ur father, John William Lawrence, was born Feburary 8, 1888 on a farm in Sumner County, Kansas. From an exceptional memory he often retold the stories of his childhood and those of his father, an early settler of the area, and special credit is given to him for keeping alive our Lawrence family tradition. His early life was spent in the shadow of the Cherokee Strip of Oklahoma, and he remembered vividly the day of the Strip opening with its sea of people, horses, wagons, and every available means of transportation, the firing of the guns that started the mad rush in clouds of dust. His older half sisters participated in the race and received land, but he was too young to obtain a claim. He was later able to become a part of it by obtaining a patent to a school quarter in Grant County, Oklahoma. He broke the virgin red soil, planted crops, and made a home for his family in a similar tradition as his ancestors, and again brought to a new generation a love and respect for land. He died November 24, 1950, in Caldwell (Sumner County), Kansas and is buried at Drury (Sumner County), Kansas. [Lawrence homepage]

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