Marshall County KS Archives Biographies.....Lewis, John L. 1841 - living in 1917
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File contributed for use in USGenWeb Archives by:
Joy Fisher sdgenweb@gmail.com July 21, 2005, 4:40 pm

Author: B. F. Bowen

JOHN L. LEWIS.

    John L. Lewis, one of Marshall county's substantial farmers and landowners
and former trustee and treasurer of Blue Rapids township, now living retired
from the active labors of the farm in his pleasant home in the village of
Irving, on the outskirts of which village his farm abuts, is a native of the
principality of Wales, but has been a resident of this country since he was but
a child, his parents having come to this country and settled in Wisconsin when
he was about nine years of age. He was born on January 1, 1841, a son of David
and Jane (Lloyd) Lewis, who came to the United States in 1850 and settled on a
farm in Waukesha county, Wisconsin, where David Lewis died the next year, in
1851. He was born on November 25, 1811. His widow, who was born in that same
year, survived him many years, her death occurring in 1892. They were the
parents of four children, of whom the subject of this sketch is now the only
survivor, he having had a brother, David, and two sisters, Mary and Mrs. Sarah
Evans, deceased.

    John L. Lewis was about nine years of age when he came to this country with
his parents and he was reared on a farm in Waukesha county, Wisconsin. In 1866
he bought a farm in Kankakee county, Illinois, and following his marriage the
next year established his home there, remaining there until 1877, when he went
to Missouri and bought a farm in Carroll county, that state, where he farmed -
for a couple of years, at the end of which time, in 1879, he came to Kansas and
for five years was engaged in farming on a rented farm in Osage county; in the
meantime buying a farm in Gage county, Nebraska, on which he presently
established his home, but in 1891 sold out there and moved to Nuckolls county,
in that same state, where he lived until he came to Marshall county in 1905 and
settled on a farm which he had bought here in 1888. During the years of his
ownership of that farm a village had been growing up alongside it and Mr. Lewis
found that he had a valuable bit of property when he finally made his home here.
He is the owner of three hundred and fifteen acres of land in section 6 of
Bigelow township and the home place in section 6 of Blue Rapids township, right
on the southeastern edge of the thriving village of Irving. For some time past
Mr. Lewis has had his farm rented and he and his wife are now making their home
in Irving, where they are very comfortably situated. In addition to his land
holdings in this county, Mr. Lewis is the owner of a farm of eight hundred acres
in Beadle county, South Dakota, and is regarded as one of Marshall county's
substantial citizens. Mr. Lewis is a Democrat and has served the public in the
capacity of treasurer and as trustee of Blue Rapids township.

    On Christmas Day, in the year 1867, John L. Lewis was united in marriage, in
Waukesha county, Wisconsin, to Ellen Williams, who was born in that county on
November 26, 1846, a daughter of Hugh H. and Ellen Williams, natives of Wales,
who left their native country in 1838 and came to this country, settling in
Wisconsin, where both spent the remainder of their lives. To Mr. and Mrs. Lewis
two children have been born, Jennie, now deceased, who was a graduate of the
Crete (Nebraska) Congregational College, and Sarah Ann, widow of John H. Jones,
who has two sons, Lewis and Edwin Lloyd Jones, and now lives at Wymore,
Nebraska. Mr. and Mrs. Lewis are members of the Episcopal church and take a
proper interest in local church work. Mr. Lewis is a member of the Independent
Order of Odd Fellows and for years has taken an active interest in the affairs
of that organization.


Additional Comments:
Extracted from:

History of Marshall County, Kansas: its people, industries, and institutions
by
Emma E. Forter

Indianapolis, Ind.: B.F. Bowen & Co. (1917)

File at: http://files.usgwarchives.net/ks/marshall/bios/lewis35bs.txt

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