Edward A. Lawrence Jr.

[2] From January to June, 1873, Lawrence was a tutor in German at Yale College, and on July 15, 1873, he was ordained (in St. Albans, Vermont) to the work of the ministry.

In November 1883, leaving Poughkeepsie, he accepted a call to the Plymouth Congregational Church in Syracuse, New York, and at once began his work with them, although he was not installed until January 29, 1884.

On March 23, 1886, he resigned this charge, to undertake a tour around the world for the inspection and study of missions, which occupied him until late in 1887.

[2][a] The beginnings of settlement work in Baltimore were made early in 1893, when Lawrence took up lodgings with his friend, Frank Thompson, in one of the poor districts of that city.

Lawrence had no idea of a settlement in the institutional sense of the term, and merely desired a sort of social retreat, where he could change his point of view from that of a leading pastor, and observe at first-hand the conditions and the people of a congested district.