Indian subagent, land speculator, b. Green Bay. He attended Lowville Academy, N.Y., returning to Green Bay in 1832. After working in the Indian trade with his father, John Lawe (q.v.), he moved to Kaukauna in 1839, and established a trading post. With the aid of local Indians, he built two of the first roads in the area, from Kaukauna to Wrightstown and from Kaukauna to Appleton. In 1851 he built one of the first bridges over the Fox River at Kaukauna. He served as Indian subagent for the Menominees (1842- 1843, 1851-1853). Lawe was postmaster of Kaukauna in 1849 and again from 1878 to 1885. In 1847 he donated a 31-acre plot of land in the heart of Appleton for the site of Lawrence College, and in 1849 platted the village of Lawesburgh, now a part of Appleton. Kaukauna Times, Dec. 27, 1895; Kaukauna Sun, Apr. 28, 1910; Comm. Biog. Record of the Fox River Valley ... (Chicago, 1895); Wis. Mag. Hist., 33; H. B. Tanner, Hist. of Streets of Kaukauna (Kaukauna [1931]).

The Wisconsin Historical Society has manuscripts related to this topic. See the catalog description of the John Lawe and George W. Lawe Papers for details.

View newspaper clippings at Wisconsin Local History and Biography Articles.

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[Source: Dictionary of Wisconsin biography]