Amil G. Lawrence, BiographyPorter County biographical sketches . . . .
Transcribed biography of Amil G. Lawrence
AMIL G. LAWRENCE. The life of the agriculturist is largely devoid of those stirring incidents which so frequently enter into the lives or those men striving for supremacy in a commercial career or of those of the professions competing for a standing above their fellows, but universal the recognition given to the farmer as the most important of all factors that enter into the economic life of any state or nation. A worthy representative of this class of valuable citizens in Porter county is Amil G. Lawrence, whose farm is located in Washington township of this county.
Mr. Lawrence comes immediately of sturdy German ancestry by both paternal and maternal descent, but is himself American born, a native of LaPorte county, Indiana, where his birth occurred on April 5, 1869. He is the eldest of three sons and four daughters born to Julius and Matilda (Kreiger) Lawrence. They are all living (1912) and are as follows: Amil A., of this review; John A., who resides on the home place in Washington township; Joanna, now Mrs. Charles W. Mann, of South Bend, Indiana; Frederick W., a farmer in Washington township, this county; Mary, the wife of James Harding, of South Bend, Indiana; Bertha and Augusta, both of whom reside at the old home in Porter county. Julius Lawrence, the father, was born in Prussia, Germany, about 1834. He is still living, and resides on the farm in Washington township, Porter county, which has been his home for many years. He was reared to young manhood in his native land, but in 1860 the call of the opportunities to be found in the newer and free land of America enticed him from the Fatherland. He bade adieu to his old home and the friends of his youth and left the German shores in a sailing vessel, which, after weeks of voyage, finally reached port at Baltimore, Maryland. From there he came to LaPorte county, Indiana, but about 1879 or 1880 he removed into Washington township, Porter county, where he has since maintained his home. In political views he is a Democrat, and in church membership is affiliated with the German Evangelical denomination. Matilda Kreiger Lawrence, born in Germany about 1837, died at the old Porter county homestead on September 6, 1902. She was a Catholic in religious faith.
Amil G. Lawrence was about ten years of age when the parental home became established in Porter county, was reared a farmer boy, and received the usual common school education. He was married on April 3, 1894, to Miss Ida M. Breitzke, and in 1895 he and his young wife located on their present farmstead of fifty-five acres, which they purchased in that year and for which they went in debt. With willing hands and by dint of unremitting industry and frugality they redeemed every financial obligation and besides placed good improvements upon their land and made of it an excellent farm. Today they have a comfortable home and one which they can call wholly their own. They have recently purchased seventy-eight acres of good land in Morgan township, and their estate now comprises one hundred and thirty-eight acres of land, all in Porter county, Indiana.
Mrs. Lawrence, the daughter of Martin and Augusta Breitzke and the second of their twelve children, was born in Germany on October 1, 1875, and both of her parents were natives of the Fatherland. Of this large family ten children are living and most of them are residents of Porter county. Martin Breitzke, the father of Mrs. Lawrence, was reared to manhood in Germany and was married there before immigating to America. He served his allotted period in the German army and while under military discipline frequently saw the great German field marshal Count von Moltke and the "Iron Chancellor" Bismarck. Upon coming to the United States he located first in LaPorte county, Indiana, but later in Morgan township, Porter county, where he has followed farming attended by the usual prosperity of the German, and is there owner of nearly four hundred acres of good land. In politics he is a Republican. Mrs. Breitzke is also a native of Germany, and both are members of the Evangelical church.
The union of Mr. and Mrs. Lawrence has been blessed with three children, two sons and one daughter, whom both parents are encouraging to obtain a thorough and practical education and whom they intend to provide with the best facilities for such acquirements. Frederick W. Lawrence, the elder son, has graduated from the common schools and expects to become an agriculturist; Edwin Lawrence, the second son, is now a pupil in the sixth grade of the public schools; and Bertha, the only daughter and the youngest of the family, is a pupil in the third grade.
Politically Mr. Lawrence affiliates with the Democratic party and cast his first presidential vote for Grover Cleveland. He and his wife are both members of the German Evangelical church at Wanatah, of which Mr. Lawrence has been a trustee for years. They also contributed liberally toward the erection of the present church edifice of that denomination in Wanatah. In Washington township, where they are best known, Mr. and Mrs. Lawrence are held in the highest esteem as citizens of strict honor and integrity, people of that character whom any community would welcome to its fold, and we are pleased to give herein a permanent record of their worth and standing, which to their children and descendants may in future years be a source of inspiration for useful and upright living.
Source: Lewis Publishing Company. 1912. History of Porter County, Indiana: A Narrative Account of its Historical Progress, its People and its Principal Interests. Chicago, Illinois: Lewis Publishing Company. 881 p.
Page(s) in Source: 538-543
This biography has been transcribed exactly as it was originally published in the source. Please note that we do not provide photocopies or digital scans of biographies appearing on this website.
Biography transcribed by Steven R. Shook