Ancestry of the Lawrence Family in Henry County, Tennessee

John Lawrence married Mary Duke.

John B. Lawrence, son of John Lawrence, was born 27 September 1747. He married Nancy Needham. He died 28 October 1800.

Peter S. Lawrence Sr., son of John B. Lawrence, was born in 1774 in North Carolina. He died 23 Jul 1856 in Posey County, Indiana, and is buried in the Lawrence Cemetery there. He had two wives. His first wife is thought to have been a Ruth Marley, who died in 1838. He married Mary Polk after his first wife’s death. His children by his first wife were: Nancy Lawrence (married Isaac Caldwell), John Lawrence (1799-1865), Isaac Lawrence (1804-1866), Sarah Lawrence (1815-1851, married John Thomas Derrington), George R. Lawrence (1816-?, married Susan Denny), William Lawrence (1820-1876), Peter S. Lawrence Jr. (1823-1901, married Rachel Thomas), Mahala Lawrence (Circa 1830-?), and Ruth Lawrence (Circa 1830-Circa 1856).

Isaac Lawrence, son of Peter S. Lawrence, was born 1804 in Kentucky. He married Mary S. Key in 1827. Mary was born 1807 in Virginia. They moved to Henry County, Tennessee where Mary died in 1860. Isaac died in 1866. Carrye Lawrence Hughes, a descendant, remembers that her father told her his father and grandfather first lived on the Will Mason farm, near Hazel, on the old Murray-Paris Road, when the family first moved to Tennessee. They were members of the North Fork Baptist Church at Jones’ Mill. Isaac and Mary are known to have had at least eight children.

Hiriam Charles Lawrence was born 10 April 1828 in Tennessee. He married Sarah Harrison on 20 February 1850 in Henry County. They lived near Buchanan where he was a Deputy Sheriff. His second wife was Martha Jane Bradley. They married on 15 March 1859. He died 20 November 1889. Hiriam was first buried at Mount Sandy Cemetery. His grave, along with his wife and daughter, was moved to Bethel Cemetery when TVA flooded Kentucky Lake. This information came from Steely Bell White West, a descendant of Hiriam.

Mary Elizabeth Lawrence was born 27 October 1829 in Henry County. She married Jaspar Jones on 27 October 1850. She died 1 March 1898 in Calloway County, Kentucky and is buried in the Young Cemetery. Information from Chesley Farris was that Mary Elizabeth looked very Native American, with coarse black hair and high cheekbones.

John William Lawrence was born in 1832 in Henry County. He married Mary Elizabeth Harrison in January of 1852 in Calloway County, Kentucky. Information from Eva Bruce Cole.

Mary Ann Ruth Lawrence was born 2 April 1837 in Henry County. She married Grier Monroe Fairris on 20 December 1855. She died 12 January 1894 in Henry County and is buried in the Mill Creek Cemetery. According to Ruth Lawrence Shumpert she went by “Molly.”

Thomas K. Lawrence was born 21 September 1839 in Weakley County, Tennessee. He married Mary Clark Jones on 13 September 1863 in Paris, Henry County. He died 7 April 1910 and is buried in the Conyersville Cemetery.

Sarah Jane Lawrence was born 1842 in Henry County. She married Francis Summers on 17 March 1863.

Andrew Jackson Lawrence was born in September of 1846 in Henry County. He married Mary Eliza Paschall on 18 June 1876, and later, Eliza B. Johnson on 18 November 1869 in Henry County. He died 25 March 1908.

Emily B. Lawrence was born 1848 in Henry County. She married Joseph McClain in December of 1869. She died in 1912 and is buried in the Price Cemetery.

Thomas K. Lawrence, son of Isaac Lawrence, and Mary Clark Jones had over ten children including two sets of twins. According to Carrye Lawrence Hughes, a granddaughter, he went by “Ike” or “Old Uncle Tom” and was jolly, with a good disposition. He had a white beard and looked “like a big bear, short and fat.” According to Goldie Cole, who knew the family well, Old Uncle Tom was an uneducated man, but had a head full of natural sense. He was always saying something funny. He had an outgoing, boisterous personality. His wife “Clarkie” was “one the sweetest women that ever lived.”

Steely Bell White West, granddaughter of Hiriam Lawrence, remembered him in this way: “Uncle Tom was the funniest man ever was. If he saw me out walking, he’d stop his horse and make a face at me and go on. He lived around Conyersville. My husband and I went to his funeral. We were dressed up and riding in a buggy. The horse splashed water and messed up my good dress. I wiped it off the best I could and went on. We got to the church and didn’t know anybody. We asked somebody if Tom Lawrence’s funeral was going to be that afternoon. They said it was and also Dickie Newton’s, whose body was already there. They had one funeral and then the other.”
He is said to have fought in the Civil War. Tom Lawrence was a farmer. According to Herbert Lawrence, a grandson, Tom and Harris Chapman went to the Dallas-Fort Worth area of Texas and stayed a year or two in the mid-1870s. But, he came back because of a drought. Chapman stayed there.

