The fall 2009 edition of Ancestral News carried an article, A Log Cabin-Cemetery-And More (Part 1). This article addressed a log cabin and cemetery in the area of Hardin County shown on current maps as Losenville Valley. The cemetery was closely examined and recorded. It was suggested that a community/village once occupied the valley. It was decided that research was necessary to secure information on this community to determine who else might be buried in the cemetery, and present whatever other additional information could be obtained for a Part II to the article. Carolyn Wimp, Rosa O'Bryant and Nan Dohn did the research and their findings follow.

Losonville/Lawsonville was a small community located on St. John Road (Hwy. #1357) near the Breckenridge County line in Hardin County. Grand View Church, near the intersection of St. John Road and Grandview Church Road would be located near the area once known as Lawsonville. An 1861 map of Kentucky has the area spelled as Lawsonville so that is the name that will be used in this article, though topographic maps of today refer to the area as Losenville Valley.

Lawsonville at one time had a school, post office and blacksmith shop. The Elizabethtown News of October 1891 carried a report addressing the schools of Hardin County. Nine schools visited by the Superintendent of Schools were addressed. One of those schools was Lawsonville, No. 58 and noted the following in the report: "Teacher is R.T. Layman. Pupils in district 36, enrolled 32, present 27. House is a new log and a splendid one. This is the teacher's first experience at teaching. Trustees are: H. Miller, H. Wallace, A. Wallace." There was probably a grocery store in the area. It was not unusual for the post office and grocery store to be located in the same building. The oldest and nearest known church in the area was the Union Baptist Church, on Highway 86 in Vertrees, where many of the citizens of Lawsonville most likely attended. It closed in 1867. Years later Grand View Baptist Church came into existence in the area. It is located a few miles east of the location of the bygone Union Baptist Church.

It is not known when the area was settled. According to the book, Kentucky's Salt River Valley, by Robert M. Rennick, a post office was operation in Lawsonville from January 8, 1826 to 1842 with John H. Wiseheart as its first postmaster. John married Elizabeth Miller, daughter of Henry Miller and Hannah Worman, in 1813 in Hardin County. John & Elizabeth later moved to Illinois.

Perhaps Steve Gray, our guide on our first trip to the Lawsonville location, was correct when he noted the possibility of the area being settled because of the saltpeter mines located in the area. It is known that caves at either end of the valley contain saltpeter that is used in the production of gunpowder. This would have provided jobs for the men of the area. This land was not the best land for farming as it was very hilly. Vertrees Creek runs through the area near the cemetery examined in our first trip to the valley. We suspect that the cemetery was at the center of the bygone community.

 Rachel Harned (born September 13, 1786), daughter of Eneas Harned, married Daniel Purcell (August 22, 1782-February 14, 1847) in 1811. They had the following children: Sarah (married Matthias Purcell), Matilda, Nancy (married Richard Wiseheart), Susan, Eleanor (married Henry Scott), James R. (married Elizabeth A. Coffman), and Felix.