This is a historical fiction piece, the facts are true but the details are made up. It was written as a tribute to one of Erie’s great women in history to help bring her story into the limelight.

by Christine Lorraine Morgan, Nov. 25, 2025

Emma Lawrence was suddenly faced with a very challenging life, when only days ago her whole world was running smoothly with everything in place.

That all came crashing down last week, when John, her beloved 28-year-old husband, was suddenly taken from her. She was still in shock from his untimely passing, but couldn’t acknowledge her feelings. There wasn’t time. She had to figure out a way to feed her three young children right now. The year was 1889 and women didn’t have a whole lot of job options. And being an African American woman meant that there were even less choices available for her to earn a living.

With heavy heart she resigned herself to the fact that she would have to enter into service as a scullery maid or kitchen helper at one of those big rich people houses up the street on Millionaire’s row. But who would tend to her little ones, especially if she were forced to reside at her job site? Potential employers would probably frown upon having three extra mouths to feed.

As she contemplated this dismally realistic future, she found herself straightening up her modest but comfortable five-room home at 435 West 3rd Street in Jerusalem, a small community within the port town of Erie, PA. They had been able to get the place because John husband worked so hard at his job as a waiter at the Reed House. He had been truly blessed to have found work actually enjoyed, and she was blessed as well because even though he put in a 65-hour week, it meant that she was able to stay home and raise their beautiful children. Her eldest, Earl, was a very mature seven-year-old and very prone to look out for his younger siblings, sister Effie and brother Charles.

She studied the soiled white shirt in her hand. It was Earl’s, he’d worn it to the funeral and managed to get grape juice stains on it during the small wake that their neighbor held for the family afterward.

“There’s only one way to get that stain out,” she muttered as she shuffled toward the basement steps to start the week’s laundry. “Going to use my cleaning solutions because they work every time.”

As she descended into the dirt basement where she stored her special home-made supplies, Emma recalled how many stains she sees on other people’s clothes every time she takes her youngsters for a walk. She shook her head disapprovingly just thinking about it.

She wondered why nobody but her seemed to know how to get their clothes really clean and stain-free. Even the wealthy folks up the street ~ there were times when their clothes were so spotty that she could see it a block away. And then it struck her like a wall of fresh air. But could it happen?

She was envisioning a plan, an unusual concept, but a possible way to earn a living without succumbing to society’s limitations.

She grabbed her special cleaning ingredients and put her plan into action.

The next morning Emma assured her children that they would be okay without her for a little while so she could run a very important errand. She appointed Earl as the babysitter and told him he was her very important little man and it was his job to keep the home safe. He nodded solemnly as his mother walked away and locked the door behind her, carrying a small cloth bag.

Her mission was swiftly accomplished, and an hour later she opened her front door and instructed the children to sit down at the kitchen table.

Emma explained that she had figured out a way to earn money that would allow everyone to stay home with her and be safe. They looked puzzled but relieved, so she told them to go play for awhile as she began dinner and thought over what she did earlier.

She had knocked on a half-dozen doors on West 6th Street where the big houses were to show off how clean, bright and stain-free several pieces of her children’s clothing were.

All seemed impressed, but only three of the six homes she visited ended successfully. Those three door-opening servants had been interested enough to take Emma’s sample garments to their home’s laundry maid, all of whom agreed to give Emma’s idea a chance.

She was going to pick up their extra grimy laundry once a week and make it look amazing by opening her own cleaning service. And she was going to run it out of her home at 3rd and Chestnut so she and her children could stay together while she eked out a living. She owned several large laundry bags and could tote the clothes home over her shoulder to get the job done.

Little did she know that her endeavor would end up so successful that there would be trucks with her business’ name on them one day: “Lawrence Dyeing and Cleaning”

Beyond that, her innovation and ingenuity had led her to become the City of Erie’s first known African American woman to start and run her own business.

Her work was so successful that in 1906 she opened “Lawrence Dyeing and Cleaning” at 402 W. 3rd St., where it operated until 1963.

The Reed House was where Emma’s husband, John A. Lawrence, was employed as a waiter in downtown Erie at North Park Row and French Street.

After Gertrude passed in 1934, son Charles took hold of the family business reins with his siter Effie, and ran Lawrence Dyeing & Cleaning until 1963.

Emma Gertrude Lawrence (right, back) stands next to her son Charles “Chick” Lawrence. They are posed with others at Lawrence Dyeing & Cleaning.