LAWRENCE

city, Essex county, northeastern Massachusetts, U.S. It lies along the Merrimack River, 26 miles (42 km) north of Boston. The site at Bodwell's Falls (the source of abundant waterpower) was promoted for industry in 1845 by the Essex Company, formed by a group of Boston financiers that included Abbott Lawrence, for whom the town was named. In 1847 it was set off from Andover and Methuen and incorporated as a town, and it developed as one of the largest woolen-textile centres in the United States after completion of the Boston and Maine Railroad (now closed). In 1912 Lawrence was the scene of a great strike involving out-of-town militia and the Industrial Workers of the World; known as the Bread and Roses strike (owing to a banner carried by some of the striking women textile workers), it was settled when the labourers won a one-cent hourly increase. The city's industry has diversified since 1950, and its manufactures now include textiles, electronics, and computerized systems. Services and trade are also important. It is nevertheless an area of destitute families, many of them immigrants. More than one-fourth of residents live below the poverty level. Inc. city, 1853. Pop. (1990) city, 70,207; Lawrence PMSA, 353,232; (1996 est.) city, 68,807; Lawrence PMSA, 372,693. city, seat (1855) of Douglas county, eastern Kansas, U.S., on the Kansas (Kaw) River. It was founded in 1854 by antislavery radicals who had come to Kansas under the auspices of the New England Emigrant Aid Company to outvote proslavery settlers and thus make Kansas a nonslave state. The town was named for Amos A. Lawrence, a New England textile manufacturer. It was a noted station on the Underground Railroad by which slaves escaped into free territory. As a Jayhawker (Abolitionist) headquarters, the town was sacked in 1856 by proslavery militia under a former Democratic senator from Missouri, David Rice Atchison, and in 1863 by the Confederate guerrilla William Clarke Quantrill, who massacred more than 150 citizens. In 1866 the University of Kansas was opened there, and in 1884 Haskell Institute (now Haskell Indian Junior College) was established for American Indians. Baker University (1858) is in Baldwin City, 13 miles (21 km) south. Lawrence has some small factories, but it is essentially a college town. Inc. 1858. Pop. (1992 est.) city, 66,810; Lawrence MSA, 83,293. county, western Pennsylvania, U.S., bordered to the west by Ohio. It consists of a hilly region on the Allegheny Plateau that is drained by the Shenango, Mahoning, and Beaver rivers. McConnell's Mill State Park is located along Slippery Rock Creek. New Castle, the county seat, was connected to Beaver in Beaver county by the Erie Extension Canal (opened 1833). Lawrence county was created in 1849 and named for the Lawrence, Oliver Hazard Perry's flagship during the Battle of Lake Erie. New Wilmington is the home of Westminster College (founded 1852). Some other communities are Ellwood City, Bessemer, Ellport, and Wampum. The county's economy rests on services (health care and business), manufacturing (iron and steel), and mining (bituminous coal). Area 361 square miles (934 square km). Pop. (1990) 96,246; (1996 est.) 95,780.