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• 1655 - Lawrence is settled
  
  Massachusetts City and Town Incorporation and Settlement Dates
  
• 1847 - Lawrence is incorporated
  
  Massachusetts City and Town Incorporation and Settlement Dates
  
• 1853 - Lawrence is incorporated as a city
  
  Massachusetts City and Town Incorporation and Settlement Dates
  
• 1854 - Lawrence
  Lawrence, a post-town and semicapital of Essex county, Massachusetts, on the left (N.) bank of the Merrimack river, 26 miles N. from Boston, and 12 miles N. E. by E. from Lowell. This is one of those wonderful creations of the manufacturing enterprise of New England, under the influence of which, a petty village, or perhaps a tract without inhabitants, is almost instantaneously converted into a populous city. In 1845 the Essex company constructed a dam across the Merrimack river at this place, by which a fall of 28 feet in the entire volume of the river has been obtained. The work cost about $250,000. A canal, more than a mile long, and from 60 to 100 feet wide, and about 12 feet deep, con ducts the water from the dam to the different mills. The town is laid out on both sides of the Spicket river, but chiefly between the Spicket and Merrimack, with streets extending from river to river. Near the centre is a handsome common, comprising 17 1/ 2 acres. The principal public buildings are a ... Read MORE...
  
  
•   1860 - January 10 - The Pemberton Mill in Lawrence, Massachusetts, USA, collapses, killing 146 workers.
  The collapse of Pemberton Mill has been deemed the worst industrial accident in Massachusetts history and one of the worst industrial disasters in American history. On January 10, 1860, the large factory in Lawrence collapsed without warning. An estimated 145 workers were killed and 166 injured. To add to the horror, someone accidentally knocked over an oil lantern during the rescue efforts. The flames caught on the mounds of cotton waste and splintered wood, turning the wreckage into an inferno with many survivors still trapped in the refuse and burned alive. Many of the workers at the mill had been women and young children.
  facebook.com
  January 10, 1860
  
•   1868 - A lady in Lawrence, Mass., suddenly awoke in the night with the impression that her little girl was in danger.
  Feeling her way in the dark to the child's crib, directed by a strong impulse, she put her finger into the little sleeper's mouth, and to her astonishment took from thence a large pin.
  St Joseph Herald
  Saint Joseph, Michigan
  February 1, 1868
  
•   1868 - Lawrence (Mass.) factory hands have a free reading-room, and 8,000 volumes in their library.
  
  St Joseph Herald
  Saint Joseph, Michigan
  November 28, 1868
  
•   1869 - A large six-horse wagon containing thirteen persons, returning on the night of the 30th ult. from a festival at Pelham to Lawrence, Mass., upset and severely injured five of the passengers, two it was feared fatally.
  
  St Joseph Herald
  Saint Joseph, Michigan
  January 9, 1869
  
•   1870 - In Lawrence, Mass,. a few days since, some one threw a torpedo into the mouth of a little girl as she was returning from school, and the torpedo exploded and lacerated her tongue and mouth severely.
  
  St Joseph Herald
  Saint Joseph, Michigan
  July 16, 1870
  
•   1870 - In 1849 Lawrence, Mass. had only 100 inhabitants. This year the census says 28,829. Lowell has about 42,000.
  
  St Joseph Herald
  Saint Joseph, Michigan
  September 10, 1870
  
•   1878 - Twenty-three milk dealers in Lawrence, Mass., have petitioned for the appointment of a milk inspector.
  They have found themselves undersold by rival dealers, and say it cannot be done with profit unless the milk is watered.
  
  St Joseph Herald
  Saint Joseph, Michigan
  February 9, 1878
  
•   1888 - On the 24th John Roche and Patrick Cavanaugh, while at work on the chimney of the new Pacific mills at Lawrence, Mass., fell 120 feet with the elevator. Neither was killed but both are seriously injured.
  
  St Joseph Herald
  Saint Joseph, Michigan
  December 1, 1888
  
• Lawrence Massachusetts, 1890
  LAWRENCE is one of our splendid industrial cities, which has sprung up, as if by magic, at the bidding of the mechanical, the liberal and enterprising spirit of the State. It is situated in the northwestern part of Essex County, on the Merrimack River, 26 miles from its mouth, eight miles above Haverhill, nine below Lowell, and 26 miles north of Boston. Methuen lies on the north and west, Andover on the south and west, and North Andover on the east. It embraces an area of about a square mile and a half, — 2,173 acres being on the north side, and 2,012 on the south side of the Merrimack River.*
  
  The Shawsheen enters the Merrimack at the eastern line of the town, having formed half the divisional line between the city and North Andover, which is completed from this point by the larger river. The Spicket River crosses the northern portion of the city, entering the Merrimack within the limits, and just after receiving the waters of the northern canal. The tide flows up the Merrimack to... Read MORE...
  
