Zig-Zag-and-Swirl: Alfred W. Lawson's Quest for Greatness

13. The Last Knowledgians

13 THE LAST KNOWLEDGIANS Every day thousands of travelers on U.S. Highway 94, passingjust outside of Sturtevant , Wisconsin (near Racine), notice a large, long billboard proclaiming "The University of Lawsonomy." An occasional traveler, finding curiosity piqued, leaves the highway at the next exit and drives back a short distance on a frontage road in order to take a closer look. He or she reaches what appears to be a farmyard; however, the label on the mailbox reads "Wisconsin University of Lawsonomy." Pressing the inquiry further, the traveler will discover that three of the four buildings in this scene are not the farm buildings they appear to be; they contain dormitories , a chapel, a kitchen, and a large dining hall. Upon entering the dining hall, the visitor will find its walls covered with framed photographs of groups of men and women wearing unusual white uniforms ; telltale details indicate that the photographs are many decades old. At the far end of the room are a fireplace, a couch and some easy chairs (but also a barber's chair!), and a bookcase containing only books by a single author-Alfred W. Lawson . Above the fireplace hangs a framed large color photograph of an old man, whose suit and bow tie look slightly outsized on the sitter's thin, frail-looking body. On the mantel, next to the portrait, stands a metal urn inscribed "Alfred William Lawson / 1869- 1954/ The First Knowledgian." Therein reside the ashes of the man depicted in the painting, the visitor will learn. THE LAST KNOWLEDGIANS 283 Many other things seen at this site will also intrigue the inquirer. For instance, in the anteroom of the chapel he or she will find displayed in glass cases more urns containing the remains of former students of this mysterious university. Suspended over the tables in the dining hall are models of five different airplanes of early vintage, all of which bear the name Lawson. Beyond the university's buildings is a 1,600-foot dirt airplane runway. The huge whirling contraption in the front yard, the visitor will learn, is a wind generator, still under construction but expected someday to supply most of the university's power needs. But few persons are about; where are the professors and the students ? The inquirer will be told that this is not a university designed on the standard model. All instruction is obtained from the study of the books of Alfred Lawson. No one is a professor, all are students of a doctrine called Lawsonomy. For many years, however, only three or four students have lived on campus. They are also the university's officers and caretakers. None receives a salary. Their simple, frugal life is supported by the food which they grow in the garden and by money contributed by other students who live off campus. These other students (number not specified) study Lawsonomy by correspondence, although those living close by are able to attend classes held on campus on the last Wednesday of every month. Also, at least once a year, usually on the long weekend of Independence Day or Labor Day, as many as one hundred of those off-campus students get together on the campus. On these occasions, students come from as far away as California and Florida. All of this will doubtless be perplexing to the unprepared traveler, but anyone knowing the history of the Lawsonomy movement will certainly find no mysteries or surprises here. For most of the more than thirty-five years which have elapsed since the closing of DMUL, the Wisconsin University of Lawsonomy (WUL) has rigidly stuck to all the routines of DMUL in the last years of DMUL's existence. As noted earlier, after the collapse of DMUL, Lawson's mind may actually have been tending away from the university concept and toward a condo arrangement in California. However, the Humanity Benefactor Foundation already owned the Wisconsin farm, and re- 284 LAWSONIAN LEGACIES The chapel and dormitory of the University of Lawsonomy, which lives on in anew incornation on afarm olong U.S. Highway 94 near Sturtevant, Wisconsin. Photo courtesy of George A. Hardie, Jr. locating DMUL there was indeed a possibility which had been mentioned by Lawson. In any case, reestablishing the University of Lawsonomy at the farm in 1956 was the easiest path for Lawson's survivors in the Lawsonomy movement to follow. Keeping all existing Lawsonomic activities on course...