A population that more than doubled in thirty years? That was Lawrence County, two-hundred years ago. Happy Word Cloud Wednesday!

In 1820, when David Crockett was still living in Lawrence County, the county had a population of 3,271 people.

To put that in perspective, every single soul living in Lawrence County in 1820 could have, at the same time, fit in the stands of Ralph Benson Memorial Gymnasium at Lawrence County High School with room to spare for about 900 folks.

Lawrence County’s 1820 population density was only about 5 people per square mile, or about the same as modern Wyoming. Today, Lawrence County’s population density is about 71 people per square mile. By that metric, we are still a very rural county, but we were, indeed, the wild frontier in 1820.

And, within 30 years, the population of Lawrence County skyrocketed by nearly 184%!

By 1850, 9,280 souls called Lawrence County home. This word cloud contains all of the last names listed on that census. The larger the name on the cloud, the more people with that last name lived in Lawrence County in 1850.

Do you see your name or a family name in the cloud? Mention it in the comments!