Category Archives: Uncategorized
The Destruction of Crockett’s Mill
Thanks to Hurricane Francine, the weather forecast calls for lots of heavy rain over the next two days, increasing our chances of localized flooding. A little over two-hundred years ago, another September flood in Lawrence County helped change American history. … Continue reading
The Napier Iron Works
Before it was Napier, it was…the McLeish Reservation? When the Chickasaw nation ceded their lands north of the Tennessee River to the United States in September 1816, there were a few exceptions. One of those exceptions was a square mile … Continue reading
Fred Thompson: Lawrenceburg’s Actor-Politician
On this day in 1942, Lawrence County’s own Fred Thompson was born.. Fred D. Thompson was born in Sheffield, Alabama, but grew up in Lawrenceburg and was a 1960 graduate of Lawrence County High School. Remembered as a class clown … Continue reading
The Integration of Lawrence County’s Schools
Sixty years ago today, on August 13, 1964, the first African-American students enrolled in Lawrence County High School and Loretto High School and the Lawrence County Schools System was desegregated. According to Carpenter and Carter’s ‘Our Hometown,’ the transition from … Continue reading
The Lost Village of Laurel Hill
For most of its six-mile path between the Natchez Trace and CC Road, Laurel Hill Road is a path through the wilderness. The property it traverses is heavily wooded and part of nearly 20 square miles of land owned there … Continue reading
Fields of Faith at Mt. Ararat
At about 945 feet above sea level, Mt. Ararat Cemetery on Mt. Ararat Road north of Lawrenceburg is not so much on a mountain as it is on a low hill. But voices raised in sacred song once rang out … Continue reading
The Pension of James S. Finley
How many people do you think you could get to verify that you are a good person? One Lawrence County man got the signatures of 190 people! The reason? Civil War veteran drama. In the spring of 1906, 78-year-old James … Continue reading
St. Mary’s Cemetery: A National Register Property
While all of Lawrence County’s cemeteries are historic to some degree, only one cemetery in Lawrence County is listed on the National Register of Historic Places. St. Mary’s Cemetery, five miles east of St. Joseph, on Gieske Road is the … Continue reading
The Promise to Colonel Dobbins
July 1884 was windy in Lawrence County. Brief, loud summer storms raked the fields, watering the earth but bending and damaging corn stalks throughout the area. And on the 30th, in the midst of that stormy summer, one of the … Continue reading
Lawrence County’s First Government
“A temporary government of our own…” Did you know that, before the city of Lawrenceburg even existed, there was once an independent and unauthorized government in operation in the area that would become Lawrence County? As can be seen in … Continue reading
Lawrence County History Trivia 