BIOGRAPHY: Evan G. LEWIS, Cambria County, PA 

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From Wiley, Samuel T., ed. Biographical and Portrait Cyclopedia of Cambria 
County, Pennsylvania. Philadelphia: Union Publishing Co., 1896, p. 134-5
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EVAN G. LEWIS, superintendent of the pattern department of the Cambria Iron 
company of Johnstown, is a son of David and Mary Lewis, and was born August 24, 
1821, in Llanidloes, Montgomeryshire, North Wales. 
     Mr. Lewis was at an early age thrown upon his own responsibilities, his 
mother dying when he was one year old, and his father when he was but ten years 
of age. Mr. Lewis was employed as an errand boy around several business 
establishments, among them being a bookbindery, a printing house, and later as 
helper to a physician and surgeon, being in the employ of the latter a number of 
years. At about this time his brother began the manufacture of carding machines 
used in the manufacture of wool, and Mr. Lewis took a position with him for 
three or four years. His brother closed out this business and came to the United 
States, and Mr. Lewis being again thrown upon his own responsibilities, again 
took up mechanical pursuits, working in the cities of Merthyr Tydvill, Tredeger 
and other places. In 1840, in company with a friend, he came to the United 
States, his destination being Portsmouth, Ohio, but owing to his lack of 
knowledge of the geography of the country, landed at Portsmouth, New Hampshire. 
He soon went west, and engaged in various capacities as a laborer, finally 
securing work in the carpenter shop of the Scioto furnace. That his ability as a 
workman was appreciated, is shown by the fact that in a short time his wages 
were increased from sixty-two and a half cents a day to one dollar and twenty-
five cents per day. In 1844 he came to Brady's Bend, in Armstrong county, this 
State, and worked at any good work that came to hand, until he was placed in the 
pattern-making department of the furnace at that place. This was his first work 
in the line of pattern making. Here he made rapid progress, but began to feel 
the lack of an education, and realizing that it was a great barrier to his 
progress, he resolved to procure a better one. Through the generosity of a 
friend, he was given a scholarship in Allegheny College, at Meadville. He met 
the principal, who, upon a very brief examination, found that the prospective 
pupil did not even know the multiplication table, but being attracted by the 
young man's courage, encouraged him saying they would do all they could for him. 
Mr. Lewis remained two terms and made rapid progress, going so far in 
mathematics as to master the elements of algebra. He afterwards further pursued 
his studies in Lewisburg academy until 1851, when, in company with others, he 
went to California to try his fortune as a gold miner. He remained there 
thirteen months, clearing three thousand dollars, and then returned to 
Pennsylvania, and thence again to his native heath across the Atlantic. 
     After his return to America, in 1853, he took a position in the pattern 
department of the Cambria Iron company, and has been at the head of that 
department ever since. To those who know of the magnitude of these works, no 
explanations are necessary to show the responsible nature of his position, and 
his long continuance in it is the strongest testimony of his efficiency. 
     Politically, Mr. Lewis is a republican, and held the office of councilman 
in Millville borough ten years, and the office of school director and treasurer 
continuously for a period of twenty-seven years. He has always been a staunch 
friend of the common schools, and has, indeed, contributed much towards bringing 
about the excellent schools of the present city of Johnstown. 
     He was married to Mrs. Phoebe J. Geer in the year 1857, and to this union 
has been born one child, Will. F., a draughtsman in the employ of the Cambria 
company.