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

Hyatt Madding voted for Herbert Hoover in the Presidential Election of 1932 and lost his bet about the election outcome with Leslie Hildreth, who voted for Franklin D. Roosevelt.  The winner of the bet had to push the loser in a wheelbarrow down Main Street in Bridgeport. This picture was taken at the corner of Main Street and Chestnut Street in downtown Bridgeport.  Pictured, left to right: Unknown, State Patrolman Charles Baker, Leslie Hildreth, Hyatt Madding, Unknown, a

The 20-millionth Ford car on a countrywide tour visited Lawrenceville on October 30, 1931. Arriving shortly before 9:00 a.m. in a caravan that included twenty of the new Model A Fords, the delegation stopped at the A L Maxwell Company showroom where the drivers were welcomed by Mayor CL Holson. Mayor Holson, Chief of Police William Stivers, and GL Eshelman and GC Armstrong of the Chamber of Commerce accepted an invitation to ride in the Ford and inscribe their names in the l

Roy Hayden of Vincennes opened his miniature automobile (midget) racing bowl in July 1946 located on the blacktop road north of May Chapel Church known then as the George Field Road between Lawrenceville and Vincennes.  He called it the Lawrence County Speedway.  The track was a fifth of a mile. He advertised nationally known drivers and racing cars from Indiana, Illinois, Ohio, Kentucky and Florida would appear.  A chartered bus service for fans, leaving from Vincennes City