Van Buren Lawrence Biography

	This biography is from "Memorial and biographical record; an illustrated
	compendium of biography, containing a compendium of local biography,
	including biographical sketches of prominent old settlers and 
	representative citizens of South Dakota..." Published by G. A. 
	Ogle & Co., Chicago, 1898. Pages 454-455

	Scan, OCR and editing by Joy Fisher, jfisher@sdgenweb.com, 1999.

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VAN BUREN LAWRENCE, for years one of the best known farmers of Alton township, 
and a veteran of the Civil war, was born in Harrisburg township, Lewis county, 
New York, January 11, 1831, and a son of Albut and Mehitable (Ryal) Lawrence.  
Albut Lawrence was a native of Lewis county, New York. and his father, Judah 
Lawrence, was an Englishman whose father came to America before the 
Revolutionary war.  Judah Lawrence and his son Albut were gunsmiths by trade.  
Judah Lawrence died about 1845, at the age of eighty years.  Albut Lawrence died 
in Lewis county, New York, about 1877, at the age of seventy-eight years.  Mrs. 
Mehitable Lawrence was born in Lewis county, New York, and died about two years 
previous to her husband's death, at the age of eighty years. She was a daughter 
of Peter Ryal who served all through the Revolutionary war in the Continental 
cavalry, and afterward lived on a farm in Lewis county, New York.  His father 
came to that country from Scotland.

Van Buren Lawrence, the subject of this sketch, was reared on a farm and 
attended the common school of the district, until eighteen years of age when he 
went to Dodge county, Wisconsin, and two years later to St. Paul, Minnesota, 
where he worked at the carpenter's trade several years, and later engaged in 
farming in Dodge county, Minnesota.  August 15, 1862, he enlisted in Company I, 
Ninth Minnesota Infantry, and served until his discharge, October 20, 1864, the 
most of the time in the Sixteenth Army Corps under General A. J. Smith, with 
headquarters at Memphis. He participated in the battles of Nashville and 
Guntown, Mississippi.  His health failed and after spending two weeks in the 
hospital he was discharged, October 20, 1864. In 1879 he came to Brookings 
county, South Dakota, driving from Dodge county, Minnesota, a distance of three 
hundred miles, and took a homestead on section 10, Alton township, being one of 
the first settlers in that township.  He drew lumber from Marshall, Minnesota, 
to build a house and has improved and developed and added to his farm until he 
now has two hundred and forty acres with first-class improvements and in a high 
state of cultivation.  Besides his extensive interest in general farming, Mr. 
Lawrence gives special attention to high bred stock and has a fine line of 
Norman horses.

Mrs. Lawrence, whose maiden name was Miss Mary Taurman, is a native of Indiana, 
and a daughter of William Taurman.  She became the wife of our subject in the 
year 1858, and their wedded life has been blessed to them by the presence of 
nine children, viz.: Alice, wife of Frank Tiffany, Springfield, Missouri; 
Almira, wife of Charles Multon, Aurora township, of this county; Albert, a 
carpenter of Boulder, Colorado; Eunice, wife of Rev. Benjamin Mints, a 
Congregational minister in Missouri; Cora, wife of Pearl Chamberlain, Boulder, 
Colorado; Lucinda, wife of Fred Ueltschi, Green county, Missouri; Henry; Carrie; 
and Rollin.  Mr. and Mrs. Lawrence have also a number of grandchildren.  The 
family is connected with the Wesleyan Methodist church of Bushnell, and Mr. 
Lawrence is a member of the Thomas Hooker post, G. A. R., at White.  Politically 
he was formerly a stanch Republican, but, at the organization of the Populist 
party, he endorsed its platform and since has been a leader in that party in the 
county.  In the fall of 1897 Mr. Lawrence purchased a residence property in the 
city of Brookings, where he and his estimable wife are now living in well-
merited retirement from the onerous duties of farm life, the farm being managed 
by his sons.