Lawrence

City in northeastern Massachusetts, USA, on the Merrimack River; seat of Essex County; population (2000) 72,000. Lawrence is one of USA's most notable historic industrial cities, one of a line of industrial towns that grew up along the Merrimack Valley in the 1840s, and which used the water power of the Merrimack Rapids to drive the mills in which textiles and leather goods were made. Current industries include textiles, clothing, shoes, paper, computers, and radio equipment. Lawrence was incorporated as a city in 1853.

Lawrence was founded in 1845 on a site first settled by Europeans in 1655. At their peak, Lawrence's mills were producing 1,300 km/800 mi of cloth per day. When the New England cotton industry declined, Lawrence first switched to woollens and then expanded to manufacture other products, with many old mills being adapted to new uses.

Lawrence's industries attracted a wide variety of immigrants: Irish, French Canadians, English, Germans, Italians, Poles, Lithuanians, Syrians, Puerto Ricans, Dominicans, Vietnamese, and Cambodians. It has a large Latino population. The Lawrence Heritage State Park celebrates immigrant life, and the city has 17 entries on the national register of historic places, including the Great Stone Dam.

Lawrence

City in northeastern Kansas, USA, on the Kansas River between Topeka to the west and Kansas City to the east; seat of Douglas County; population (1992) 67,800. It is the centre of a rich grain-producing region; its main industries are food processing and chemicals.

Lawrence was founded in 1854 by antislavery campaigners, who wanted to make Kansas a non-slavery state; it was incorporated in 1858.

Lawrence was terrorized by ‘Quantrill's Raiders’ – Confederate guerrillas led by William Quantrill – in 1863. The city's economy grew stronger again with the coming of the railway in 1864 and the establishment of the University of Kansas in 1866.