Lawrence County, a place of wooded Ozark hills and fertile prairies, was organized in 1845 and named for Captain James Lawrence of “Don’t give up the ship” fame. The first settler, John Williams, located on Turnback Creek in 1831, though others with him turned back in discouragement. Southerners, later pioneers from other sections, and Germans, Swedes, and Waldensians settled the county. Mount Vernon, the county seat, was platted by J.A. Allen in 1845, and one of the first state tubercular hospitals west of the Mississippi was founded there in 1905. Early schools included White Oak Academy near Verona in the 1840’s, the Collegiate Institute at Marionville in the 1870’s, which later became Ozark Wesleyan at Carthage, Christian College and a Presbyterian Academy at Mount Vernon, and Baptist College at Pierce City in the 1880’s. During the war years from 1861 to 1865, guerrilla bands and troops foraged the area, and Mount Vernon was a Union post. With the coming of Frisco Railroad in 1870 and Missouri Pacific in 1907, along with expanding agriculture and the growth of zinc and mining, the county’s population rose from 13,067 in 1870 to 31,662 by 1910. A dairy, livestock, grain, and fruit area, Lawrence County was once a leading lead and zinc producer. Lead discovered at Aurora in the mid-1880’s made it a roaring mining camp by 1890; founded in 1870 and now on two railroads, Aurora became the county’s largest town. Mining was also carried on in Verona, Stotts City, and Pierce City, which was founded in 1870 and became an early railroad division point that produces lime. Near Mount Vernon stands the so-called Spanish Fort built by prehistoric tribes. Indians roamed the area, which was part of the Osage land cession, into the 1830’s. Near Verona are the site of what is said to be the first Sunday School in the western Ozarks, founded in 1840 by J.M. White, along with the spring forming Spring River and Red Mill. At Pierce City, the Harold Bell Wright Library occupies an 1873 building where he was once pastor. The county also includes Chesapeake State Fish Hatchery and park. Agricultural scientist and educator William Jasper Spillman and soil expert, educator, and geologist Curtis Fletcher Marbut were born in Lawrence County, and M.T. Davis, commissioner to the 1904 Louisiana Purchase Centennial Exposition, lived in Aurora.