’s most modern, one with a limestone mine shaft 570 feet deep . . .
Among county distinctions are first to elect a woman judge – Miss Helen CLARK (1923) . . . Only county where a woman was superintendent of a pig iron blast furnace – Mrs. Nannie KELLY (1906) . . . First steam locomotive in the county in 1846 . . . First to build highway bridge across Ohio River between Cincinnati and Wheeling, W. Va. (1922) . . . The first newspaper was printed in 1845 at Burlington.
Following the rolling mills, foundry, nail mills, and machine shops for steamboat building, came the lumber industry, supplied by logs floating down the Big Sandy River from Eastern Kentucky and West Virginia . . . Just before locks and dams were placed in the river (1910) the county had 9 enormous sawmills, Yellow Poplar at Coal Grove, the largest in the nation . . .
Industrial changes as they occurred started in the ’80s with paving brick, fire brick, and building materials . . . At the start of the present century, coke, malleable iron, stoves, gas heaters, ranges, shoes, graphite motor brushes . . . Since WWII the chemical industry and motor parts predominate . . . How’s that, Sandra, for a start for a story about Lawrence County?
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