The Encyclopedia Americana (1920)/Lawrence, Amos Adams

LAWRENCE, Amos Adams, American philanthropist: b. Boston, Mass., 31 July 1814; d. Nahant, Mass., 22 Aug. 1886. He was graduated at Harvard University in 1835, invested extensively in cotton manufactories and later became interested in various industrial corporations and banking firms. He served as an officer in various charitable institutions and was principal manager of the Emigrant Aid Association organized to aid in the colonization and maintenance of Kansas as a free State, in which connection he was associated with Eli Thayer and others in 1853-54. The town of Lawrence in Kansas was named in his honor. In the Civil War he was active in recruiting the 2d Massachusetts Cavalry regiment. He was one of the founders of Lawrence College, Appleton, Wis., and he built Lawrence Hall, the Episcopal Theological Seminary, at Cambridge.