Plumas-Butte-Shasta County CA Archives Biographies.....Lewis, Joseph E. N. 1826 - 1869
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Joy Fisher sdgenweb@yahoo.com January 3, 2006, 7:30 pm

Author: Fariss & Smith (1882)

JUDGE JOSEPH E. N. LEWIS.—Judge Lewis was born in Jefferson county, Virginia, in
1826, and received his education at William and Mary's College. He studied law
with B. F. Washington, afterwards of the San Francisco Examiner, and was
admitted to the bar of Virginia, but did not practice in that state. He came to
California in 1849, in company with Mr. Washington, and settled in Butte county,
where he continued to reside until his death. He was present and took part in
the organization of Butte county. In 1851 Mr. Lewis was elected to fill the
unexpired term of Adams as state senator for Butte and Shasta counties. In 1853
he was elected county judge of Butte, serving with great credit to himself and
his party—the democratic. On the twenty-fourth of June, 1869, he was nominated
by the democrats of the second district, which included Tehama, Butte, Plumas,
and Lassen counties, for district judge, and that same evening died of heart
disease. He was sitting on the front porch of Peter Freer's residence at
Oroville, talking with Mrs. Freer, when she, noticing that he was silent for a
few moments, touched him and found that he was dead. Judge Sexton, in his
article on the "Past and Present of Butte County," speaks of him as follows:
"Mr. Lewis was a large man, mentally and physically, and of high intellectual
culture, of strong, positive powers of mind. He did not love study for its own
sake; but when it was necessary to take hold of any question, and especially in
his profession, he did not and would not give it up, though it required weeks
and months of hard work, until he felt he had mastered it. He was a slow
thinker, but a logical and correct one. At his death, he was justly considered
one of the ablest jurists in the northern part of the state." He was frequently
called to the bar of Plumas county on important cases, and was unsurpassed as an
examiner in the courtroom. He was leading counsel in the celebrated case of
Plumas county versus R. C. Chambers et al, or the Oroville & Virginia railroad
company.

Additional Comments:
Extracted from:

Illustrated History of Plumas, Lassen & Sierra Counties

San Francisco: Fariss & Smith
(1882)


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