Amos A. Lawrence
{{short description|Abolitionist}}
{{for|his father, the merchant|Amos Lawrence}}
{{Use mdy dates|date=March 2023}}
{{Infobox person
| image = Amos Adams Lawrence.jpg
| caption = Amos A. Lawrence seated at desk, {{circa|1880}}
| birth_name = Amos Adams Lawrence
| birth_date = {{Birth date|1814|07|31}}
| birth_place = Groton, Massachusetts, US
| death_date = {{Death date and age|1886|08|22|1814|07|31}}
| death_place = Nahant, Massachusetts, US
| death_cause =
| resting_place =
| known_for = Privately donating funds to the founding of the University of Kansas
anti-slavery movement
Jayhawker movement
| education = Groton Academy (now called Lawrence Academy)
| alma_mater = Harvard College
| party = Whig
American (1858)
Constitutional Union (1860)
Republican
| occupation = Merchant, abolitionist
| spouse = {{marriage|Sarah Appleton|1842}}
| children = 4, including William and Harriet
| parents = Amos Lawrence
| relatives = Samuel Lawrence (grandfather)
Luther Lawrence (uncle)
Abbott Lawrence (uncle)
Jane Pierce (cousin)
| signature = Signature of Amos Adams Lawrence (1814–1886).png
}}
Amos Adams Lawrence (July 31, 1814{{snd}}August 22, 1886) was an American businessman, philanthropist, and social activist. He was a key figure in the United States abolitionist movement in the years leading up to the Civil War and the growth of the Episcopal Church in Massachusetts. He was instrumental in the establishment of the University of Kansas and Lawrence University in Appleton, Wisconsin.
Early life
Lawrence was born in Boston, Massachusetts on July 31, 1814.Lawrence, William Richards (ed.). 1855. Extracts from the Diary and Correspondence of the Late Amos Lawrence. Boston: Gould & Lincoln, p. 15.{{cite news|title=Amos Lawrence Dead|url=https://www.newspapers.com/clip/3889272/amos_adams_lawrence_18141886/|newspaper=Lawrence Daily Journal|date=August 24, 1886|page=1|via = Newspapers.com|accessdate =December 26, 2015 }} {{Open access}}Lee, Laura (ed.). 2001. The Name's Familiar II. Gretna: Pelican, p. 208. His father, Amos Lawrence, was a merchant, philanthropist, and member of the prominent Lawrence family.
He was educated at Groton Academy and was graduated at Harvard College in 1835.{{cite book|last1=Hunt, A.N.|first1=Freeman|title=Lives of American Merchants, Vol. II|date=1858|publisher=Derby & Jackson|location=New York|pages=223–386|url=https://books.google.com/books?id=A7YmR230yAkC|accessdate=March 16, 2018}}
Career
Following his graduation from Harvard, Lawrence entered business for himself as a commission merchant and eventually became owner of Ipswich Mills, the largest producer of knit goods in the country.{{citation needed|date=April 2018}}
In 1858 and 1860, he was a candidate for governor of Massachusetts.
=Philanthropy=
Lawrence financed the founding of the University of Kansas in Lawrence, Kansas, which was named after him.
In 1847, he founded a college that is today Lawrence University on {{convert|5000|acre|km2|0}} of land that he had purchased in 1844 in the Fox River Valley. Some of the land he purchased became Appleton, Wisconsin, named for his father-in-law.
His farm outside of Boston became the campus for Boston College. From 1857 to 1862 he was treasurer of Harvard College, and from 1879 to 1885 an overseer. Lawrence also contributed large sums of money to Harvard, the Episcopal Theological School in Cambridge, Massachusetts, Lawrence Academy, and the Groton School.
=Abolitionism and the Civil War=
Lawrence credited the Anthony Burns affair in the spring of 1854 with radicalizing him and other cotton merchants on the issue of slavery: "[W]e went to bed one night old fashioned, conservative, Compromise Union Whigs & waked up stark mad Abolitionists."James M. McPherson. Battle Cry of Freedom: The Civil War Era. New York: Bantam Books, 1989, p. 120.
Lawrence contributed large amounts of capital to the Massachusetts Emigrant Aid Company and funds for the colonization of free negroes in Liberia. He donated guns, specifically Sharps rifles, which were shipped to Jayhawkers and abolitionists in Kansas as "books" and "primers." During the bloodshed in Kansas, Lawrence wrote frequently to President Franklin Pierce, the husband of Lawrence's cousin Jane, on behalf of the free-state settlers.
