Forest growth is closely associated with climate change, and understanding the history of growth disturbances can help predict potential changes in forest growth caused by global warming. In this study, we utilized dendrochronological methods to study growth release and suppression events of trees in order to reconstruct the disturbance history of forests. A total of 27 samples were collected from one Pinus tabuliformis forest and two Pinus bungeana forests in Changzhi Prefecture (southeast of Loess Plateau). After measuring and cross-dating the tree ring width, we found that the oldest trees in the Licheng, Pingshun, and Tunliu sampling sites were 227, 185, and 102 years old, respectively. Percentage of growth change (GC%) was calculated to identify the disturbance events. Growth release was defined as an average GC% (five years) of more than 0.25, while growth suppression was defined as an average GC% (five years) of less than-0.25. In this study, the results indicated that in the past 150 years, growth suppression occurred three times (1873-1877, 1925-1930, and 1994-1997), while growth release occurred five times (1867-1871, 1878-1884, 1930-1935, 1980-1985, and 1999-2004). Although the three forests had similarities in their disturbance histories, there were also differences in their spatial and temporal scales. These differences may be caused by the genetic characteristics of the different species and local environmental variations. To further understand the causes of the disturbances, a correlation analysis was performed for the first order difference of the three tree ring width chronologies and the meteorological records. The correlation coefficients showed that forest growth was negatively correlated with June temperature and positively correlated with April-May precipitation. This suggested that the historical growth suppression events might be related to extreme drought events, caused by precipitation reduction or excessive water evapotranspiration, whereas the growth release events might be related to an abundant supply of water. To validate these results, we compared our study with historical records and local paleoclimate studies. The drought events recorded in the historical materials, and reconstructed using other paleoclimate studies reasonably fit our results, which indicates that our study successfully rebuilt the historical growth history and that dendrochronological methods could be used in forest disturbance research in the east edge of the Loess Plateau. This study provided useful information for forestry management. For example, forest plantations should be carried out in moist conditions during the growing season. The old growth trees that survived multiple disturbance events have strong resilience and contain valuable information about historical environmental changes; identifying and protecting old growth trees is important for maintaining efficient and healthy forest ecosystem services.