Found in the WWII Collection at the Research Library: "Omer and Leo Tewell, sons of Mrs. Grace Tewell, of South Seventh St., Lawrenceville, who until recently had not seen each other for four years, met by chance in Hawaii a few weeks ago, their mother revealed today. "Four years ago, Leo was sent to Guam Island with the Navy. Two years later Omer entered the service with the US Army, just one month before Leo arrived home on furlough. "They have tried several times to fi

Mr. and Mrs. Ben W Wilkins, of Bridgeport, had two children serving in the U.S. Armed Forces during WWII. Pvt. Arnold Wilkins was a tank driver stationed at Fort Knox having been in the service since May 27, 1943. Their daughter, Marjorie Hoffman, joined the WACs on March 5, 1943, and signed for foreign duty. She was serving at Bowman Field Louisville, Ky. doing office work for the flight officers there when this photo was taken.

From the Official U S Marine Corps Photos published in a local newspaper during WWII: Somewhere in the Pacific -Back from the battle of Iwo Jima, Marine Corporal Guy Martin Baldwin, son of Mr. and Mrs. Ellis Baldwin, Lawrenceville, Rural Route 3, is a bulldozer operator with the motor transport section of a signal unit of the Fifth Amphibious Corps in a rehabilitation area. He is a veteran of the Marine operations at Saipan and Tinian. His wife June resides at 1404 South Ei

This photo in the newspaper was dated “1939-40 White Oak School”. This is incorrect, and is, in fact, a photo of the combined schools of Westpoint, Buckhorn and White Oak. Brad Schrader, Ed McVickar, and Mary White, teachers of West Point, Buckhorn and White Oak respectively during this year, are all in this photo. In addition, the 25 students in this photo don’t correspond with the records of the following year when Mary White had only 18 students and 6 were in the first gr

1927 Melvin Dale Moore Edith Highsmith taught the 1924-25 term at White Oak, while Mabel Buchanan taught the following year. The 1926 school year ushered in Ross L. Daily, who had 18 years of teaching already under his belt. While all the records cannot be located, it is believed he taught for the next twelve years with a beginning salary at $700 annually rising to $800. School occasionally had to be held on Saturday so Mr. Daily could attend to his duties as the Lukin super

When a country needs defending, everyone gets a job, and during WWI the jobs for men of the right age just happened to involve uniforms, marching, and being yelled at before breakfast. A letter from the Selective Service System, Springfield Illinois "A Message to Selectees (circa World War II) When in times of grave emergency, it becomes necessary for this nation to ask its people to share in the common defense, it is imperative that each man does his part. Every one of us

Lawrence County News October 15, 1931 Chicken Thief Tries a Getaway; Deputy Hipsher Votes “No” Harry Hipsher, deputy sheriff, got an “exciting few minutes” Friday morning courtesy of an escaping prisoner. Thanks to the deputy’s quick thinking (and stubborn refusal to stay down), the would-be escape ended with the prisoner alive, captured, and very much out of luck. Charles Miller —indicted for stealing chickens (a crime with low glamour and even lower odds of success)—

Attention: Program by Nancy King scheduled for February 5, 2026 at History Center, Ladies' Lingerie through the Decades, has been cancelled due to weather. The Population Center is not determined numerically; it's the geographic point at which the U.S. would balance if each of its residents (currently over 342 million) weighed the same. February 1st, 1923, the Saint Louis Chamber of Commerce announced that Lawrenceville was the center of population according to the census ta

Born in Richland County, Illinois on March 8, 1908, Virgil Henry was the son of E Clinton and Rosa Shick Henry. He came from a family of schoolteachers; his father was a teacher; his brother Omar taught in schools in Lawrence County and his sister Fern was a teacher at Sumner High School. While a student in 1924, Virgil Henry of Sumner was awarded the prize in the home lighting contest conducted by the Central Illinois Public Service Company. The prize was a radio outfit

Possibly the most significant airplane in history is the Enola Gay, (a B-9 Super Fortress) which on August 6, 1945, under the command of Colonel Paul W. Tibbets, Jr., flew on a mission to Hiroshima, Japan and dropped the world's first atomic bomb on a city, ultimately leading to the end of the WWII. In the January 9, 1945 issue of the Daily Record was an ad seeking workers to help build B-29 Super fortress planes. A Boeing representative would be interviewing in Olney on a