Omon Hoar Lawrence (1846-1893)

   We continue our stay in Massachusetts for today's profile on Worcester County banker and legislator Omon Hoar Lawrence. Sporting an interesting name (and even more impressive cheek whiskers), Lawrence was a man of means in Fitchburg during the late 19th century but sadly that prominence didn't carry over into many historical resources, as I could locate very few biographical works that mentioned him at any great length.

   Omon Hoar Lawrence was born in Brimfield, Massachusetts on April 3, 1846, one of eight children born to David Brainard (1800-1864) and Sarah Atwood Lawrence (1811-1895). Nothing has been found in regards to Lawrence's early years in Massachusetts or education and as an adolescent removed from Massachusetts to Galva, Illinois, where he found employment as an assistant cashier at the bank of L.W. Beck in that town. Lawrence also served as a notary public in Galva during his residency here and is listed as such in the below snippet from the 1871 edition of Rummel's Illinois Handbook.

  Omon Lawrence married on August 10, 1870, to Schenectady, New York native Josephine Van Dyke (born 1846) and they later became the parents of one son, Herbert Oman Lawrence (born 1871). Omon removed from Illinois back to Massachusetts, eventually settling in the city of Fitchburg in the early 1870s. Shortly after his resettlement, he and his younger brother Albert Brainard established a successful hardware business in that city. After leaving this business around 1875, Omon Lawrence was named as assistant cashier of the National Bank of Northborough, succeeding George Seaver, who had died some weeks previously. The 1921 work Northborough History notes that Lawrence moved on to the post of cashier in July 1875 and served in this position until resigning in April 1878.

   After leaving Northborough, Lawrence became involved with the Wachusett National Bank of Fitchburg, which had been incorporated in 1875. Lawrence became President of this bank in mid-1878 and served in this post until his death. During his presidency, Lawrence also held important positions in a number of other corporations, including being a director of the Wachusett Electric Light Company and the vice presidency of the Newburgh, New York-based Consumer's Gas Company. Being a successful businessman and banker in Worcester County also enabled Lawrence to purchase the palatial homestead below, located on Summer Street in Fitchburg.

From "Fitchburg, Massachusetts Past and Present" published in 1887.

   While experiencing remarkable success in both business and banking, Omon Lawrence also found distinction in public office as well, being elected to a term in the Massachusetts State House of Representatives in November 1882. Along with fellow Fitchburg native Harris C. Hartwell, Lawrence became one of two residents of that town elected to the legislature that year, and both took their seats in January 1883. During his brief term, Lawrence was named to the Joint Standing Committee on Railroads, and a roster from the 1883 legislative session bearing his name is shown below.

From the 1883 Acts and Resolves of the Massachusetts General Court.

   After leaving the legislature in 1884 Omon Lawrence returned to his earlier banking interests in Fitchburg, while also continuing in his position as vice president of the Consumer's Gas Company of Newburgh. Lawrence died at age 47 sometime in late 1893, with the Boston Globe noting that he had been ill with "nervous prostration" on several occasions before his death. It should also be noted that Lawrence's first name of "Omon" also has a variation in spelling as "Oman" in a number of sources of the time. The rare portrait of him shown above appeared in the earlier mentioned Fitchburg, Massachusetts Past and Present, originally published in 1887.

Epaminondas Ludwell Grigsby (1815-1893)

                          This portrait of Epaminondas Ludwell Grigsby was e-mailed to me on May 8, 2012, 

                       and is located in the collection of the Pioneer and Historical Society of Muskingum County.

   Today's profile will be a very special one, as this author received some invaluable help in putting it together! The following biography on Zanesville, Ohio Mayor Epaminondas L. Grigsby is a perfect example of what "historical detective work" is about, and I am forever grateful to Jim Geyer, Mitch Taylor, and the Pioneer and Historical Society of Muskingum County for their help in finding more information on this wonderfully named man. The rare portrait of Grigsby shown at the top of this article was found by Mr. Taylor in the Muskingum Historical Society's collection and was e-mailed to me earlier today by Mr. Geyer. As mentioned before, this political profile would not exist without the help and research of these gentlemen and the Pioneer and Historical Society of Muskingum County!

   I'll begin with a bit of background on how exactly this particular article came about. Late last month I managed to stumble across a book entitled William's Ohio Register and Business Mirror for 1857, located on Google Books. While perusing this work I found a section that gave a list of then-incumbent Mayors of various Ohio cities and towns who'd been elected within the last year. Many of these names were abbreviated by their initials, which made research on them a bit more difficult. When I came to the Zanesville section I noticed the name of the mayor,  "E.L. Grigsby" and seeing that the book neglected to mention his full name, I quickly set about doing a Google search on him.

