Apple butter is on its way! We are peeling now and if you would like to volunteer to help us please call 533-0108.

We can use more jars if you have any you are not using. We would really appreciate your help.

“Education Nation” is in the news now. This is very important, especially in Lawrence County. I like to call it the “crossroads” of the nation because it had many people coming through here working and later moving on where the work was. While working in history and genealogy, we had many from different places coming back to look up their family’s history. They were from Hawaii, Alaska and most all states, as well as other places in the world. We would like to urge the teachers to teach about Lawrence County and bring their students to the Lawrence County Historical Museum. It is open to all, just a telephone call away, by calling 532-1124 or writing P.O. Box 71, Ironton, Ohio 45638.

The Historical Cemetery Walk was as usual a great success thanks to Debbie Rogers and her helpers. There were many people working to help the public know and understand how historical Lawrence County is. Each township or section was settled by many nationalities of people. They were here to work to raise their families. In the Cemetery Walk, you can become acquainted with the people who served our county, state and nation. Do you know we have a treasurer of the United States buried here? “Lorena” the song of the Civil War, both Rebel and Union is buried along with her husband and sons, in the Woodland Cemetery. The founder of Ironton, John Campbell, along with his family, is there. The cemetery is the most educational program outside of school itself, in our county. The younger people should be shown and told about the many political and rich people who lived in our county. They may find out their family were very important to our nation.

How many know what the “Swamp Angel” is? It was the most famous gun in the Civil War. It was used by the Union and was a 200-pound Parrott Gun used August 22, and 23, 1863 on Morris Island in Charleston Harbor, South Carolina. The gun was huge, but the most important to us is the material used in this gun game from Hecla Furnace, Hecla, Ohio where some of our family worked. That was there that my grandmother’s father acquainted her with my grandfather.

Now that the Civil War is over, I telephoned a historian in Trenton, N.J., several years ago, asking if we, Lawrence County, could claim it. He politely said no. It was in the City Square in Trenton and it was there to stay. He also said the remains of the gun were found near them in a dump and it was retrieved and repaired, so the closest we can claim is to go to Trenton and visit the “Swamp Angel.”

That is more important history that has come from Lawrence County.

Oct. 9 will be the festival on the lawn at the museum at Sixth and Adams streets. There will be live music, beans cooked in the pot, games for children and more entertainment for the public. We invite you to come.

Historical fact: the courthouse was built on a crest of the town site, the gradual slope of which affords excellent drainage- a marked contrast to the first county and Burlington. Although a few settlers straggled into what is now Lawrence County wanderers, without intention of permanent settlement. But sufficient remained to warrant a county organization in 1816, its name being adopted in honor of Capt. James Lawrence, a native of Burlington, N.J. and a gallant naval officer of the southern extremity of the county and the southernmost bend of the Ohio River, also named Burlington. It was nearly opposite Catlettsburg, Ky. (Information from the Ohio Statewide Files).