Washington H. Lawrence

John Lawrence, the ancestor of the American branch of the family, came from England in 1635, and settled in Wolverton, Massachusetts.

In 1833, Joel B. Lawrence up-rooted his family from the East and was one of the early settlers in the Western Reserve at what came to be Olmstead, Ohio.

As a teenager, Washington Lawrence attended Olmsted common schools and worked as clerk in a store in Berea, Ohio.

In 1859, at the age of nineteen, he left Kansas to go into business with his brother in a general store in Hannibal, Missouri.

In 1861, Washington returned to Ohio and formed a partnership with another brother, in the management of the family mills and farm at Olmsted.

In connection with this, in 1872 he engaged in the manufacture of bolts at Elyria, Ohio in what developed into the Cleveland Tap & Screw Company.

For the next four years, Lawrence turned his attentions a quiet life, managing his Cleveland real estate investments.

Lawrence brought in a group of investors including Myron T. Herrick, James Parmelee and Webb Hayes.

In 1886, under the leadership of Washington Lawrence, the new management team at Boulton Carbon immediately went to work on two items.

To gain capacity, a new National Carbon factory was built in Lakewood, a suburb adjoining Cleveland to the west.

In 1896, National Carbon manufactured the "Columbia", the first mass-produced consumer "dry cell" battery, used to power home telephones.

By 1899, Russian immigrant, Conrad Hubert was using these batteries to power his new novelty item, the first "Ever Ready" flashlight.

He has also leased ground to a number of the prominent men of Cleveland, upon which they also built substantial summer homes.

In July 1899, Lawrence broke his arm while playing tennis at his Dover Bay Country Club.