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- [S106] The Mountain Press, 17 Oct 2010.
Upland Chronicles: One Armed Jimmy Lawson lived full life
by CARROLL McMAHAN The Mountain Press
James Brownlow Lawson, while he was a cadet at Norwich University.
One Armed Jimmy Lawson and an unidentified tourist in the Great Smoky Mountains National Park.
A copy of letter Lawson sent in 1913 to U.S. War Department requesting information on his ancestors.
“Mary, do you think I ought to have this runted arm cut off?” James B. Lawson asked his sister Mary Butler sometime around the turn of the 20th Century.
“No, Jimmy, I don’t believe you ought to do that,” Mary replied. “Well, Mary, I’ve already had it done,” he told her, showing her the empty sleeve.
From that time forward, James Brownlow Lawson was widely known as One Armed Jimmy.
When Lawson was about 5, his arm stopped growing and caused him a great deal of pain. As an adult, he traveled to Knoxville and consulted physicians at a medical college as to whether or not the use of his paralyzed right arm could be recovered.
An examination revealed the arm would never be of benefit. With that being the case, he asked that it be amputated. Lawson was placed under chloroform and the limb was removed before an assembly of students and physicians.
One Armed Jimmy Lawson was born in Wears Valley on Sept. 13, 1862.
His father, James Dunn Lawson, was a tax collector of Sevier County, a farmer, teacher, gospel singer, and a circuit riding Methodist minister. Also, he founded Vestal M.E. Church in Knoxville and preached the first sermon at the Middle Creek Methodist Church in Sevier County.
His mother, Hettie Morton Lawson, was the second wife of the Rev. Lawson. She married the preacher after the death of his first wife, Jane Burns Lawson, who died before the age of 30, leaving the minister with three children.
One Armed Jimmy was a linguist, athlete, prospector, amateur astronomer, world traveler and genealogist.
As a graduate of Norwich University in Northfield, Vt., Lawson was fluent in five languages.
After graduating, he worked in the mines in Colorado for a few years and served as deputy sheriff in one of the towns of the Creede District.
While prospecting in Colorado, he gained a considerable local reputation as an athlete by walking from Manitou Springs to Cripple Creek in half a day, passing over Pike’s Peak in a fierce September wind and snowstorm. Though shocked twice by lightning, Lawson’s eyes were not injured and he pushed forward.
He scaled the cloud piercing summits far and near and once walked roughly 66 miles, at an average altitude of 10,000 feet in a 24-hour nonstop day, without exhaustion or symptoms of heart failure.
A Colorado newspaper, The Teller County Star, reported in 1910 that James B. Lawson, known for his keen eyesight, discovered Comet A-1910 and gave the first notice to the public. This article also stated that Lawson was the first there to note the return of Halley’s Comet and made a safe and sane prediction concerning the course of the famous blazing star.
One Armed Jimmy arrived in the Philippines late in 1901 and taught there as an employee of the U.S. government’s Bureau of Education. He was recognized by the government of the Philippines for his service during the cholera epidemic.
On one occasion, he and a Filipino rescued three U.S. soldiers who drifted out to sea on an overturned canoe. It was almost dark and very stormy when Jimmy’s sharp eyesight discovered the Americans, saving them from an almost certain death.
He also shot a shark “big as a saw log.” The shark, having defied hooks and guns, terrorized the native fishermen until they were starving for fish. Jimmy watched for the aggressive creature and shot it when it leaped out of the water.
Lawson went to Mexico for a mining company and was forced out of the country during his last visit by none other than guerrilla chieftain Poncho Villa.
A guerrilla force waylaid him on a trail at the foot of a mountain below the mine. He was severely wounded, captured and condemned to death. He escaped, after being tied and tortured, by chewing through a three quarter inch rope and eluded the sleeping guards during their Siesta.
While in Mexico, Lawson became a friend of Austin Peay, the future governor of Tennessee, and served as an interpreter between Peay and the Mexican people.
Lawson once traveled around the world on a German steamship. On deck, far out in the Indian Ocean, he met a young gentleman from Siam. Who was descended from an ancient royal family. While engaged in conversation, Lawson learned that the young man was going to America. In fact, he was on his way to attend Maryville College.
In the 1904 presidential election, he worked tirelessly in Colorado for President Theodore Roosevelt. After three months of politicking, he visited the St. Louis World’s Fair en route to Tennessee. While there, he visited old friends at the Philippines Pavilion.
When Lawson returned to Sevier County for good, he continued to pursue information on genealogy. He had written to the Chief of Records, U.S. War Department, for records on ancestors as far back as 1913.
And, in his later years, Lawson visited various relatives and often spent the night. He would stay up past midnight asking questions and writing everything down on a tablet.
When Austin Peay became governor, Lawson approached him about road improvements in Wears Valley. His old friend came through and a new road was built connecting Wears Valley and Pigeon Forge. One Armed Jimmy did not allow his handicap to stand in the way of assisting on the project. He helped dig out the mountain side near the spot known as the Cascades.
An enthusiastic supporter in the campaign to establish the Great Smoky Mountains National Park, Lawson became a ranger and fire warden. He went around posting signs and asking people to be careful with campfires.
