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JACOB S. LAWRENCE
The subject of this sketch was born in Milton, Northumberland county,
Pa., July 13th, 1826. His parents were George and Esther LAWRENCE.
Andrew
STRAUB, his mother's father, was the proprietor of a very large tract
of land embracing Milton, which town he laid out.
At the age of fourteen Mr. LAWRENCE removed to Minersville with
his father's family. His father was a prominent early business man
in Minersville, where he built a steam flouring mill. About 1846
he sold his property there and returned to Northumberland county, where
he located on a farm about five miles from Milton.
Mr. LAWRENCE remained in Minersville and learned the moulder's trade
in the foundry of DeHaven & Brother. Later he entered the drug
and hardware store of James B. FALLS and familiarized himself with
the details of those branches of trade. April 1st, 1850, he opened
a drug and hardware store in the building now occupied by his brother,
Franklin
C. LAWRENCE, as a dry goods store. January 1st, 1857, he removed
to the store now occupied by Lawrence & Brown. From 1854 to the
spring of 1861 his brother George was his partner. His nephew,
George
L. BROWN, became a member of the firm of Lawrence & Brown in 1865.
January 1st, 1848, Mr. LAWRENCE was married to Mary ELLIS,
of Minersville, who died August 31st, 1880. They had eight children,
of whom three daughters are living. Mr. LAWRENCE has always been
prominent in all measures tending to advance the interest of the place.
He was president of the Minersville Coal and Iron Company about two years,
has for many years been president of the First National Bank of Minersville
and is president of the Minersville Mutual Fire Insurance Company.
Since the organization of the Republican party he has always been an active
worker in its ranks, but has never sought nor accepted office. During
the Rebellion he was thirteen days in the service of his country, commanding
a hastily formed company of his neighbors, in 1862, with the 17th Pennsylvania
militia, in Maryland.
In 1868 Jacob S. and Franklin C. LAWRENCE, Michael MERKEL
and Philip MONGOLD, under the firm name of Lawrence, Merkel &
Co., secured a lease of some valuable coal lands at Frackville, or Mahanoy
Plane, and opened the Lawrence colliery. In two or three years Matthew
BEDDOW succeeded Mr. MONGOLD, the style of the firm remaining as before.
The Lawrence colliery is one of the first-class collieries of Schuylkill
county. |
