G eorge McKinley Claycomb arrived in this world on November 24, 1845, in Monroe City Knox County Indiana. He was a twin to Elias, Jr both sons of Elias Claycomb Sr. , son of Revolutionary War veteran Frederick Claycomb .  Their father, Elias Sr died October 1845, a month before the twins were born, setting the tone for a life that would rarely follow the easy path.  Their mother, Elizabeth Couchman, died when the twins were only 14 months of age. The other siblings were se

Friday, March 11, 1881 Happenings around the County The old Odd Fellows building in Lawrenceville was sold to Barton and Curry for $500. A C. Clippinger took control of the Lawrence County Press published at Sumner. Jim Ryan was going into the rafting business. Mrs. Lib McCleave, 3 miles west of town, was seriously sick with spotted fever. James N Blevins was suffering from an attack of fever and the meat market he operated was closed that week. Sheriff Ryan had been q

What do a stone in the road, a Will from the Prerogative Court of Canterbury England and a life care contract have in common? They were all found in Deed Book G at the Lawrence County Courthouse.  The stone itself stubbornly refused to appear anywhere in the deed ledger, but it does manage to immortalize itself in the description of a one‑acre parcel sold by Howard and Tabitha Jane Badollet (a name that sounds like it wandered in from a Dickens novel) to Nicholas Kuseman on

August 18, 1918   German prisoners passed through Lawrenceville about midnight August 18, 1918, but no one in the county knew of their coming and hence no demonstration was made. The men were among the first brought America. They landed at some Atlantic port and were to be interned at the federal prison at Ft Leavenworth, Kansas. The men were under guard of 48 soldiers and arrived at St Louis at 5:30 Friday morning where they remained until 7 o’clock when they were transferr

March 4th, 1881 Spring has yet to come. The editor wanted to know how he was expected to give his readers a weather forecast each week when he published that it was warm and pleasant but by the time the paper was published it was snowing and cold. It reminded him of the story of the boy counting the little pigs. He said he counted nine of them well enough but the other little fellow ran around so fast he couldn't count him. And the editor was about to come to the same conclus

Once upon a time in Lawrence County Illinois in the year 1835 Jacob Pargin was born. He was the son of Peter Pargin and Sarah Petty and in 1850, the 15- year- old teenager was living with his parents. Eventually Jacob decided that farm life wasn't exciting enough and enlisted in Captain Watts Company of the 7th Missouri infantry. Clearly, he thought marching and guard duty would be a nice change from milking cows. Jacob's brother Daniel came home disabled before Jacob was e

Friday, February 25th , 1881   “What light through Yonder window breaks?” It is a snowball and Yonder goes the son of the glazier, reported the editor.  More rain, bad roads and high water. The Vincennes paper reported that the little schoolhouse across the river was under water, and the roads on the Illinois side had been rendered impassable by the high waters. Mr. L J Hostetler, a salesman for Dr JH McLean of Saint Louis, met with a very narrow escape from drowning himsel

In the mid‑1850s, Jacob May was running a busy general store in the newly formed village of Sumner, Lawrence County, Illinois. Fortunately for us, his account book for 1853-1857 survived and was later published by the Richland County Genealogical and Historical Society in 1991, giving us a wonderfully nosy look into everyday shopping habits of the era. Benjamin Umfleet was a schoolteacher in Lawrence and Richland Counties. The Account book shows that even then, schoolteach

February 18th, 1881 (Forgive us, we are a little bit behind in the old news, so this is really OLD news) The editor described the night before as so mild and moonlit that even the frost couldn't resist joining the party. But rain then followed bringing gloom. In the morning for sake of variety, the county was having rain and sunshine at the same time. The wicked Wabash was still on the rampage. The classic old stream became more and more frightful each minute of the day. Hun

Let’s set the scene: John Pargin, feeling a bit under the weather (and perhaps sensing the Grim Reaper lurking nearby), wrote his Will on March 11, 1821. He didn’t know it, but he was about to become a local celebrity—the first person to have a Will filed in the brand-new County of Lawrence. Not exactly the kind of “first” most people aim for, but hey, history is history. In his Will, John assured everyone he was still of sound mind, though his body was apparently less enthu