Lawrenceburg Tennessee, 38464

Lawrenceburg, TN (see map below) lies southwest of Nashville, TN, by approximately 81 miles. An approximately equal distance to the southeast is Huntsville, AL. 45 minutes directly south is the Florence, AL area.

Lawrenceburg has a long history. Its most famous early resident (though he moved on, of course) was Davy Crockett, the frontiersman. He owned and operated a grist mill on Shoal Creek, the town's water source and the natural border for the "Davy Crockett State Park" a Tennessee state operated park that is both peaceful and beautiful. In the evening deer are easily observed there.

A variety of peoples have migrated to Lawrence County over the years. At one time the largest areas of the county were in the south and west called Iron City and West Point. They were once "boom" towns due to their iron ore.

Norwegians, German Catholics from Prussia, and German Anabaptists (Church of the Brethren) migrated here at one time or another after the first Scots-Irish residents. A small African American population still resides here as well from workers who came to work in the mining areas as free men I suppose. Plantations associated with slavery before the Civil War are only north of here.

After World War II, Lawrenceburg, like other small Southern rural towns, was one of the first places formerly northern businesses "outsourced" to. The "Murray Ohio" corporation relocated its manufacturing plant within the city limits and it's headquarters to nearby Brentwood, TN, a well to do Nashville suburb approximately 75 miles away. Executives commuted by helicopter, quite a site still in this area where helicopter travel is usually limited to police, military, or air ambulance travel.

Like many other Southern towns, agriculture (cotton, of course) and textile factories where women earned their living by hand sewn piece work rounded out the economic base.

But by 2005 all these industries economic sectors were no more and the town and county have labored to see a new economic base develop. County unemployment (Lawrence County TN) has hovered well above 10% for many years and at the time of this writing is approximately 13%. This author personally know people laid off from Murray in 2005 who are still, years later, seeking a position with similar stability and pay. Many people involved in the Murray layoff had been there 30 years and had never known another employer!

It's not that the plant was inefficient even by today's standards of "globalization" where American workers making $13 per hour are judged in relation to Chinese workers making 56 cents per hour. No, the local Murray workers beat all comers, hands down. These workers though were done in by the "wheeler dealer" class. Shady financial dealings allegedly were uncovered in another entity owned by the same corporate umbrella and cash flow was halted to even the highly productive Lawrenceburg plant. You can guess this story's headline: "Slimeball corporate executives who've probably never been to Lawrenceburg play fast and loose - get Golden Parachutes as company implodes. Production workers pay the price."

The textile factories were gone well before - 2001. One lingers in the next county as a testimony to Federal Government policies requiring US made uniforms for military personnel. It becomes harder and harder to find qualified workers for that facility.

The Davy Crockett statue pictured above is on the Lawrenceburg Town Square. In a fit of modernization, the "Leadership" of the county moved the county courthouse away from the square. That insured that the town center has continued to suffer economic attrition. Wiser surrounding counties kept their courthouse on the square and have suffered less as a result.

As late as 1975 there still was no such thing as a "McDonalds" in the small burg, though now the town "boasts" its own McDonalds, Wendy's, Taco Bell, and Dairy Queen franchises if, indeed, one considers them something to boast about.

One area that drives some economic benefit to the county as a whole is an Amish country that is borders north of Lawrenceburg in Ethridge. This community gives a glimpse at what small family farm life might have looked like in a by gone era. Today, Lawrenceburg locals and visitors from many destinations do business with the Amish. Locals tend to purchase produce as much as anything else. Visitors from afar, who may purchase produce, are probably more likely to purchase baked goods, hand crafted items, and even order furniture. Some of the Amish families even operate their own lumber mills producing wood products for home construction. They sell the waste products "slab wood" in irregular sizes to those seeking inexpensive wood for heating.

In Lawrenceburg TN, churches dot the landscape profusely. Literally hundreds of congregations exist in the county alone. The primary "flavor" of these churches is Baptist, Methodist, or "Church of Christ". Most denominations are represented within the county except for Lutherans and Eastern Orthodox. Regardless of the "brand name" there is a common subset of beliefs - the authority of Holy Scripture, the Trinity, salvation by grace alone, and the importance of a personal religious experience.

There are not, thus far, any synagogues, mosques, or religious buildings associated with other world religions.

One interesting part of the towns religious history is that we are, arguably, the "home of Southern Gospel music". The Vaughan museum at the top of SunTrust bank on the town square tells this history of Mr. Vaughan's singing groups sent far and wide from Lawrenceburg to spread that form of music. Southern Gospel singings still are popular today throughout the area.

The State of Tennessee at one point included Lawrenceburg and Lawrence County in it's "Retire Tennessee" program. It's no longer listed in that program, perhaps because most of the residents see our future in rebuilding an economic base to promote residency here by families, not just retirees. Still many migrate here from high tax and expensive real estate areas. Their cash from the sale of a home elsewhere purchases a home here and may provide a good nest egg. That's important because there are not many jobs to be had here, unless one brings his own job of course.

Once a frontier, we are, in a sense, facing a new frontier. We are a people dedicated to rebuilding an economic base and again carving out a thriving existence from a new form of wilderness.

We hope to see you visit some time.