Born in Adams, Massachusetts,[4] Lawrence was the son of Dr. George C. Lawrence and his wife, Jane E. Pelton, and also the nephew of New York City Congressman Guy Ray Pelton. He graduated from Drury Academy in 1876 and from Amherst College[3] in 1880.[4] Lawrence studied law at the Columbia Law School.[4]
On June 12, 1889, Pelton married Susannah Hope Bracewell (1866-1914).
Legal career
Lawrence was admitted to the bar in 1883[4] and commenced practice in North Adams.[4]
Public service
Judgeship
Lawrence was appointed judge of the judicial district of northern Berkshire, County[1] in 1885. Lawrence resigned his judgeship in 1894 upon being elected to the Massachusetts Senate.[4]
Lawrence was elected as a Republican[4] to the Fifty-fifth Congress to fill the vacancy caused by the death of Ashley B. Wright.[4] Lawrence was reelected to the Fifty-sixth and to the six succeeding Congresses and served from November 2, 1897, to March 3, 1913.[3][4][5] While in Congress Lawrence was chairman of the Committee on Expenditures in the Department of War (Fifty-ninth through Sixty-first Congresses).[4]
Post Congressional career
Lawrence was not a candidate for renomination in 1912,[4] and from July 1 to September 17, 1913, was a member of the Massachusetts Public Service Commission.
Death
Lawrence jumped from an eighth-floor window and fell to his death, at the Belmont Hotel, New York, New York;[3] interment was in Hillside Cemetery, North Adams.[4]
^ abcdefghijklmnoUS Congress (2005), Biographical directory of the United States Congress, 1774-2005 the Continental Congress, September 5, 1774, to October 21, 1788, and the Congress of the United States, from the First through the One Hundred Eighth Congresses, March 4, 1789, to January 3, 2005, inclusive, Washington, DC: Government Printing Office, p. 1425