He also provided funds for the activism and legal defense of John Brown, though he deplored Brown's fanaticism and urged against violent resistance to the federal government. When Brown was arrested at Harpers Ferry, Lawrence appealed to the Governor of Virginia to secure a lawful trial.
In 1862, he raised a battalion of cavalry which became the 2nd Massachusetts Cavalry, of which Charles Russell Lowell was colonel.{{EB1911|inline=y|wstitle=Lawrence, Amos Adams|volume=1|page=305}}
Personal life
In 1842, Lawrence married Sarah Elizabeth Appleton, daughter of U.S. Representative William Appleton and Mary Ann (née Cutler) Appleton.{{cite web|url=https://www.masshist.org/collection-guides/view/fa0165|title=Amos Adams Lawrence Diaries and Account Books|publisher=Massachusetts Historical Society|accessdate=January 24, 2021}} They had the following children:
- Maryanne Appleton Lawrence (1843-1882), m. Robert Amory (1842-1910)
- Amory Appleton Lawrence (1848–1912){{cite book|last1=Foster|first1=E. Everton|title=Lamb's Textile Industries of the United States: Embracing Biographical Sketches of Prominent Men and a Historical Resume of the Progress of Textile Manufacture from the Earliest Records to the Present Time|date=1916|publisher=James H. Lamb|page=275|url=https://books.google.com/books?id=fq4yAQAAMAAJ|accessdate=21 April 2018|language=en}}
- William Lawrence (1850–1941), who became the Bishop of Massachusetts.{{cite news|title=Dr. Lawrence Dies; Bishop Emeritus |url=https://www.nytimes.com/1941/11/07/archives/gel-lawrence-dies-bishop-emeritus-i-successor-to-phihips-brooks-as.html|accessdate=March 15, 2018|newspaper=The New York Times|date=November 7, 1941 |url-access=subscription}}
- Susan Mason Lawrence (1852–1923)
- Harriet Lawrence Hemenway (1858-1960), who became a co-founder of the Massachusetts Audubon Society.
=Descendants=
Through his son William, Lawrence was the grandfather of William Appleton Lawrence (1889–1968), who was elected third Bishop of the Episcopal Diocese of Western Massachusetts,{{cite news|title=William Lawrence, Retired Bishop, 79|url=https://www.nytimes.com/1969/01/06/archives/william-lawrence-retired-bishop-79.html|accessdate=March 15, 2018|newspaper=The New York Times|date=January 6, 1969 |url-access=subscription}} and Frederic Cunningham Lawrence (1899–1989), a suffragan bishop of the Episcopal Diocese of Massachusetts.
Death and legacy
He died at his summer resort in Nahant, Massachusetts, in 1886.
=Legacy=
Lawrence is credited with founding an Episcopal church in Boston, Massachusetts, which prompted many Boston Brahmins to convert from Unitarianism.{{citation needed|date=April 2018}} His son, William Lawrence, became the long-time Bishop of the Episcopal Church in Massachusetts.
His alma mater, Groton Academy was later renamed after him. Today, it is the Lawrence Academy at Groton.
Notes
{{reflist|30em}}
References
- [https://web.archive.org/web/20111007055126/http://www.lawrencetownie.com/basics/lawrence_history.html Lawrence Townie history]
- [https://web.archive.org/web/20090107064708/http://www.cottagefarmbrookline.org/history.html History of Cottage Farm, Brookline]
- Lawrence, William (1888). Life of Amos A. Lawrence, with Extracts from his Diary and Correspondence. Boston.
- {{Cite Appletons'|wstitle=Lawrence, Amos|year=1892}}
- {{Cite Americana|wstitle=Lawrence, Amos Adams}}
{{Lawrence University}}
{{Authority control}}
{{s-start}}
{{s-ppo}}
{{s-bef|before=Henry Gardner}}
{{s-ttl|title=Know Nothing nominee for Governor of Massachusetts|years=1858}}
{{s-aft|after=George N. Briggs}}
{{s-new|first}}
{{s-ttl|title=Constitutional Union nominee for Governor of Massachusetts|years=1860}}
{{s-aft|after=None}}
{{s-end}}
{{DEFAULTSORT:Lawrence, Amos Adams}}
Category:19th-century American Episcopalians
Category:Harvard College alumni
Category:Politicians from Appleton, Wisconsin
Category:People of Massachusetts in the American Civil War
Category:People from Groton, Massachusetts
Category:University of Kansas people
Category:19th-century American philanthropists