He spoke at schools where he fascinated children by saying something to them in a foreign language.
The last several years of his life, Lawson resided with his niece, Hettie Butler Huff, and her husband, Newton Huff, along with their children.
One day Hettie’s son, Claude, accompanied his great-uncle to Gatlinburg. While they were resting on a park bench, two teachers at Phi Beta Phi Settlement School observed the elderly man without an arm. Not wanting to offend the gentleman, one teacher spoke in Spanish to point out the “poor old man with an arm missing.”
To their astonishment, Jimmy responded to her statement in fluent Spanish.
Trying to avoid further embarrassment, the educators addressed each other in French. Much to their chagrin, he continued the conversation in French.
Since the ladies did not have knowledge of another foreign tongue, they made a hasty exit.
One Armed Jimmy Lawson never married. He died on Dec. 30, 1941, at the age of 79, and was buried in the Mattox Cemetery in Wears Valley.
— Carroll McMahan is the special projects facilitator for the Sevierville Chamber of Commerce. The Upland Chronicles series celebrates the heritage and past of Sevier County. If you have suggestions for future topics, would like to submit a column or have comments; please contact McMahan at 453-6411 or e-mail to cmcmahan@scoc.org; or Ron Rader at 604-9161 or e-mail to ron@ronraderproperties.com.
- [S94] Sevier County, Tennessee Census, 392a, 21 Jul 1870.
http://www.rootsweb.com/~usgenweb/tn/sevier/census/1870/0392a.gif
- [S112] Census, 1880.
Name: James B. Lawson
Event Type: Census
Event Date: 1880
Event Place: Wears Valley, Sevier, Tennessee, United States
Gender: Male
Age: 17
Marital Status: Single
Occupation: Farm Laborer
Race (Original): W
Ethnicity: American
Relationship to Head of Household: Son
Birthplace: Tennessee, United States
Birth Date: 1863
Spouse's Name:
Spouse's Birthplace:
Father's Name: James D. Lawson
Father's Birthplace: Tennessee, United States
Mother's Name: Hattia E. Lawson
Mother's Birthplace: Tennessee, United States
Page: 379
Page Letter: D
Entry Number: 1973
Affiliate Film Number: T9-1277
GS Film number: 1255277
Digital Folder Number: 004244657
Image Number: 00767
Household Gender Age Birthplace
Self James D. Lawson M 54 Tennessee, United States
Wife Hattia E. Lawson F 40 Tennessee, United States
Daughter Huldah Lawson F 22 Tennessee, United States
Son William C. Lawson M 19 Tennessee, United States
Son James B. Lawson M 17 Tennessee, United States
Son John W. Lawson M 15 Tennessee, United States
Daughter Eliza Lawson F 12 Tennessee, United States
Daughter Rebecca Lawson F 8 Tennessee, United States
Son Daniel B. Lawson M 4 Tennessee, United States
- [S112] Census, 1940.
name: James B Lawson
titles & terms:
event: Census
event year: 1940
event place: Civil District 16, Sevier, Tennessee, United States
gender: Male
age: 77
marital status: Single
race (original):
race (standardized): White
relationship to head of household (original):
relationship to head of household (standardized): Uncle
birthplace: Tennessee
estimated birth year: 1863
residence in 1935: Same Place
enumeration district number: 78-24
family number: 120
sheet number and letter: 7B
line number: 43
nara publication number: T627
nara roll number: 3933
digital folder number: 005461375
image number: 00624
Household Gender Age Birthplace
head A N Huff M 52 Tennessee
wife Hettie Huff F 43 Tennessee
son Fred Huff M 22 Tennessee
son Hugh Huff M 20 Tennessee
son Claude Huff M 18 Tennessee
son Ernest Huff M 15 Tennessee
son Elmer Huff M 15 Tennessee
son Herman Huff M 13 Tennessee
son Lyman Huff M 8 Tennessee
uncle James B Lawson M 77 Tennessee
- [S73] Rawlings Funeral Home, Book 2, 30 Dec 1941.
Lawson, J.B. Sept 13, 1862 Tn Dec 30, 1941
Father: Lawson, J.D. Tn
Mother: Morton, Hettie Tn
Sons: John W.
Daughters: Mrs. J.C. Gobble, Mrs. J.M. Roberts
Cemetery: Maddox
Sisters: 1/2 Mrs. Hulda King
- [S34] In the Shadow of the Smokies, Smoky Mountain Historical Society, (1993), 664.
- [S58] Marriage Certificate.
Groom's Name James D. Lawson
Groom's Birth Date
Groom's Birthplace
Groom's Age
Bride's Name Hettey E. Morton
Bride's Birth Date
Bride's Birthplace
Bride's Age
Marriage Date 23 Feb 1860
Marriage Place Blount, Tennessee
Groom's Father's Name
Groom's Mother's Name
Bride's Father's Name
Bride's Mother's Name
Groom's Race
Groom's Marital Status
Groom's Previous Wife's Name
Bride's Race
Bride's Marital Status
Bride's Previous Husband's Name
Indexing Project (Batch) Number M01071-0
System Origin Tennessee-EASy
Source Film Number 2073748
Reference Number im00002219
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