Tag Archives: family-history
William Hicks and the Struggles of Lawrence County’s Free People of Color
One Lawrence County man was taken to court in 1858 for the crime of…staying in Tennessee too long? Enslaved people who were freed before the Civil War or African-Americans who were born free were known as free people of color. … Continue reading
Armistice Day in West Point
Did you attend a Veterans Day parade or ceremony yesterday? If you did, you continued a century-old tradition in Lawrence County. Veterans Day is observed on November 11. It has been known as Veterans Day since 1954. Prior to that, … Continue reading
The Man Who Owned Three Square Miles of Lawrence County
How many people can say that they have owned over 3 square miles of land in Lawrence County AND had an American hero as a squatter on that land? John Christmas McLemore (1790-1864) was one of the most powerful men … Continue reading
Lawrence County’s Last Revolutionary Soldier
Did you know Lawrence County’s last Revolutionary War veteran died less than ten years before the Civil War began? By the early 1850s, there were few Revolutionary War veterans left in the United States. Indeed, on the 1850 census, only … Continue reading
The Execution of Andrew Blakemore
A daring raid, a final expression of true love, and an execution by firing squad? It all happened in Lawrenceburg, 141 years ago today. A Scottish immigrant and adopted northerner, Colonel George Spalding (pictured here) was certainly not a native … Continue reading
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
Crime on the Wild Frontier
Lawrence County in the days of David Crockett was, indeed, the wild frontier–and that applied to the wild men who lived here as well as the wild animals. According to the Annual Report of the Tennessee Judiciary for 2022-2023, the … Continue reading
The Alabama Migration to Lawrence County
Did you know that, for the early part of the 20th century, our county became home to a massive influx of people from North Alabama? This period of our history is known as the “Alabama Migration,” and it played a … 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
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 