Lawrence, William
soldier, journalist, lawyer, congressman, author, was born June 26, 1819, in Mount Pleasant, Ohio. In 1846 and 1847 he served in the Ohio state legislature; and in 1848 was a member of the senate. In 1853 he was again elected to the state senate, and was the author of the Ohio Free Banking Law.
In 1856 he was elected a judge of the court of common pleas for five years; was re-elected in 1861, but resigned in 1864, when he was elected a representative from Ohio to the thirty-ninth congress.
He was re-elected to the fortieth, fortyfirst, forty-third and forty-fourth congresses; and in 1880 was appointed first comptroller of the United States treasury. He has been president of the Bellefontaine National bank since 1871. He is the author of Decisions of Ohio Supreme Court; The Treaty Question; Law of Religious Societies and Religious Corporations; Law of Claims Against the Government; Organization of the United States Treasury Department; and Decisions of the First Comptroller of the Treasury.