100th Birthday Celebration of Margaret Lawrence

Contributed By: Matt Kindred

Excerpt from Mabel Howe’s History of Butler

"One remembers the beautiful flower gardens of Mr. Claude Record and Mrs. Margaret Lawrence, or “Aunt Mag.”  Aunt Mag was once asked how she managed to pull weeds.  She answered that the flowers were so thick the weeds wouldn’t grow.  She lived to be 105 years old.  Both ladies loved and had a variety of flowers."  

(2 of Margaret Lawrence’s sons, Sid and H.H. Lawrence, also appear in Mabel’s Howe’s History as mail clerks on trains) 

For her 100th birthday, the Courier-Journal (in Louisville) published an article on Margaret Lawrence on December 19, 1950.  While cleaning out a relative’s house a few years ago I happened to find a copy of this article. From reading it you get the impression she was quite a remarkable lady.

(From a map of Boston Station from the late 1800’s, it appears that there was only one lumber mill in the town; The Licking River Lumber and Mining Co.  I would assume that he ran the mill there.  The newspaper article states that he was a well known lumberman in the area and he ran a total of 3 mills in Pendleton County.) 

James H. Lawrence’s son, Charles Franklin Lawrence, died as a young adult in an industrial accident at a paper mill in Ohio.  Because of this, Charles’ young children were spread out and all family history was lost.