Sedgwick County KSGenWeb

Portrait And Biographical Album of Sedgwick County, Kan.

Chapman Brothers 1888

Pages 222 - 224

HON. ROBERT E. LAWRENCE, the present Representative of the State Legislature of Kansas, and the President of the West Side National Bank, is one of the most prominent and influential citizens of Sedgwick County. He is a native of the good old commonwealth of Connecticut, and came of good stock which has been represented in that State since early Colonial times. He was born in the town of Canaan, Dec. 17, 1847, and is the son of Henry W. and Abigail (Doolittle) Lawrence, also natives of Canaan. Mr. Lawrence, the father of the subject of this sketch, was engaged in farming and dairying in his native town for several years after marriage. He removed to Sandisfield, Mass., in 1859, and there followed the same occupation until 1872. In that year he sold out his interest in the business, and came with his family to Wichita, and now resides here retired from the active duties of life. To him and his wife were born seven children, five of whom are now living, namely: James B., Robert E., Charles, Reuben S. and Mary R. James B. is a physician practicing his profession in Wichita, Kan.; Charles is a druggist in Wichita; Reuben S. is Professor of Greek and Mathematics in Emporia College, Kansas; Mary R. resides in Wichita.

             The paternal grandparents of our subject were Putnam and Ruth (Williams) Lawrence, both natives and life-long residents of Canaan, where the grandfather carried on the trade of cabinet-maker. He was a Revolutionary soldier. The maternal grandparents of our subject were Henry and Mary (Richards) Doolittle; they were of English ancestry; and were lifelong residents of Canaan, where they were occupied in farming and dairying.

             Mr. Lawrence, of this sketch, received the rudiments of his education in the excellent public schools of his native town. When he was fourteen years of age his parents removed to Massachusetts, and there his education was finished in the South Berkshire Institute at New Marlboro, Mass., where he pursued a thorough course of instruction for three years, and was graduated from there in 1869. In the meantime he taught school in the long winter vacations. After graduation he started for the West, making a pedestrian tour through Massachusetts, Vermont and New York, and spending the winter of 1869-70 in Illinois. Here he resumed the vocation of teacher, at Neponset, Bureau County. Subsequently he came with a friend to Kansas, and located in Wichita in May, 1870, and has since made his home here. He took up a claim of 160 acres on the West Side, where he now lives, and at once commenced the improvement of the same. He built a log house with a dirt roof, and a floor of the same material, and set out fruit and ornamental trees, and now has one of the finest orchards in the county. He afterward bought a tract containing 420 acres, known as the Maplewood Farm, adjoining his first purchase, and turned his attention to breeding Polled-Angus cattle, going into the business on a large scale, and also importing cattle from Scotland. In 1885 he commenced to lay out his land in plats, and now has seven additions in the city, all platted and sold, with the exception of fifteen acres of land that he reserved for his own use, on which he is building a fine residence, located on the corner of Maple and Seneca streets. He sold his first lot, 25x140 feet, for $75, and since then has sold seventy acres at $3,000 per acre, the land originally costing him $1.25 per acre. In 1886 he built a brick block on Douglas avenue, and in 1887 the Palace Block on the same avenue. In the same year he and his brother Charles put up the Sunflower Block at a cost of $4,500; it is on Douglas avenue. Mr. Lawrence is now building a brick block, 75x80 feet, on Maple street, which is to cost about $15,000, and besides these he has built quite a number of tenement and boarding-houses on Dodge avenue. He has put $75,000 into buildings on the West Side.

             Our subject is prominently connected with the banking interests of Southern Kansas. He is a Director of the Kansas National Bank, and is a stockholder in the First National Bank of Pratt, in Pratt County. He is a stockholder and Director in the Wichita Watch Factory.

             Mr. Lawrence is very liberal and public-spirited, and, besides doing so much for the growth of the city and the development of its business interests, he has contributed largely to different institutions in the city for education and charitable purposes, and in his position as President of the Y. M. C. A. is doing much to maintain the moral status of the city. He is one of the founders of Lewis Academy, an excellent institution of learning, situated in Wichita, in which the people of Sedgwick County take just pride.

             The marriage of Mr. Lawrence to Miss Laura L. Smith of Sandisfield, Mass., took place Sept. 2, 1873. She is the daughter of Frederic and Aurelia (Smith) Smith, natives of Sandisfield, Mass. Of this union three children have been born, namely: Charles S., Harry and Hattie, who are twins. Mr. and Mrs. Lawrence are members of the First Presbyterian Church, of which Mr. Lawrence has been an Elder since 1870. They are people of much social distinction in this county, and their genial and kindly manners have secured them many warm friends.

             In politics Mr. Lawrence is a Republican, and ably represents that party in the State Legislature, to which he was elected in 1884.

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