  
•   1890 - Tornado
  A Number of Lives Lost, Many Persons Killed and Injured and Hundreds of Houses Razed to the Ground - The Victims.
  
  LAWRENCE, Mass., July 27. - A cyclone, equaling in destructive power those so frequently reported from Western communities visited the suburbs of South Lawrence at about fifteen minutes past two o'clock yesterday forenoon, and in fifteen minutes had killed six people; seriously injured fifteen; slightly injured twenty; cut a swath through a thickly populated section two hundred feet wide and a mile long; rendered five hundred people homeless; destroyed or greatly damaged from seventy-five to one hundred buildings, and inflicted a loss of at least $100,000, all of which was uninsured against damage by wind or storm.
  
  South Lawrence is a busy railroad junction, and is occupied mainly by well-to-do mechanics. The northern boundary of the belt of the destruction was but three streets south of the lofty mills with their busy throngs of thousands of workers; showing how... Read MORE...
  
  
• 1895 - Lawrence
  Lawrence, a city, one of the capitals of Essex co., Mass., on both sides of the Merrimac River, and on several divisions of the Boston & Maine Railroad, 26 miles N. by W. of Boston, and 10 miles N.E. of Lowell. It contains a city hall, a court-house, 31 churches, a high school which cost $80,000, a public library, a theatre, 6 national banks, 3 savings-banks, a masonic temple, large reservoirs for water-supply, a jail, a city prison, public and Catholic hospitals, a Catholic protectory, a convent, and a house of Augustinians. Three daily, 6 weekly, and 3 Sunday newspapers are published here. Near the middle of the city is a public park of 17 acres. The river, which is here nearly 1000 feet wide, falls 28 feet in the course of half a mile, affording immense water-power, which is employed in cotton-mills and other factories. In 1845–47 the Essex Company constructed a solid granite dam, 900 feet long and 40 feet high, across the river, which, in its natural condition, flowed over a bed... Read MORE...
  
  
•   1912 - January 11 - Bread & Roses Strike begins in Lawrence, Massachusetts
  1912-01-29 - Martial law declared in textile strike in Lawrence, MA
  
  historyorb.com
  January 11, 1912
  
•   1913 - 11 BOYS DROWN IN RUSH TO SWIM
  Forty Lads Plunge Into River When Walk Collapses
  ALL FIGHT HARD FOR LIFE
  
  A Narrow Wooden Walk, Leading Over Fifteen Feet of Water to Municipal Bathhouse in Merrimac River, Gave Way.
  
  Lawrence, Mass. - Eleven boys, all lads 8 to 12 years old and the children mostly of poor working people, lost their lives in the Merrimac River here, when a runway leading from the river to a municipal bathhouse collapsed under the combined weight of about fifty youngsters who crawled eagerly upon it anxious to get out of the hot sunshine and be the first to get undressed and dive into the cooling stream.
  
  The Dead.
  ALLGBRO, SECONDO.
  BOLSTER, WILLIAM.
  BOULANGER, JOSEPH.
  COTE, JOSEPH.
  GAUDETTE, ALFRED.
  HENNESSEY, JOSEPH.
  JONES, ROLAND.
  McCAMP, JOSEPH.
  THORNTON, WILLIAM.
  TINTAR, FLOWER.
  WOIGENA, MICHAEL.
  
  It is possible and more than probable that others perished, although two divers worked on the bottom of the river all evening but were unable to find more bodies.
  
  When the runway... Read MORE...
  
  
• 1916
  Lawrence, a city, one of the capitals of Essex CO., Mass., on both sides of the Merrimac River and on several divisions of the Boston and Maine R., 26 miles N. by W. of Boston and 10 miles NE. of Lowell. It contains a city- hall, court-house, public library, theatres, hospitals, a masonic temple, various other notable buildings and institutions, and city parks. The river, which is here nearly 900 feet wide and is held by a huge dam constructed in 1845-17, falls 28 feet in the course of half a mile, affording immense water-power, which is employed in cotton-mills and other factories. Lawrence is one of the foremost industrial cities of New England and its cotton-, woollen- and worsted-mills are among the largest in the world, giving employment to upward of 13,000 hands and producing annually about 170,000,000 yards of cloth, one mill alone furnishing about three-fifths of this amount. Lawrence has also large paper-mills and manufactures of steam-engines, boilers, mill-machinery,... Read MORE...
  
  
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