Lawrence, Avery Thomas

LAWRENCE, BROWN, GILL, BOYD, MAYFIELD, DUPUIS, BELL, HUNT, ROSS, THOMAS, PIPER, RUE, EMERY

Posted By: Volunteer Transcriber
Date: 9/14/2009 at 14:25:43

Lawrence, Avery Thomas

There are individuals in nearly every community who, by reason of pronounced ability and force of character, rise above the heads of the masses and command the unbounded esteem of their fellowmen. Characterized by perseverance and a directing spirit, two virtues that never fail, such men always make their presence felt and the vigor of their strong personalities serves as a stimulus and incentive to the young and rising generation. To this energetic, enterprising, broad-minded and strong-souled class Avery Thomas Lawrence, of Newton, belongs. He is one of the best known men in Jasper County, where, for several decades, he has played no secondary role in the drama of material and public affairs, and who, now that the autumn of his years has come, is living serenely in his cozy home in the County seat, enjoying the fruits of his earlier years of strenuous endeavor.

Mr. Lawrence was born in Jefferson County, New York, December 3, 1836. He is the son of Daniel T. and Almera (Brown) Lawrence, the father born on the coast of Massachusetts, July r6, 1803, and his death occurred on October 4, 1883, at Volga, Iowa, and the mother died on April 28, 1852.

When the father of the subject was five years old he went with his parents to the State of New York, which was then a wilderness, and there he grew up like all pioneer children. He was married when twenty-four years of age, and in his youth learned the shoemaker's trade, which he subsequently followed until 1837, when he came to Madison County, Ohio, and there he reared his family of six daughters and one son. In 1834 he moved to Ferry Township, Clayton County, Iowa, and there he developed a farm on which he continued to reside until his death.

Avery T. Lawrence, of this review, was educated in the pay schools of his day in Ohio, and he has been a great reader and student of miscellaneous themes all his life, thereby acquiring a vast fund of knowledge, in fact, he is the peer of all of his contemporaries in this locality when it comes to being profoundly and broadly educated, and, being for the most part self-learned, he is thereby deserving of all the more praise. He has always been liberal m his religious belief, taking human character for its standard before mere profession. He has carried on his researches fearlessly and, being a vigorous and independent thinker, he has ever been his own exponent. A keen student of nature, he has ever been an interested student of bird, animal and plant life, a lover of the wild, viewing God's glorious out-of-doors with both the eye of a poet and a philosopher, through which majesty and inscrutable splendor and mystery he has been enabled to see the working of the Master Mind, the handiwork of the Deity. He believes in the application of the Golden Rule in his everyday life, and his word has ever been considered as good as the bond of most men.

On March 9, 1873, Mr. Lawrence was united in manage with Mary C. Gill, of Jefferson, New York. This union was without issue. Mrs. Lawrence's death occurred on April 9, 1893, and on June 15, 1895, the subject was united in marriage with Florida Martha Boyd, who was born in Chicago June 26, 1852, the daughter of Thomas and Martha (Mayfield) Boyd, her father a native of the District of Columbia, and the mother was born in Nashville, Tennessee. Mr. Boyd was for many years in the employ of the government in different capacities and at various points, in Wisconsin and Chicago, part of the time as Indian agent. He subsequently engaged in the dry-goods business, and in 1854, while on a trip to New York to buy goods, his death occurred at Detroit, Michigan, while just in the prime of life. His wife died in Illinois when fifty-one years old. Their family consisted of six children, of whom two, Thomas and Harriet, are deceased; Mary is the wife of Albert DuPuis, a fanner near Savanna, Illinois; Charles is a surveyor in Colorado; Virginia is the wife of Henry Bell, of Chicago.

Mrs. Lawrence's great-great-grandfather Boyd was a prominent public man in his day and in the early history of America he was appointed Minister Plenipotentiary to France.

To Mr. and Mrs. Lawrence has been born one child, Ruth, who is now attending high school, where she is making a splendid record, and she is taking special training in instrumental music.

At one time Mr. Lawrence was quite active as a Greenback politician. He called the first Greenback convention ever held in Clayton County. In a business way Mr. Lawrence has been very successful. He was formerly engaged in the creamery business on an extensive scale, shipping butter from his farm to New York City. Some twenty years ago he bought the place adjoining Newton where he has since resided, leading a retired life. He is one of the worthy "boys in blue," having served his country well as a soldier in one of the western armies during the war between the states, being at the front ten months; however, he spent most of his time in the hospital, sick, and was compelled to return home on account of physical disability, but he had seen some hard service during that brief period.

Mr. Lawrence is one of a family of seven children, named as follows: Mary, wife of Benjamin Hunt, of Kensington, Kansas; Mrs. Emily Ross died in Ohio; Avery Thomas, of this sketch, was next in order of birth; Estella, who married Thomas Piper, lives in Greeley, Colorado; Almira lives in Wisconsin; Theodosia married George Rue and they live in Greeley, Colorado; Ellen is the wife of John Emery, of Newton.

Thomas Lawrence, paternal grandfather of the subject, was a picturesque frontiersman and Indian fighter, and he served three years in the army during the Indian Wars; after his discharge he was compelled to walk all the way from Massachusetts to Cincinnati.

Mr. and Mrs. Lawrence are cultured, educated and hospitable people whom it is a pleasure to meet and they have a host of friends throughout the locality of which this history deals. Past and Present of Jasper County Iowa B. F. Bowden & Company, Indianapolis, IN, 1912 Page 824