With the city set to celebrate its 150th birthday Sept. 18, the Journal-World is taking a look at early-day life in Lawrence:

A Pennsylvania newspaper reporter who came to Lawrence in October 1854 wasn’t impressed with what he found.

“I must confess I was disappointed in the appearance of the place,” William Hutter wrote in the Easton Argus.

He said the settlers hadn’t erected any frame houses despite the New England Emigrant Aid Co.’s steam mill that could be used for sawing boards from what Hutter viewed as abundant timber along the river.

“They reside in dwellings with thatched roofs of prairie hay,” he wrote. “Their buildings look like great hay stacks with stove-pipes through their tops.”