  You can probably imagine my surprise when I found a Find-a-Grave page for a man named Epaminondas Ludwell "E.L." Grigsby, who was listed by said website as being elected as Zanesville's mayor in 1857! After doing some jubilant shouting over this great new name discovery I began a furtive search for more information on him (as well as a possible portrait). After an hour or so, I came to the conclusion that finding further information/pictures of this man would be totally futile, and a search for the Arc of the Covenant would probably yield better results! 

  A day or two after becoming aware of Mr. Grigsby's existence I made it a point to fire off an e-mail to the Pioneer and Historical Society of Muskingum County, asking for assistance in finding more information on this unusually named politician. Soon after sending this e-mail, I developed some correspondence with the Director of Museums Jim Geyer, who in further e-mails graciously provided me with some previously unknown facts about Grigsby's life.

  I now fast forward to earlier today, when I was pleasantly surprised to find a new e-mail Jim sent me, this one containing the portrait of Epaminondas Grigsby shown above! I was beginning to think that I'd never see a portrait of this mysterious Ohio figure, and I also want to give thanks to curator Mitch Taylor, who located the portrait of Grigsby in one of the museum collections. This rare portrait was donated to the historical society by a certain Ludwell Larzalere, a man who I presume was a descendant of E.L. Grigsby. 

  Epaminondas Ludwell Grigsby was originally born in Loudon County, Virginia on January 17, 1815, the son of Lewis and Hannah Bradfield Grigsby. One can surmise that Lewis Grigsby bestowed the unusual name "Epaminondas" upon his son in honor of the famed Greek general and statesman Epaminondas (418 BC- 362 BC), who was killed at the Battle of Mantinea. It is unknown what inspired the elder Grigsby to give his son this amazing first name, but one's imagination can run wild just thinking of the possibilities!

  It is presumed that Epaminondas received his education in schools local to the Loudon County area and is known to have married Nancy Cummings on May 4, 1840, in Waterford, Virginia. Three children were born to the couple, and two of their children didn't survive past infancy. Robert W. Grigsby (1843-1902) was the firstborn, followed by Mary Grigsby (born 1847), who died at age one in April 1849 and Florence Grigsby (born in March 1852) died aged nine months on December 31, 1852. A small notice on the Ancestry.com website mentions that Grigsby and his wife resettled in Zanesville (located in Muskingum County, Ohio) in either 1840 or 1841 and resided here for the remainder of their lives.

   Little could be found about Grigsby and his early years in Zanesville. One interesting piece of information centering on his early Zanesville residency was brought to my attention by Jim Geyer in one of the earlier mentioned e-mails. In 1852 Grigsby was named as the Treasurer of the newly formed Star Hose Company, one of a few volunteer fire stations that existed in Zanesville during the mid 19th century. The passage below mentioning Grigsby was found in the History of Muskingum County, Ohio, published in 1882.

  In the year that he was named treasurer of the aforementioned fire company (1852), Grigsby was named to his first political office, that of city councilman for Zanesville. He was one of ten new councilmen elected that year and The History of Muskingum County lists him as such but somehow manages to misspell his last name as Grisby.

   On April 6, 1857, Epaminondas L. Grigsby was elected as Mayor of Zanesville and served one two-year term. A passage mentioning Grigsby's tenure as mayor is located in the History of Muskingum County and has been posted below. If one looks closely at the following passage, you'll see the name of Lewis Grigsby listed in the Assessors section. This may be Epaminondas' father, who died in Zanesville in August 1862 at age 79. 

  Little else could be found on Grigsby's life following his stint as mayor. He is recorded as a founding member (and later treasurer) of the Howard Encampment, No. 79 of the local Odd Fellows lodge in 1858, and is mentioned as a cigar manufacturer. Little is known of Grigsby's cigar business, though a 2002 Zanesville Times Recorder notice details he was still active in their manufacture in 1875, with production totaling 270,300. In 1868 he represented Muskingum County at the Firemen's State Convention held in Columbus and was named vice president by the committee of Permanent Organization.

  Epaminondas Ludwell Grigsby died shortly before his 78th birthday on January 11, 1893, in Zanesville. He was subsequently buried in the Greenwood Cemetery in Zanesville next to his wife Nancy, who predeceased him in 1888 at age 68. Also interred in this cemetery are Epaminondas's son Robert, two infant daughters, father, and brother James Nathaniel (1817-1906). Epaminondas's mother Hannah (who died in 1825 and was Lewis Grigsby's first wife) is believed to be buried in Virginia, as no record exists of her being interred in the Greenwood Cemetery.