This county lies along the Wabash with Crawford on the north, Richland on the west and Wabash to the south. It was carved out of Edwards and Crawford in 1821, January 16.

       The early settlers no doubt spread westward across the Wabash from Vincennes. Just west of Vincennes, and especially to the northwest, the soil is very fertile. A part of the country here is called Allison’s Prairie or Allison Prairie. It is ten miles long and five miles wide. The soil is very fertile. Settlers were in this prairie by 1816. These people were from Ohio and were all members of the· Christian church. Just east of Allison’s Prairie are unhealthful swamps, and from these the early settlers suffered. St. Francisville was settled probably as early as Allison Prairie. It is at the southeast corner.

       Directly across the Wabash from Vincennes and for some miles up and down the river there are shown on the old maps French grants. These are usually very narrow but sometimes they run back into the country a mile. On one of these old French grants there lived a noted Canadian Frenchman, Touissant Dubois, who came to Dubois hill near Vincennes, on the Illinois side, in 1780. Here he took up his residence under the stars and stripes. He was a warm friend of General Harrison and fought with him in the battle of Tippecanoe in 1811. Touissant Dubois also owned 1,000 acres just where Lawrenceville is now. Here he built a residence and planted an orchard, the first in all that region. Touissant Dubois was the father of Jesse K. Dubois, a warm friend of Abraham Lincoln from 1834 to the death of the president.

       In 1812 two forts were built, one at St. Francisville and one at Russellville. These were probably built by early French settlers, as there were few if any English-speaking people in those localities. A white child by the name of Fyffe was born in the fort at Russellville. Frank Tougas was the first white child born in the county, his birth occurring in 1803. Dr. Burget came to the county at a very early day. He is said to have learned all he knew from his wife. He lived on the west side of the county. Another doctor was Jonathan L. Flanders, who was so strong he could drink whisky from the bunghole of a full barrel. P 498

       He could work his ears like a donkey—a very remarkable man! Probably the oldest person now living in the county is Mr. John Pinkstaff, living near Russellville. He is 93 years old. Mrs. Sarah H. Millhouse is above ninety. One, Barney MCMahon, who came to the county from Ireland many years ago, died recently at the age of 122.

       The old settlers remember the deep snow of the winter of 1830. It completely covered the staked fences. The animals became very poor and many died of starvation. The crust which formed on top of the snow was so strong that the people drove their sleds and sleighs over the tops of fences and across streams.

       Milk sickness was prevalent over the county each fall for many years. Settlers were accustomed to keep their cows in their lots or small pastures to prevent them from eating the weeds, buds, leaves, or what­ever brought on the disease. People were supposed to catch the disease through the use of the milk or butter. The diagnosis of the case was usually chills, fever, weakness, and a recurrence of the symptoms and the disease each year. It frequently resulted fatally.

       The character of the, schools in this county was not different from that in other Southern Illinois localities. The houses were usually log structures with the crudest furnishings. The teachers were of an inferior sort as measured by good teachers today. The first school taught in Lawrence county was in 1817. In 1819 a Mrs. Martin taught a school. A Mr. Martin taught at a point where afterward the first schoolhouse and church were established. It was near the residence of Mr. William Kincaid. Among the earliest instances where schools were taught were on Allison Prairie, at Russellville, and at Springhill. One, Adam Shepherd, a Greek and Latin scholar, taught in this county in the early 30’s.

       In recent years there has been a great advance in the character of the school work. High schools are established in all the towns, and since the discovery of oil, the people are putting their surplus money into good school buildings.

       Charlottesville, on the Embarras, was a village in 1819. It bid fair to become an important town but the building of an iron bridge across the Embarras a few miles below ruined the prospects of the town. Charlottesville is a forgotten town. This village was founded by the Shakers, a religious body of people who are exemplary in all their walks of life.

       Col. William M. Small was in the limits of the county as early as 1797 and lived till late in the nineteenth century. He has left by word of mouth many facts concerning the early history of the county.

THE LAWRENCEVILLE, LAWRENCE COUNTY, HIGH SCHOOL

Lawrenceville. The Shawneetown trace ran along the Wabash close to the towns of West Salem, Lancaster and St. Francisville, joining the Kaskaskia trace at Mussel Shoals; thence to Vincennes.”

       The county seat, Lawrenceville, is a prosperous county seat town. It is situated on high ground just west of the Embarras river, a little to the north of a west line from Vincennes. Its population is 3,235. It is well supplied with schools and churches. The oil industry has filled the coffers of Lawrence county people and they lack for nothing. Bridgeport, which was a small station and country village, has grown to a city of 2,703 people with all the city machinery. Sumner has also grown, but not as the other towns.

       Oil was first discovered in a shallow well in the vicinity of Casey a half century ago. It was not developed, however, until 1904, when a P 500 Mr. Hoblitzel began its development by drilling in a well north of the city of Casey. The development soon spread to the surrounding counties and to the south, until wells are now producing in Clark, Cumberland, Edgar, Coles, Crawford and Lawrence counties.

       Crawford has the greatest area and largest number of wells of this group of counties, but Lawrence, with a smaller area and about one-third as many wells, pro­duces more oil than Crawford. The depth of the wells range from a few hundred feet in the northern counties to 1,900 feet in Lawrence county. Thus far Lawrence county has seven different depths of producing oil sand. The deep sand wells are usually the best producers. Some of these wells starting with a flow of from 2,500 to 3,000 barrels a day and continuing to flow with a gradual decrease in production for several months, until the flow stops

THE PRODUCT OF LAWRENCE COUNTY

       and they are then pumped. The shallower wells are usually pumpers from the start and make from a few barrels to several hundred barrels  (42 gallons per barrel), but soon diminish in production, and after a few years pumping they are pulled. The deep wells hold up the production much better and will last for ten to twenty years or more. These counties make Illinois the third in rank of states in the Union as to production of oil. In 1910 these counties produced more than 30,000,000 barrels of oil, which sold for more than $19,000,000.

       Of this production the land owner usually gets one-eighth of the oil produced on his land, without any cost of production or delivery into pipe line to him. More than 27,000,000 barrels of the crude oil is taken by the Ohio Pipe Line company and run through pipe lines to Alton, Ill., and Whiting, Ind., to the great refineries located in those places. Some of the remainder is taken to the eastern refineries by the Tidewater Pipe Line company; some is shipped out over the railroads; some is refined in the independent refineries in the field, and the remainder is used for fuel and on the roads.