Lawrence, Illinois

16 topographic sheets cover this place, the earliest surveyed in 1932 and the latest in 1981. It stands in Chemung Township. It lies in ZIP code area 60033. The Survey maps it on the Capron quadrangle. 220 people lived here at the 2020 count. It stands 906 feet above sea level.

Lawrence within McHenry County

Topographic sheets covering this place

9 surveys from 16 printed sheets

Matched by testing this settlement's coordinate against the published boundary of every sheet in the United States Geological Survey's historical collection. Each opens the scanned sheet at the Survey.

1932 USGS Harvard quadrangle1:62500, 2 printings
1932 USGS Harvard quadrangle1:48000
1937 USGS Harvard quadrangle1:62500, 2 printings
1954 USGS Rockford quadrangle1:250000
1955 USGS Rockford quadrangle1:250000
1958 USGS Rockford quadrangle1:250000, 4 printings
1963 USGS Rockford quadrangle1:250000
1970 USGS Capron quadrangle1:24000, 3 printings
1981 USGS Elgin quadrangle1:100000

In the county-history sources

37,091 words on this township

History of McHenry County, Illinois : Together with Sketches of Its Cities, Villages and Towns : Educational, Religious, Civil, Military, and Political History : Portraits of Prominent Persons, and Biographies of Representative Citizens, Also a Condensed History of Illinois .., published 1885 names this settlement in its chapter on Chemung Township. These are the passages that mention it, exactly as the scans read.

At the village of Chemung is to be found one of the oldest burying grounds in the county, but it is seldom that a burial takes place there now; the grounds have become forsaken, both in fact and appearance; the new grounds in the same village, but situated in Dunham Township, are being used instead of the old. A small burying ground was laid at Lawrence about the time the town was laid out.

Passage source: History of McHenry County, Illinois : Together with Sketches of Its Cities, Villages and Towns : Educational, Religious, Civil, Military, and Political History : Portraits of Prominent Persons, and Biographies of Representative Citizens, Also a Condensed History of Illinois .., published 1885.

The township officers chosen at the first election, held April 2, 1850, were as follows: J. C. Thompson, Supervisor; Edwin Hurlburt, Clerk; Lawrence Bigs by, Assessor; fm. G. Billings , Collector; A. Southerland and Asa Pease, Justices of Peace; fm. G. Billings and Chas. C. Merrick, Constables; Barrows Wilkinson, Orrin Burr and ¥m. Newman, Commissioners of Highways; Seth Johnson, Overseer of the Poor.

In another portion of this work will be found a full account of this destroyer of human life and property, hence we will here speak of only a few points along its track and note some of its queer freaks. A fourteen-year-old son of John Massas, while attempting to reach the house, was thrown against a reaping machine and badly mangled. A hay barn belonging to C. Ruggles was taken away entire, not leaving scarcely anything behind to show that a barn had once been there. At Lawrence a barn was blown down in which stood a cow. She was afterward dujj out of the rubbish and found to be unharmed. The depot at Lawrence lost its roof and east side. Dr. Clark's store received considerable damage. On the farm of Patrick Kennedy stood a fine orchard which was swept away root and branch. The out-buildings were blown against the house with such force that it went down in the twinkling of an eye. John McGuirk, who sought refuge in the cellar, was instantly killed. Here the monster bounded into the air as if frightened at its last desperate act, and did not return to the earth again till it had traveled a distance of about three miles, where it again resumed its work of destruction and death. The premises of Fred Battlings were entirely destroyed and his hired hand, Charles Stull, was instantly killed. It continued in its work of destruction till it passed out of the State into Wisconsin, where its ravages were only equaled by those in this county. In its course it utterly destroyed the school-house in District No. 3, Alden

Machine-read from a century-old scan, so expect the errors a machine makes: misspelled names, dropped words, stray characters.

Read the whole chapter on Chemung Township - it names this place 19 more 19 times.

Fires near this place

5 since 2015

Regional context, not property-specific evidence. The federal wildfire occurrence database lists 5 fires within 5 miles of Lawrence in 2015, burning about 20 acres in total. None started naturally. None was recorded as arson. Distance is straight-line from the map coordinates, so a fire counted here may appear on a neighbouring settlement's page as well.

