Back in Time, March 29

Photographer Unknown, Interior of John D. Lawler Home, Linda Oster – Researcher.

The Lawlers’ home certainly represented the time period. Many Victorian style homes were decorated with wallpaper, including the ceiling. The patterns often seemed to be floral, had a high border and molding around the room and ceiling. Decorated ceilings remained popular into the 20th century; there was a school of thought that held the belief that plain ceiling were too dull and gloomy. Notice the many patterns involved in the decorating of this room located at 205 E. Fourth Ave. This house was originally owned by L. Beckwith and sat on the southeast corner of Fourth and Lawler.

John and his new bride, Ella, moved to Mitchell in 1886 and purchased Beckwith’s house. The Beckwiths built another house located on the northwest corner of Lawler and Fourth Avenue (This house now sits at Dakota Discovery.)

Ella’s background included Debutante Balls with tables of imported food, receptions at the White House and the general frolicking of the big city. She lived in St. Louis and Washington, D.C. for six years before meeting and marrying John D. Lawler. She had become accustomed to the social status that her families (Sturgis and Wilcox) enjoyed. Mitchell had to have been a culture shock for her. John’s family owned a lot of land and had business interests in Mitchell which brought the younger generation to the area. Their first child, Eleanor Jerusha, was born in 1887 in Davison County. Their other three children were born in St. Paul or Minneapolis because Ella was very unhappy here. She spent most of her summers in St. Paul and traveled to Washington, D.C. often. According to a book by Eleanor Lawler Pillsbury, “Mitchell didn’t have enough culture and she didn’t want her children playing with other children who were of lower class or poorly dressed.”

John D. Lawler is an important person to the history of Mitchell. His father, John Lawler, Sr. on May 5, 1879, purchased the original land on which the railroad was going to put a station and start the town of Mitchell (320 acres and another 160 acres on July 2, 1881, for $1.25 per acre) beating out Firesteel that sat two miles east. John D. was the President of the First National Bank in 1883 and was in the process of selling his shares when he passed away on February 18, 1896. Mitchell has a street named for the Lawlers. Consequently, the Lawler name is associated with many businesses that sat on Lawler Street.