Prison Debate of 1977
The History Center will NOT be open this Sunday November 16. Early in 1977, Governor James Thompson announced that two additional medium-security prisons would be built in Illinois to ease over-crowding by a rapidly growing prison population. The population had exploded from 5,980 inmates in July 1973, to 10,450 inmates in 1977. Besides the inmate population explosion, updates were needed to present facilities to support the current over-crowding. The new medium-security pr
Lawrence Lore
Nov 132 min read
Mary had a Little Vote. . .
On their way to Vote! In September, 1920, the Attorney General notified County Clerk Steffey that it would not be necessary to have...
Lawrence Lore
Sep 92 min read
"10 Laziest Men"
The Rural Republican, published in Lawrenceville, Illinois on Friday, May 14th, 1880 The rain in the middle of May 1880 made the wheat...
Lawrence Lore
May 135 min read
“Aw’ dern it”
March 12, 1880 , from the Rural Republican and the Weekly Western Sun The Sand Ridgers were about to build a new church east of Gilmore...
Lawrence Lore
Mar 175 min read
Horse Sense
February 13, 1880, Rural Republican and Vincennes Western Sun When a 21st-century descendant reads about the lives and times of their...
Lawrence Lore
Feb 245 min read
News of January 1880
The year 1880 was to be an eventful one. The census of the United States would be taken, a new President elected, and it was a leap year....
Lawrence Lore
Jan 296 min read
Pete: First Motorcycle Cop
Stanley Berget Vandament, better known as Pete , was born January 22, 1888, in Lawrenceville, Illinois, to Burgett and Belle Vandament ....
Lawrence Lore
Sep 12, 20243 min read
Are You Related?
The Clerks of the Court in Lawrence County Illinois from 1818-1879 were: V J Bradley, James M McLean, E Z Ryan, Frederick A Thomas,...
Lawrence Lore
Sep 9, 20241 min read
Where There's a Will . . . .
Women may have gotten the vote in 1920, but they didn't become jurors in Lawrence County until 1939. The first time women's names were...
Lawrence Lore
Jul 22, 20242 min read
Death Before Dishonor-- Suicide (?) of an Illinois State Senator
Springfield August 10 1878 “News has reached this city that Hon. O V Smith of Lawrence County, State senator from the forty- fifth...
Lawrence Lore
Jul 10, 20242 min read