Chatham-Terrell-Webster County GaArchives Biographies.....Lewis, William J. 1874 - living 1913
************************************************
Copyright.  All rights reserved.
http://www.usgwarchives.net/copyright.htm
http://www.usgwarchives.net/ga/gafiles.htm
************************************************

File contributed for use in USGenWeb Archives by:
Joy Fisher http://www.genrecords.net/emailregistry/vols/00001.html#0000031 October 15, 2004, 8:44 am

Author: William Harden
p. 672-674

   WILLIAM J. LEWIS. Postmaster at Dawson, Terrell county, since 1906, Mr. Lewis
began his public career at the age of twenty-one as deputy sheriff in Columbia
county, Florida. He has been a practical man all his life and was at work in a
printing shop when eleven years old, and finally became head of a printing
establishment of his own. Mr. Lewis belongs to an old family of the Carolinas
and Georgia, which has furnished a number of soldiers, civil officials, and men
of ability to the nation and community.

   William J. Lewis was born January 10, 1874, and is a son of William Turner
Lewis, who was born in Carroll county, Virginia, and a grandson of Archibald
Lewis, who was also born in that county of Virginia. It is believed that this
branch of the Lewis family is directly descended from a General Hepsibah Lewis,
who was a soldier of the Revolutionary war. Archibald Lewis, the grandfather,
moved from Virginia into North Carolina and settled at Mt. Airy on the French
Broad river, where he spent the remainder of his days.

   William Turner Lewis, the father, was a youth when his father died and then
came under the guidanceship of an older brother, Charles W. Lewis. This older
brother went away to the war as a Confederate soldier on the beginning of
hostilities. The younger boy wanted to enlist in the same regiment but his
brother would not consent. He therefore ran away from home and when sixty miles
from his home community enlisted in Captain Logan Whitlock's company with which
he went into Virginia and participated in many of the historic campaigns and
battles of the war. He was slightly wounded in the foot by a spent ball, but
escaped capture. His service as a soldier continued until the close and he then
returned home and with his brother engaged in the tobacco business for a while.
Then with his brother he came into Georgia, and this migration was accomplished
from beginning to end across country, with a team. William Turner Lewis located
at Dawson where he was engaged in merchandising for a time and subsequently at
-farming near the town. He then returned to Dawson again, and once more became
one of the local merchants. While in the war he had contracted inflammatory
rheumatism and eventually was incapacitated for business, so that he was
succeeded by his sons. He died greatly respected as a citizen and man on June
28, 1898. He had served as a deputy sheriff of Terrell county, and also as mayor
of Dawson.

   William Turner Lewis married Frances Cora Bell, who was born in Webster
county, Georgia, daughter of Arthur and Eliza Bell. Her father was a well-to-do
farmer in Webster county. Mrs. Lewis died in early life, and the father was
again married, Mrs. Susan (Jones) Clarke, of Lee county, becoming his wife. The
three children of the first marriage were Charles G., William J., and Archibald
A., all of whom were carefully reared by their step-mother, who had two sons by
her first marriage, named George E. Clarke and Albert S. Clarke.

   While growing up to manhood in Dawson and Terrell county William J. Lewis
attended the public schools, but most of his education was attained through
practical experience and the inevitable education which goes with the printers'
trade. When eleven years old he became printers' devil in the mechanical
department of the Dawson News, and there learned the art preservative. When four
years had passed and he had become an expert workman, he went to Murphy, North
Carolina, where he was employed in typesetting for three years, and thence moved
to Fort White, Florida, where he edited the Fort White Herald. Then at the age
of twenty-one, Mr. Lewis was appointed deputy sheriff of Columbia county,
Florida, and served two years in that office. Returning to Dawson in 1895, he
took the position of foreman of the News office, and some time later bought the
job printing department of the News and conducted a successful printing business
until 1906. In that year he was appointed postmaster at Dawson, and has been
continued in this office by reappointment to the present time.

   Mr. Lewis on May 31, 1896, married Miss Selina Hay. a daughter of Isaac and
Mollie (Cannon) Hay, and a granddaughter of Martin Hay and Jeptha Cannon. Isaac
Hay is one of the most successful farmers in South Georgia. Mr. and Mrs. Lewis
have two children named Charles Arthur and Alice Maybell. The family worship in
the Methodist church and Mr. Lewis is affiliated with Dawson Camp No. 74, of the
Woodmen of the World, being consul commander.


Additional Comments:
A HISTORY OF SAVANNAH AND SOUTH GEORGIA
BY
WILLIAM HARDEN

VOLUME I
ILLUSTRATED
THE LEWIS PUBLISHING COMPANY
CHICAGO AND NEW YORK
1913

File at: http://files.usgwarchives.net/ga/chatham/bios/gbs212lewis.txt

This file has been created by a form at http://www.genrecords.org/gafiles/

File size: 5.3 Kb