History of Lawrence County Indiana

The County of Lawrence was originally a part of Knox and Harrison Counties, all west of the meridian line being a part of the former, and all east of the line of the latter. In 1814 it became part of Washington County, and in 1816 a part of Orange County. The county was created in 1818, and named in honor of Capt. James Lawrence, of the United States Navy, commander of the frigate Chesapeake, who was killed in the battle with the frigate Shannon.

During the first few years of the present century, while the Indians that then inhabited the territory northwest of the Ohio River continued their hostilities to the whites, but few settlers had the daring and hardihood to push as far into the western wilds as the present confines of Lawrence County. Most of the southern portion of Indiana was settled gradually from the Ohio River northward, as that was the great commercial thoroughfare between the East and the West. The settlement only advanced when the population became dense enough to repel the invasions of hostile Indians. Until after the year 1811, when Tecumseh and the powerful confederacy of which he as the head, were defeated and overthrown, there were scarcely a dozen white families located in the county.

Taken from the "History of Lawrence, Orange,
and Washington Counties, Indiana"

published 1884

Goodspeed Bros. & Company Publishers

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