We know how busy this time of year is going to be for everyone with shopping, decorating, wrapping etc. so we present “gift buying through the decades” –five days of gifts that Lawrence County residents were purchasing locally in 1899, 1910, 1920, 1930, and 1940.  Today showcases December 1899.

Ed Brumley, one of our volunteers, has been busy scanning George Field News and Snafu newspapers. During WWIi these weekly newspapers were filled with the activities (and gossip) about the men and women who were stationed at George Field Army Air Field. We hope once they are scanned to have them digitized and made available to the public on-line. While we have several copies, we don't have a complete set. So we are asking the community and on-line readers to contact us if

in 1991 the LTHS Marching Band performed at Disney World in Florida. Note their uniforms. By 1998 The band had new uniforms. This year they have new uniforms again and the Historical Society is the happy recipient of an old uniform for their county music exhibit. Look for it to be displayed soon.

Don't forget the Ladies of Lawrence: Clothing Through the Decades program Thursday Dec 4 10:00 at the History Center! News in Lawrencre County as reported in the Lawrence and Knox County newspapers for the week ending on December 3 1880. After the death of Mary Buntin , the new editor, her brother- in- law Sam B Day , began reporting the news. He had spent fifteen years in the publishing office setting type but stated that he would do a fair job with the news.    The worthy c

There are still a few seats left for the “Fashions Through the Decades” program on Thursday, December 4 from 10:00-11:00 at the History Center.  This is the second in a three- part series about the Ladies of Lawrence and the clothes they wore. Call 908-208-2372 to reserve a seat, cost is $10.  Come join us for a fun morning.

Sponsored by the BTHS Girls Athletic Association (G.A.A.), the Snow Ball was held every winter. Note the girls dancing without their shoes and the aluminum Christmas Tree in the corner.

Happy Thanksgiving from the Pat Jenny Collection at the Lawrence County Historical Society

How to Cook a Turkey from the November 26th, 1880 edition of the Rural Republican. They had reprinted it from the Country Gentleman. Remember one had to bake the turkey in a wood stove and keep feeding the fire to maintain an even temperature throughout the roasting process. No electric stoves for these housewives nor food thermometers.

November 26th, 1880  The death of the editor prompted the following obituary: Died on Sunday morning November 21, 1880, at her residence, Miss Mary Buntin , editor of the newspaper, the Rural Republican, after a long-continued illness. “Thus early in her 29th year passed away one whom it was a pleasure to designate as the noblest young woman of our acquaintance. At an early day she was called to assume most of the cares and anxieties of an afflicted family in which the prom