Lawrence County History Trivia

Do you like recliners? Do you have a cattle guard to keep your cattle from getting out and ensuring that you don’t have to open a gate every time you come home? You have Lawrence County inventors to thank for improvements to those devices.

Most local folks know about James J. Pennington and his 1877 patented “improvements in flying machines.” In addition to Pennington, Lawrence County has been home to several other inventors throughout the years.

On October 8, 1901, Ole A. Brown of Lawrenceburg was granted a patent for his “Reclining-Chair,” 27 years before the founders of “La-Z-Boy” patented their design. Although Brown didn’t invent the concept of the recliner, his method of construction of recliners was unique enough to be patented. Brown’s patent says that his reclining-chair “may be easily and quickly converted from an upright to an inclined position and which shall be simple of construction, durable in use, and comparatively inexpensive of production.”

On December 23, 1902, J. J. Crane of Summertown was granted a patent for improvements in cattle guards, specifically “adapted for use on railroads to prevent livestock-such as cattle, hogs, sheep, etc.–from passing from one enclosure into another, where partition-fences are intersected by said road.”

Silas P. Taylor of Loretto was granted a patent for his “Improvements in Fenders” on May 11, 1920. A fender is an iron guard on a plow whose purpose is to keep excessive dirt from covering small plants. Taylor’s patent specifies that his particular fender improvement was “especially designed and adapted for use in connection with plows or kindred earth working members.” Taylor was granted a total of five patents for similar improvements in agricultural implements between 1919 and 1922!

On February 14, 1922, Harry F. Carden of Lawrenceburg was granted a patent for his brand of cattle guard. Carden’s patent specifies that his cattle guard will “so locate and construct the rollers that a surface will be presented which will be exceedingly offensive to cattle and prevent the cattle from traversing the guard.” His invention also promised to “improve generally and to enhance the utility of devices of that type.”

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 of a shallow sea.

We know this because the petrified ghosts of that reef litter the fields and woods today in thousands of honeycombed Acrocyathus fragments. They are exposed by the winter frosts and washed up by the summer rain.

When the sea dried up and the coral died, the reef was covered by mud and sediments. As the mud dried and the sediments hardened, the coral inside decayed and the cavities left behind slowly filled with minerals which, over time, formed fossils like this one.

According to the University of Kentucky Geological Survey, these fossils are approximately 330 million years old and are typically found in the geologic formation known as St. Louis Limestone. For more information about Acrocyathus, follow this link: https://tinyurl.com/ydwd7t6h

Leave photos of your favorite local fossil finds in the comments!

On this day in 1956, the first bicycle rolled off the line at Murray Ohio’s Lawrenceburg plant, while concrete trucks were still pouring the floor in the back part of the building.

That first bicycle was a “bright red Western Auto model,” according to a 1986 newspaper interview with former Murray vice president of personnel, Cromer Smotherman. In order to keep up with its production schedule, Murray produced 10,000 sets of bicycle parts in Cleveland before closing its bicycle lines in that city and moving the equipment for the line south to Lawrenceburg, a feat which required 800 boxcars. By 1986, the plant would celebrate production of its 50 millionth bicycle.

One of the county’s largest employers for decades, Murray chose Lawrenceburg in 1955 after representatives for the company visited the city and were impressed with what they found. The construction of the plant was a huge undertaking that required local government buy-in. Without knowing the name of the company or what it produced, the people of Lawrenceburg voted 2,346 to 5 to approve $2 million in industrial bonds in the autumn of 1955 to fund construction of the new factory.

The initial plant was opened for business with 500 employees and 382,000 square feet of space in the spring of 1956. Over the years, the plant expanded in size and capacity to 2.5 million square feet across 120 acres and more than 1,000 employees. Gradually, Murray began to move the bicycle assembly business to China and shifted the Lawrenceburg plant to lawn mowers and snow blowers.

According to former Murray executive Cromer Smotherman, the Murray representatives were drawn to Lawrenceburg over other locations in Tennessee because of Lawrenceburg’s welcoming culture and positive community outlook. Murray president C.W. Hannon told reporters in 1955 that the company also chose Lawrenceburg because it had “more favorable economic operating conditions” than its recently-closed plant in Cleveland.

The assembly line shut down in August 2005 following the company’s bankruptcy. Today, the old Murray facility is being used by several local businesses for a variety of purposes.

When the United States entered World War I in 1917, many of Lawrence County’s men went to the trenches for Uncle Sam. Several local men joined an all-volunteer regiment of field artillery that was recruited by former U.S. Senator Luke Lea of Nashville. The regiment consisted of 1,400 volunteers from all around Tennessee.

The regiment trained for several weeks on athletic fields at Vanderbilt, Columbia Military Academy, the Tri-State Fairgrounds in Memphis, the University of Chattanooga, and the athletic field at the University of Tennessee in Knoxville.

The regiment was mustered into the service of the United States as the 114th Field Artillery in late July 1917. They had 24 horse-drawn 75 mm guns. The men from Lawrence County were in Battery F, along with men from Franklin, Columbia, and Mount Pleasant.

While in France, the 114th Field Artillery saw action at St. Mihiel, the Argonne Forest, and the Woevre Offensive.

The Lawrence County men of Battery F came home to Lawrenceburg on April 11, 1919. When they arrived at the Depot at 11:50 a.m., they were met by a crowd of flag-waving, cheering civilians. The Battery formed a parade and marched from Depot Street, down North Military Street, then to and around the Square after disembarking the train.

That night, according to “Our Hometown” by Carpenter and Carter, the men of the battery and their loved ones were treated to a special dinner prepared by the local chapter of the American Red Cross.

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 school that the Emancipation Proclamation freed the slaves. But did you know that that is only part of the story?

In addition to paving the way for the liberation of hundreds of thousands of enslaved people as Union forces made their way across the South, the Emancipation Proclamation helped to supply a pressing wartime need for the Union: manpower.

The Proclamation made it possible for the Union to begin recruiting, training, and putting into service thousands of black combat troops. This gave Union forces crucial manpower at a critical juncture in the war.

At least ten African-American men from Lawrence County volunteered to serve in these new regiments of the United States Colored Troops (USCT) of the Union army between 1863 and 1865. Four of those men made the ultimate sacrifice in the service of their country.

By war’s end, more than 180,000 black men from across the country would take up arms for the Union. Roughly 40,000 of those men died in uniform.

In the month of February and all through the year, I am proud to tell the stories of these ten local men who left Lawrence County to join the USCT. Please take a moment today to remember these men, and to reflect on their courage, sacrifice, and bravery.