Reported cause	Fires
Debris and open burning	5

The most recent of them, most recent first, with the day each was reported and the service that recorded it.

Date	Cause	Size	Reported by	Name on the report
4 April 2015	Debris and open burning	4.0 acres	Illinois Division of Forestry Resources	15-282
28 April 2015	Debris and open burning	10 acres	Illinois Division of Forestry Resources	15-382
26 April 2015	Debris and open burning	1.0 acres	Illinois Division of Forestry Resources	15-245
14 April 2015	Debris and open burning	1.0 acres	Illinois Division of Forestry Resources	15-334
31 March 2015	Debris and open burning	4.0 acres	Illinois Division of Forestry Resources	15-265

Settlements close enough to share some of these fires:

Every fire recorded in McHenry County

Mines and quarries near this place

2 within 5 miles

Regional context, not property-specific evidence. The federal mineral resources record lists 2 workings within 5 miles of Lawrence: 1 past producer, 1 producer. 1 still produces. What was taken out: Sand and Gravel, Construction. Distance is straight-line from the map coordinates, so a quarry counted here may appear on a neighbouring settlement's page as well.

Where	Site	Commodity	Status	Recorded
	Harvard Pit & Mill	Sand and Gravel, Construction	Producer
	Mchenry Pit	Sand and Gravel, Construction	Past Producer

Every working recorded in McHenry County

Storms near this place

3 since 2008

Regional context, not property-specific evidence. The National Weather Service names Lawrence in 3 storm reports between 2008 and 2021: 2 thunderstorm wind, 1 tornado. No death or injury is recorded in these reports. Each account below is quoted exactly as the forecast office filed it, from the NOAA Storm Events Database, and each date opens the federal record of that event.

When	Event	Place named	Harm	What the report says
June 2008	Thunderstorm Wind	Lawrence	$25,000	A barn was blown down with debris scattered across Lawrence Road. A 2-by-4 was stuck in the ground like a spear.
August 2021	Thunderstorm Wind	Lawrence	-	A private weather station measured a wind gust to 60 mph near Lawrence Road and Maxon Road.
July 2015	Tornado (EF0)	Lawrence	-	An emergency manager spotted a brief tornado that caused minor tree damage near Route 14 and Oak Grove Road. Maximum winds were estimated to 70 mph.

Every storm recorded in McHenry County

Nearest settlements

The eight closest, with where each one stands in the county. Distances are straight-line, computed from the Geographic Names Information System coordinates.

Place	Distance	Sheets
Harvard	2.0 miles	15
Chemung	2.2 miles	16
Big Foot Prairie	4.3 miles	15
Alden	6.7 miles	15
Hartland	8.9 miles	15
Hebron	11.3 miles	17
Armsby (historical)	12.4 miles	17
Franklinville	13.3 miles	15

Elsewhere

Matched on this settlement's Geographic Names Information System number rather than its name, so it cannot be a different place of the same name in another state.

Wikipedia article on Lawrence	An encyclopaedic summary. Its text is share-alike, so it is linked here rather than copied.
Wikidata item Q6503747	The structured record the population and elevation above come from. Public domain (CC0).

Provenance

This settlement is recorded in the Geographic Names Information System as feature 411867. The sheet list is computed by point-in-boundary test against the United States Geological Survey's historical topographic inventory. Both are works of the United States government and carry no copyright under 17 U.S.C. 105.

Wildfire. Short, Karen C. 2022. Spatial wildfire occurrence data for the United States, 1992-2020 [FPA_FOD_20221014]. 6th Edition. Fort Collins, CO: Forest Service Research Data Archive. https://doi.org/10.2737/RDS-2013-0009.6 Collected with United States Government funding and usable without additional permissions or fees.

Mines and quarries. USGS Mineral Resources Data System (MRDS) https://mrdata.usgs.gov/mrds/ A work of the United States government, no copyright under 17 U.S.C. 105.

Storms. NOAA National Centers for Environmental Information, Storm Events Database https://www.ncei.noaa.gov/stormevents/ A work of the United States government, no copyright under 17 U.S.C. 105. Narratives are quoted verbatim from the National Weather Service report and are not edited or summarised.