Carrye Lawrence Hughes remembered that her grandfather was a Methodist and people said that, “Nobody prayed as loud as Uncle Tom.” Luther Lawrence, son of Ike, owned a small farm near Mount Pleasant Church and his parents lived there in a little house on the farm. Prior to that they lived in Conyersville and up in Calloway County at different times.

According to Wade Enoch, Tom Lawrence once lived on a road between Lynn Grove and Murray. There was a big well across the road from his house where people stopped to water their stock. Tom kept a dipper hanging out there for passers-by. Once Tom’s son, Thomas Andrew, was playing with a friend under the house. They found a bucket of silver dollars next to the chimney. The house was an “old settled place, no telling how old the house was” or when the dollars were hidden.
Tom Lawrence died in the spring of 1910 "cleaning out fence corners" with a brush fire. When he sat down to rest, he had a heart attack.

Mary Clark Jones was the daughter of Rennie Jones and his wife Martha Hawkins. She was born in October of 1838 in Virginia and died in August of 1914 in Henry County.
The children of Tom and Clarkie Lawrence were:

Samuel Edsman Lawrence was born 5 July 1864 and died 20 May 1931. He married Martha Regina Winsor on 30 October 1888 in Henry County.

Issac C. Lawrence was born around 1867.

Mike Lawrence was born around 1867.

Thomas Andrew Lawrence was born 14 June 1869 at Cottage Grove in Henry County. He died 27 January 1936 in Henry County. He married Lee Ella Jackson on 29 April 1889.

James U. Lawrence was born in 1871 and died in 1886 at age 15.

Twin of James was also born in 1871 and apparently did not survive.

Joseph Walter Lawrence was born on 1 May 1872 in Henry County. He married Mattie Florence Bevins on 21 September 1897 in Calloway County, Kentucky. He died 2 December 1932 at a mental institution in Christian County, Kentucky.

Mary Bonnie Lawrence was born in 1877. She married a William Jones and moved to Metropolis, Illinois.

Luther Fleming Lawrence was born 10 June 1882 at the “Old Mason Place” in Henry County. He died 7 May 1940 in Henry County. His wife was Ethel Lefever. They married 23 November 1902 in Henry County.

Twins born around 1887 did not survive.

Luther Fleming Lawrence and his wife Ethel lived in Henry County, Tennessee near the Mount Pleasant Church and burial grounds. Luther was a farmer and was known for raising fine horses. His obituary called him “a horseman of merit” and noted that he had “taken first honors for the best saddle horse or mare entered in the Fourth Monday in March competition.” He and his wife were members of the Green Plains Church near Hazel, Kentucky where they are both buried. He was well known throughout Henry and Calloway Counties where he had many friends and acquaintances.

His granddaughter, Hilda Hughes Swisher, remembered him as a jolly man who loved his children and grandchildren. He would always bring them bags of candy and fruit when he came home. At family gatherings he would sit and hold the children in his lap while he visited with relatives.

Luther Lawrence was found by his daughter, Brenda, shot in the head behind his barn in 1940. His death was believed to be a suicide.

His wife Ethel was born 20 March 1881 in Henry County, Tennessee. She was the daughter of William Luther Lefever and Mary Elizabeth Crank. Ethel lived on State Line Road in Hazel until her death on 16 May 1973 at 92 years of age.

The children of Luther and Ethel were:

Carrye Velma Lawrence born 12 January 1904 in Henry County. She married John Washington Hughes on 26 June 1920 in Henry County. She died in Paducah, Kentucky in April of 2000.

Hubert Milton Lawrence was born 15 September 1905 in Henry County. He went by the nickname of “Bill.” He married Shella B. Paschall. He died 13 January 1996.

Luther Herman Lawrence was born 15 November 1907 in Henry County. He went by the nickname of “Buck.” He died on 13 March 1920 at the age of 12 years.

William Harlan Lawrence was born 28 November 1910 in Henry County. He went by the name of “Tump.” He married Ovie Josephine Wilson. Tump died 20 November 2000 in Calloway County, Kentucky.

Ruth Lane Lawrence was born 23 August 1914. She was married to Mark Shumpert and Lawton Robinson. Ruth died in 2003.

Ina Elizabeth Lawrence was born 1 February 1917. She married Trellis N. “Red” Seaford. Ina died 7 November 1958 at 41 of cancer.

Nellie Louise Lawrence was born 14 June 1920. She married Ernest R. Vick.

Brenda Sue Lawrence was born 22 February 1926. She married James Clovis Wimberley.