Book, projects tell history of Lawrence County as part of America 250 Ohio

As part of Ohio’s America 250 program, the Lawrence County organizers have been working to involve the schools in gathering local history.

“One of the projects we are doing is the Lovely Lawrence County project,” said Rich Donahue, the chairman of American 250 Lawrence County, adding the goal was to get people to find out Lawrence County history that may have been overlooked.

He said that he met with the county’s school superintendents about 15 months ago to get students involved. Chesapeake superintendent Doug Hale took the idea back to his school and two of the teachers, Brea James-McClung took the idea and created “Lovely Lawrence County,” an A-Z book that includes such entries as “I is for iron furnaces,” “N is for Nannie Kelly Wright,” and “R is for Rome Beauty apple.” Each entry is a four-line poem about the subject with a photo James-McClung took to illustrate it.

James-McClung also turned the Lovely Lawrence County project into a class project as well, having her 10th grade class talk to family members and research local history that other people may not know about.

“The idea was to get their relatives engaged and find historical places in Lawrence County, focusing on their communities,” Donohue said. 

Donohue and Lawrence County Common Pleas Judge Christen Finley went to the school to see the projects.

Donohue said he was thrilled with the projects the students did, which included the old Chesapeake jail and a nightclub.

“I think it was a home run,” Donohue said. “I liked that all students were involved. I like hearing their stories. It was just a wonderful day and the kids were all excited to tell their stories, the history of their community.”

Donohue said the goal is to take the Lovely Lawrence County project to every school and have more students tell their own stories.

The whole project is part of Ohio’s America 250 project which is a celebration of the 250 years since America was founded. 

“This is our opportunity for us to tell our story,” Donohue said. “Everything we do here is to send back to Columbus to the historical center for America 250 Ohio. We want to tell our story and these kids are the vehicle, the future. And they are telling it as they see it.”