Early Giles Resident
Mecca Orange Lawrence

Navarro County Woman Friend of Early Prominent Texans.

CORSICANA, Texas, Feb. 18. Mrs. Mecca Orange Lawrence, 93 years old, died at her home four miles north of Dawson, Navarro County, Wednesday morning at 2 o'clock. The funeral will be held Thursday afternoon at 2 o'clock with burial in the family cemetery on the homestead.

Mrs. Lawrence was born in Tennessee in 1831 and came to Texas with her father, David McCandless, when a child, and settled at the old Nashville settlement on Brazos River, in what is known as Milam County. Mrs. Lawrence's father was appointed Associate Commissioner of the Board of Land Commissioners on December 19, 1837, and his appointment was signed by Sam Houston, President of the Republic of Texas. Among the prominent men in the early history of Texas who were personal friends of Mrs. Lawrence were Sam Houston, Deaf Smith, George B. Erath, Big-Foot Wallace, Gen. Walter P. Lane, Ben and Henry McCulloch, John McLennan and others.

In 1849 Miss McCandless was married to J. T. Lawrence, who died many years ago. The following children survive: John, Billie, Jim and George Lawrence, Mrs. Fannie Sowell and Miss Carrie Lawrence of Dawson and Mrs. A. E. Savage of Hubbard. Many grandchildren and great-grand-children survive. Mrs. W. B. Waddell of Corsicana is a granddaughter.

Mrs. Lawrence was in Navarro County when the Indians were troublesome. She often said she remembered Waco as a small Indian Village. That she remembered the men passing her home on their way to a point west of the present town of Dawson to bury the victims who fell in a fierce encounter with the Indians. That was in 1836.

Mrs. Lawrence was one of the oldest, if not the oldest, pioneers of Navarro County. She inherited her large farm on Richland Creek from her father, who secured the land from the Government in the early days of Texas history. For sixty-five years or more she had been a reader of The Dallas News and The Galveston News.

[Clipping from the Harlee Collection, copied from "Papers Concerning Robertson's Colony in Texas vol XIII]