Kentuckian by birth and was graduated from the Transylvania College, Lexington. He was married young, and after the birth of several children went to Europe to take a course of medical study, leaving
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LOUISE LAWSON.
his wife to edit his medical journal, the "Lancet," during his absence, and to look after the little family. Mrs. Lawson filled the editorial chair satisfactorily, for she was familiar with medical literature. All the children of the family, except Louise, died young, and the mother early followed them. Louise became the companion of her father. He never sent her to school, but took charge of her education himself, teaching her just as he would a
boy, Latin and Greek, physiology and anatomy, in the most unconventional way. He aroused her enthusiasm for art, through his teaching in regard to the beauty and dignity of the human form. She
lived out of doors all summer long, in their country-seat near the city. There she developed the physique which has carried her through studies that would have broken down a girl educated according
to common standards. She one day awoke to the fact that only in art could the impulses of her mind find expression. She has always regarded what people call genius as the ability to labor with great
patience for the desired results. She spent fourteen years in training, the first two years in the Art School in Cincinnati, three in the School of Design in Boston, three years in the Cooper Union, New York, three in study in Paris, and three in modeling in Rome. Miss Lawson went to Rome a stranger. When she arrived in that famous city, she put up in a hotel, but soon took a studio near Villa Ludi Visi, a beautiful estate with extensive grounds. Her fame came about in an unusual manner. She employed many living models, and they, recognizing her genius, had so much to say of the charming
American in other studios that one day she awoke to find herself famous, almost without introduction or presentation outside of a limited circle. She soon after was the recipient of public recognition, the medal from the president of the Raphael Academie Di Belle Arti, as a compliment to her genius, her "Ayacanora " placing her at once among the great modern sculptors. Returning to the United States, she settled m New York and opened a studio. Among Miss Lawson’s finest pieces are "The Origin of the Harp." "Il Pastore," "The Rhodian Boy," and a statue of the late Congressman S. S. Cox. of New York. Her work is marked by the highest artistic excellence. Many of the subjects of her work as a sculptor are American in origin.
LAWSON, Mrs. Mary J., author, born in Maroon Hall, Preston, near Halifax, Nova Scotia, in 1828. Her maiden name was Mary J. Katzmann. In 1868 she became the wife of William Lawson.
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MARY J. LAWSON.
She had one daughter, who survives her. She died in 1890, lamented by a wide circle who admired and loved her for her talents, character and devotion to duty. Her father, Conrad C. Katzmann, lieutenant in the 60th, or King's German Legion, was a native of Hanover, Germany. Her mother, Martha Prescott, was a granddaughter of Dr. Jonathan Prescott, who at the close of the Revolutionary War went to Nova Scotia with the Loyalists. He was of the same family as the historian Prescott. Under the initials "M. J. K.," which after her marriage became "M. J. K. L.," she began to write and to publish
in the local press verses that attracted the attention of an unusually brilliant literary circle then in Halifax. Joseph Howe, writer and statesman, encouraged her to devote herself to literature as the best way of serving the country and humanity, and in 1852 and 1853 she edited and wrote for the "Provincial Magazine." Great facility of expression enabled her to supply any demand at brief
notice, and her energy and determination to carry through whatsoever she undertook kept the magazine in existence for two years, when for lack of
