Stewart County TN Archives Biographies.....Lewis, Sydney Clinton 1860 - 
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Author: Will T. Hale

   SYDNEY CLINTON LEWIS. For many years and in numerous capacities has Sydney

Clinton Lewis been prominent in the community of Tennessee in which he lives.

Both he and his parents are natives of Stewart county, which was the location

chosen, early in the 19th century, by his grandfather, Daniel Lewis, a native of

Wales. In his pioneer community, Daniel Lewis married Rachel Adkins, a resident

of Stewart county, They became the parents of a large family, their children

being twelve in number. Their farm home was occupied by Daniel Lewis until his

death in 1843 at the age of ninety. His youngest son was Isaac Lewis, born near

Bellwood Furnace in 1831. An excellent education, considering the opportunities

of that period and locality, was vouchsafed to Isaac N. Lewis, who acquired a

knowledge of law sufficiently extensive to win his admission to the bar. He did

not, however, elect to follow the profession of law as his life's vocation. He

became the owner of a fair amount of property and his holdings at the time of

the outbreak of the Civil war were of considerable extent. At that time he

enlisted in the Fourteenth Tennessee Regiment, with the rank of captain. He was

later connected with the Forty-ninth Regiment, his company having been

established by Captain Graham. At the Battle of Fort Donelson, Isaac Lewis

received injuries resulting in partial paralysis from which he never wholly

recovered. After that battle he was taken home, his military career being thus

closed. When partial convalescence had made possible any activity whatsoever, he

engaged in teaching in the communities adjacent to his home, and from time to

time also gave service to his fellow-men in the practice of the law. Eventually,

however, his health failed completely. His courageous efforts to perform his

share in existence ceased at last, when in February of 1867 he breathed his

last. His wife, to whom he had been married ten years before, and his five

children survived him. Mrs. Isaac Lewis had been in her girlhood Miss Mary

Settle, a native of Stewart county. She lived to see the growth to maturity of

her sons and daughters. Her life closed in 1880, serene in the faith of the

Methodist church. South, of which her husband also had been a consistent

professor. Laura Ella, the eldest child of Isaac and Mary Lewis, died April 13,

1880; the second, Sydney Clinton, is the special subject of this historical

account; the third, Soulie, is now Mrs. H. C. Vinson, of Dover, Tennessee; the

fourth, I. F. Lewis, is a resident of Stewart county; and the youngest, Lalla, a

resident of Kentucky.



   Sydney Clinton Lewis was born at Indian Mound, in Stewart county, Tennessee,

on August 16, 1860. The public schools of Stewart county, in which he studied

during most of his youth, and those of Bowling Green, Kentucky, which he

attended for one term, gave him the educational foundations upon which his

future development was based. His next step was the entering of the pedagogical

field of activity, in which he was occupied for five years, during which time he

gave his limited leisure to the study of law, until he passed his bar

examinations and was admitted to practice. The year in which he became a

licensed barrister was 1886, but he continued in his former useful profession

for some time subsequently, meanwhile engaging now and then in legal practice,

as time might permit and opportunity offer. Continuing this until 1892, he was

at the same time the recipient of public honor at the hands of his

fellow-citizens in the community, for in 1886 he was appointed clerk and master

of the chancery court of Stewart county. This official position he continued to

hold for fourteen years.



   In 1892 Mr. Lewis formed a partnership for legal practice with Mr. W. M.

Brannon as his associate lawyer. This connection continued until 1908, when it

was dissolved by the death of Mr. Brannon. Thereafter Mr. Lewis practiced

independently until 1911, in which year he formed a partnership with Horace B.

Stout. This firm still exists, in active practice.



   Mr. Lewis established his home in 1910, being in that year married to Miss

Minnie Meadows, a daughter of A. J. Meadows, of Ripley, Tennessee. Mr. and Mrs.

Lewis are the parents of three children, named as follows: Sydney Clinton, Jr.;

Eloline; and William Brandon.



   Sydney C. Lewis is a typical Southern Democrat in polities and has been

especially active in the cause of his party, having since 1909 been a member of

the state Democratic committee. He is not, however, an office-seeker, for his

many professional and business interests require his general attention and his

is not a nature craving the limelight of public positions. His financial

interests have made him an important factor in the Dover Bank & Trust Company,

of which he is president.



   The fraternal connections of Mr. Lewis are as follows: Masonic, in the

Phoenix Lodge, Ancient Free and Accepted Masons, No. 270, in Dover, Tennessee;

Knights of Pythias, in Dover Lodge.



Additional Comments:
From:



A history of Tennessee and Tennesseans : the leaders and representative men in

commerce, industry and modern activities

by Will T. Hale

Chicago:  Lewis Pub. Co.,  1913



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