First call of 113 Lawrence County men appeared for physical inspection for the selective service draft for WWI.   Headquarters of the local board had been moved from the courthouse to the basement of the Lawrenceville Township High School building, and the first quota of men for the new army were being examined. Doctor BF Hockman of the local board was being assisted by Doctors CP Gore, RL Gordon and JE Cornett. The physical examination was held in the gymnasium. On enterin

The Redman General Merchandise Store in Sumner was owned by Albert Lloyd Redman. Albert Lloyd Redman was born In Mount Carmel Illinois on June 8, 1861, to William and Jenny Redman . He was nine years old when the 1870 census was taken; he and his family lived in Evansville, Vanderburgh County, Indiana. Ten years later the family had moved to Mount Carmel, Wabash County, Illinois. Albert was working as a clerk in the dry goods store. He had managed to get an 8 th  grade educat

Sumner 1899 Sumner came into existence with the building of the Ohio and Mississippi railroad, the construction of which was first started in March 1853 at Sandoval, Illinois. The railroad was open for operation in 1855 from St Louis, Missouri to Vincennes, Indiana. The road then was later completed to Cincinnati, Ohio. Its name was changed to the Baltimore and Ohio Southwestern railroad (B & O SW) in 1890 and again changed in 1916 to the Baltimore and Ohio (B&O) railroad omi

The on- line copy of the Rural Republican, Lawrence County’s  newspaper, derived from old, microfilmed copies, is too degraded to read easily for Friday, December 10 , 1880.   The news in this blog for this time period was reported by the Vincennes Weekly Western Sun.  Bridgeport Brevities: John A Bard was officiating in the post office. HK Lanterman was crippled up with rheumatism. Several of the young folks met at the residence of Charles Vanausdel and partook of a most b

Sumner Garage 1940s Rodrick's Ford Garage pictured above in the early 1940's was located on W South Avenue Sumner. It was operated by Everett and Harold Rodrick. The building having been remodeled was used by the Christy Fire Protection District Headquarters in 1995. Note the air pump located on the left and the 1935 or 1936 Ford far right.

Moses Stivers took out a full-length column in the Vincennes Western Sun to extol the virtues of his ‘resort’ known as Stivers Springs....

Note to Readers: The following post integrates two weeks of Lawrence County News due to an increased focus on campaign discourse...

The readers of the Rural Republican were shocked to read the headline on Friday August 13 1880 when they opened their newspapers. “One...

News of the Week ending with August 6 1880      SP Barton shipped 14,000 bushels of wheat in July.  Excursion tickets to Chicago were...

Don't forget the Donn Grenda program tonight 7:00 at the History Center!!! The 104th 4th of July was celebrated at Bridgeport and Sumner...