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Author Archives: Clint
The Intruders on Shoal Creek
Do you recognize any names on this list of “intruders?” Before the Chickasaw Nation ceded the land that would become Lawrence County to the United States government in 1816, the area was infested with squatters; whites who had moved to … Continue reading
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Happy Birthday, Tennessee!
Happy birthday, Tennessee! Tennessee was first admitted to the Union on June 1, 1796 and had been a state for 21 years when Lawrence County was founded on October 21, 1817. Tennessee’s road to statehood was long and arduous. In … Continue reading
Honoring The Dead: The Origins of Decoration Day
Have you ever been to Decoration Day? The holiday has a long history in Lawrence County. Newspaper records indicate that it may have first been formally observed here in 1871 (although probably earlier) as a day set aside to decorate … Continue reading
The Lost Reef
Have you ever found a cool fossil in Lawrence County? I found this Acrocyathus fossil in western Lawrence County. The place where I found it was once covered by an immense colony of rugose coral. It thrived beneath the waters … Continue reading
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The Military Career of Corporal Silas Smith, USCT
On this day in 1865, one Lawrence County man was promoted to corporal in his artillery unit. Little did he know that he would make the ultimate sacrifice for his country in less than a year’s time. Born free prior … Continue reading
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Tagged civil-war, family-history, genealogy, history, military
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The Great Lawrenceburg Bacon Raid of 1862
On this day in 1862, Union and Confederate soldiers met in Lawrenceburg in one of the first recorded fights of the Civil War in Lawrence County…and it ended with Union troops hauling off thousands of pounds of captured bacon. On … Continue reading
The Excavation of the Danley Mound
Did you know that there was a band of snail-eating Native Americans living between modern West Point and Iron City a few centuries before the birth of Christ? On March 25, 1962, three archaeologists conducted the first-ever archaeological dig in … Continue reading
Lawrence County and the Vote to Abolish Slavery
Today is the 160th anniversary of the end of slavery in Tennessee. And, according to one source, the men of Lawrence County who turned out to vote for its abolition had to arm themselves at the ballot box for fear … Continue reading
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Tagged abraham-lincoln, civil-war, constitution, history, politics
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The Re-establishing: Lawrence County’s Wartime Unionist Government
Our county government was founded on October 21, 1817 by the state legislature. But did you know that it was re-founded 47 years later? On February 13, 1864, a group of local Union sympathizers met at the courthouse in Lawrenceburg … Continue reading
A New Birth of Freedom: Lawrence County’s USCT Soldiers
They are perhaps Lawrence County’s most-overlooked veterans. Indeed, the very names of these men, not to mention the sacrifices they made in service to their country, have been practically forgotten by most local people. Most of us probably learned in … Continue reading
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Lawrence County History Trivia 