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- . Henry Peter Lawrence was born at the Lawrence Avenue farm & moved in 1873 to Watford where he work at the saw mill with his father Jacob & brother William. In 1875 he added a planning mill & then made staves & a heading milling. Additional staves were manufactured at Sutorville, Kingscourt & Warwick, Ontario. After the death of Jacob, the lumbering company was renamed M.A. Lawrence, after their mother.
. Henry was a discrete & generous family man. On December 26, 1902 Henry was taking a train home from Chatham when the train was wrecked at Wanstead, within sight of his former mill.
. 1906 - Henry P Lawrence, Long family bio. 1875 add a planing mill later destroyed by fire, & again rebuilt, later added a saw, stave & heading mill,. Wm. F continued the business & remove to Sarnia.
Commemorative biographical record of Co Lambton, Ont.
. Mr. Lawrence s early education was received at the place of his birth, Eglinton, Ontario. His business career really commenced at Wanstead, where he engaged in a saw-mill business with his father & his brother, William. In 1873 they settled at Watford & 2 years later added to the enterprises a planing mill, & still later a stave & heading mill. They also established stave & heading mills at Sutorville, Kingscourt & Warwick. After the death of Mr. Lawrence in 1902 the firm of Jacob Lawrence & Sons was dissolved & the Watford branch of the business was conducted under the firm name of M. A. Lawrence, the widow of Mr. Lawrence, in trust for the 2 youngest sons.
Mr. Lawrence was a man well fitted for extensive enterprises & became widely known in his line, though this was the result of his personality & not of any especial effort on his part. From the time he settled in Watford he took an active part in municipal affairs, serving at different times as a member of the Town & County Councils & as Reeve of Watford. He never thrust himself forward, but being an able man was looked to for many things & always proved himself worthy of any trust reposed in him. In private life as in public matters he was always a helpful friend, & while he did his duty to the full extent of his powers, he was never ostentatious or anxious to have his kindness known to any but the recipient. A public benefactor in the best sense, he was an ardent believer in temperance reform & took an active interest in the Referendum campaign, not long before his death.
. 1902 December 26, he had been at Chatham, Ontario, & had returned to spend a few hours with his family, leaving later on the train for Sarnia. The train was wrecked at Wanstead & he met death within sight of the place where he had made his first start in life. Being a most devoted family man, his death was indeed a sad loss to his wife & family & many marks of sympathy told of the high respect in which he was held by his neighbors.
. OPERATOR'S ERROR COST TWENTY-EIGHT LIVES; Flying Passenger Train Crashed Into Freight Train in Ontario. Thirty-five Persons Who Were Injured Suffered Terribly from Exposure. London, Ontario. Dec. 27 One of the most frightful railway disaster in the history of Canada occurred at 10.10 o'clock last night near Wanstead, a station on the Sarnia Branch of the Grand Trunk, 40 m. form this city, when Express No. 5, known as the Pacific Express, flying westward at the rate of 50 m/hr. & crowded to its capacity with passengers returning to their homes from holiday visits, crashed into an east-bound fright that was endeavoring to make a siding to get clear of the express, but failed ay a minute or two....est. 28 killed , 35 injured: dead: awrence, H P Watford, Ontario ...The darkness of night & the raging of a blizzard added honours of the wreck Last night it was delayed 2 hours by the heavy travel, & at Wanstead it was speeding to make up time....In the blinding snowstorm neither engineer saw the other train approaching. ... instead of receiving the duplicate order, the conductor of the express received a clearance order, telling him to run right through.
The telegraph operator at Wanstead heard the telegraph instrument click the message "Stop No. 5, Stop No. 5." Seizing a lantern the Wanstead operator dashed for the door & as he closed it behind him, he heard the awful crash of the collision half a mile up the track.
Ref: NY Times Newspaper dated 1902 Dec 28., Sunday. - - - [1]
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1849 - 1902 (53 years)