Hollie M. Lawrence

As a manufacturer and finisher of lumber Hollie M. Lawrence has for many years been identified with the lumber trade of East Texas, in which region he has been known from boyhood. Alabama was the state in which earlier generations of his family lived, his paternal grandfather, Enoch Lawrence having been born in the '' Cotton Plantation State.'' He married Ann Belvin, also of Alabama, and they spent their lives and reared their family in Bibb county of the same commonwealth. The children born to Enoch and Ann Lawrence included the following: William L. (who lived to become the father of Hollie M. Lawrence); Sue, who is Mts. W. H. Graham of Franklin county, Texas; Henry Clay Lawrence, who did his part toward establishing the Confederacy in the army of the South and who has spent his life as a farmer in Franklin county, Texas: Cynthia, now the widow of A. T. Castleberry and a resident of Gregg county; John E., deceased, of Franklin county; Mrs. W. A. Rutledge, of Franklin county; Mrs. Catherine Hargrove, now deceased, of Franklin; Lodema, Mrs. J. R. Castleberry, also deceased; and Felix G., a farmer in the county where the family first made their Texas home. It is with the eldest of these that our genealogy is now concerned. William L. Lawrence married Emily J. Wooley, a daughter of George Wooley, also of Bibb county. In that same region they began their domestic life and there they reared their children through their earliest years, removing to Franklin county, Texas, in the 'fifties. Agriculture was William Lawrence's chosen vocation and he pursued that useful occupation without interruption until the outbreak of the Civil war; into its tremendous current he was speedily drawn. He remained in service with the army of the Tennessee from 1861 until 1865 and finally came out of the army with the scar of battle on his knee. He has since lived quietly among the rural scenes with which he was ever most familiar, meeting with merited success in proportion to his needs and desires, and at peace with his neighbors and his Maker. He and his family are, in church affiliation, members of the Missionary Baptist church. The children of William Lee and Emily Lawrence were Henry W., now a lumberman of Wiley, Texas; Miss Eunice L., who is Tax Collector in Upshur county; Hollie M., the Longview lumber manufacturer, who is the special subject of this sketch; Garland B., a farmer of Titus county, Texas; James D., of Gregg county; and William P., who is assistant cashier of the First National Bank of Longview.

It was while the William Lawrence family were still residents of Alabama that Hollie M. Lawrence was born, on March 25, 1848, in Bibb county. He was nine years of age at the time of his parents' removal to Texas. As he was a "son of the soil" and in a community where free labor was not common, it was necessary for him to assist his father to a considerable extent and his education was obtained, so to speak, "between hitches" at the plow. He remained a member of the parental home through the years of his minority and when he entered upon his independent career it was with only the inheritance of a strong body and an industrious habit of life. Business was his chosen sphere of activity and he entered it in a minor capacity from which he has steadily risen. Lumber dealing attracted him from the first, and for five or six years he was employed in commissary and shipping departments. Frugality and thrift made it possible for him to conserve from his earnings an amount sufficient to establish himself as a proprietor in his own right. He became a mill-owner and embarked in the manufacture of lumber. In the same year he became a partner of James R. Castleberry, one of the firm of Castleberry Brothers, with whom Mr. Lawrence had been employed several years before and in whose plant he had acquired his practical knowledge of the business. The plant of Castleberry and Lawrence was situated in Upshur county, Texas, and the firm existed until Mr. Castleberry retired, and Mr. Lawrence then continued to direct the business under the firm name of H. M. Lawrence and Company. He has operated in Gregg, Upshur and Harrison counties, with Longview as a central point. His plant, consisting of a sawmill and planer, with a capacity of twenty-five thousand daily, is situated in Marion county, and is one of the noted establishments in this section for the manufacture and finish of lumber.

Aside from his lumber concern Mr. Lawrence is interested in other commercial enterprises. He is a director of the Citizens' National Bank of Longview and is one of the charter members of the Union Trust Company, an important fiduciary concern of this city. Mr. Lawrence, has, moreover, proved himself one of the material developers of Longview, having improved considerable of the property on its townsite by erecting cottages and otherwise bringing about more desirable conditions.

The marriage of Mr. Lawrence occurred on September 2, 1903. Mrs. Lawrence was formerly Miss Lillie Shelby, a daughter of Warren and Nancy Shelby, who were of Alabama families. By their connection with the Baptist Church Mr. Lawrence and his family indicate an interest in the things that are eternal as well as in the things that are temporal..-- A History of Texas and Texans, Volume 3,  Francis White Johnson, 1914