Sears Catalog Collage Visit the History Center on the Lawrenceville Square to see the shoes worn by the Ladies of Lawrence, showcased alongside our dress exhibit. To schedule a visit, call 908-208-2372. Admission is free; donations are welcome.

April 1st, 1881 News of Lawrence County “Ye, the time approaches when the earth casts off her snowy shroud and arrays herself in a new garment,” so sayith the editor. The wheat was beginning to look nice and green.  George Kyger furnished meat to the hungry at the old stand of Evans and Blevins . The water mill that ground wheat into flour was operated by O. Cole and Son. Frank Pierce ( remember he was the blacksmith who was shot in the throat) was apparently up and arou

For the Ladies: At our infamous lingerie program, Nancy King revealed that the Ladies of Lawrence bravely squeezed into these “engineering marvels”—risking a little health for a lot of va-va-voom. As the April 1881 edition of the Rural Republican reported: “The Robinson Brothers moved into the rooms formerly occupied by Barnes and Abernathy ." The editor could hardly contain his excitement when he discovered Bortrees’s Adjustable Duplex Corset —'undeniably the best on the m

Lawrence County Circuit Court 1889   Ella Richardville alias Ella Mullins on August 1, 1888 in the County of Lawrence and at other times between that time and the present time Feb 1889 unlawfully and wickedly did, and still does, keep and maintain, a boat on the Wabash River within the jurisdiction of the County, for the purposes of prostitution, to the encouragement of idleness, fornication and other misbehavior, and did then and there permit evil persons, men as well as w

The history of the Edward Dobbins Lodge Building can be found in the Abstract of Title of Lot 69 in Valentine J. Bradley’s Addition to the Town of Lawrenceville. The building may be the oldest in the city. The first entry is the land patent from the United States to Toussaint DuBois that was granted on August 28, 1788. The land Patent covered a group of seven locations comprising what was known as ‘the Schoals’, a part of the Northwest Territory France ceded to the colony of

On Friday, March 25th, 1881 The editor noted that the monotony of the season was relieved somewhat last Sunday and also on Tuesday morning by a nice little fall of snow. “There was hardly enough, however, for a successful snowballing party.” The sun was shining and the snow was falling.  Jay Leonard of Allison offered his celebrated stallion, English Draft, for sale. Mrs. Booker of Duncanville Illinois rented the residence formerly occupied by M E Barnes in Lawrenceville an

The weather lately has everyone talking—though in 1816, folks didn’t just talk, they shivered and complained with a purpose. That year has gone down in history as “the year without a summer,” but the old-timers in New England, never ones to sugarcoat, just called it “1800 and starved to death.” January and February were suspiciously mild, like the weather was lulling everyone into a false sense of security. Then came March, which decided to make up for lost time by being as c

NO Program Tonight In the fall of 1875, the quiet town of Sumner, found itself repeatedly in the pages of regional newspapers. What began as a brief crime report soon became a months‑long public story marked by contradiction, uncertainty, and unresolved questions—revealed not through modern investigation, but through the shifting voices of 19th‑century journalism. The Night of the Shooting On a Monday evening in early November 1875, a local “colored” barber named John Branna