State senator from the fiftieth district, and a citizen of northwestern Iowa of much promise, is a native of Oswego County, New York, dating his birth on the 29th of July, 1839. He is a son of Thomas and Mary M. (Ellis) Lawrence, both of early Massachusetts families. Thomas Lawrence moved with his family to Onondaga County when Albert was four years old. Here he spent his youth, receiving an academic education at Homer, Cortland County. He there prepared for college, but never entered, on account of the weakness of his eyes, a disease with which he is still troubled. In youth he lost his right arm. He commenced reading law in 1860 with Smith and Markham, of Syracuse and finished with the Hon. N. C. Ruger, of the same city, and was admitted to the bar in 1864, at a term of the Supreme Court held in Syracuse. Mr. Lawrence practiced one year at Pit Hole City, in the oil region of Pennsylvania, and in 1866 came to Toledo, Tama county, Iowa, where he was in practice until October, 1872, when he settled in LeMars, Plymouth county, his present home. Here he added real estate to his professional business, and has been very successful in both branches, most of the time operating alone. While a resident of Toledo Mr. Lawrence served two years as county attorney, and since locating in Plymouth County he has been a member of the school board of the independent district of LeMars. His literary taste, and his zeal for the cause of education, made him eminently useful; during three or four years in the infancy of the city, while he was on that board. Mr. Lawrence was elected to the senate in October, 1877, and represented Plymouth, Woodbury, Cherokee, Buena Vista, Sioux and Lyons counties. He served in the seventeenth and eighteenth general assembly. He is chairman of the committee on elections, and a member of the committee of ways and means, normal schools, representative districts, and fish and game. He is always in his place, attending to his duties with the greatest assiduity. Mr. Lawrence is an unswerving republican, and somewhat active in local politics. It is not, however, at his own suggestion that he is in the state senate; he is modest, retiring, and the last man to push himself forward or to ask others to do it. On the 20th of December, 1870, Miss Clara M., daughter of S. W. Cole, then of Tama City, now of Cedar Rapids, Iowa, became the wife of Senator Lawrence, and they have two children. Mrs. Lawrence is a member of the Congregational Church.

State senator from the fiftieth district, and a citizen of northwestern Iowa of much promise, is a native of Oswego County, New York, dating his birth on the 29th of July, 1839. He is a son of Thomas and Mary M. (Ellis) Lawrence, both of early Massachusetts families. Thomas Lawrence moved with his family to Onondaga County when Albert was four years old. Here he spent his youth, receiving an academic education at Homer, Cortland County. He there prepared for college, but never entered, on account of the weakness of his eyes, a disease with which he is still troubled. In youth he lost his right arm. He commenced reading law in 1860 with Smith and Markham, of Syracuse and finished with the Hon. N. C. Ruger, of the same city, and was admitted to the bar in 1864, at a term of the Supreme Court held in Syracuse. Mr. Lawrence practiced one year at Pit Hole City, in the oil region of Pennsylvania, and in 1866 came to Toledo, Tama county, Iowa, where he was in practice until October, 1872, when he settled in LeMars, Plymouth county, his present home. Here he added real estate to his professional business, and has been very successful in both branches, most of the time operating alone. While a resident of Toledo Mr. Lawrence served two years as county attorney, and since locating in Plymouth County he has been a member of the school board of the independent district of LeMars. His literary taste, and his zeal for the cause of education, made him eminently useful; during three or four years in the infancy of the city, while he was on that board. Mr. Lawrence was elected to the senate in October, 1877, and represented Plymouth, Woodbury, Cherokee, Buena Vista, Sioux and Lyons counties. He served in the seventeenth and eighteenth general assembly. He is chairman of the committee on elections, and a member of the committee of ways and means, normal schools, representative districts, and fish and game. He is always in his place, attending to his duties with the greatest assiduity. Mr. Lawrence is an unswerving republican, and somewhat active in local politics. It is not, however, at his own suggestion that he is in the state senate; he is modest, retiring, and the last man to push himself forward or to ask others to do it. On the 20th of December, 1870, Miss Clara M., daughter of S. W. Cole, then of Tama City, now of Cedar Rapids, Iowa, became the wife of Senator Lawrence, and they have two children. Mrs. Lawrence is a member of the Congregational Church.