Augusta County Virginia USGenWeb Archives Biographies.....Lewis, John 
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Source: Historical Collections of Virginia, by Henry Howe, 1845
Author: Henry Howe

John Lewis was a native and a citizen of Ireland, descended from a family of
Huguenots, who took refuge in that kingdom fom the persecutions that followed
the assassination of Henry IV of France. His rank was  that of an Esquire, and
he inherited a handsome estate, which he increased by industry and frugality,
until he became the lessee of a contiguous property, of considerable value. He
married Margaret Lynn, the daughter of the laird of Loch Lynn, who was a
descendant of the chieftains of a once powerful clan in the Scottish Highlands.
By this marriage he had four sons, three of them, Thomas, Andrew, and William,
born in Ireland, and Charles, the child of his old age, born a few months after
their settlement in their mountain home. 

The emigration of John Lewis to Virginia, was the result of one of those bloody
affrays, which at that time so often occurred to disturb the repose, and destroy
the happiness of Irish families. The owner of the fee out of which the leasehold
of Lewis was carved, a nobleman of profligate habits and ungovernable passions,
seeing the prosperity of his lessee, and repenting the bargain he had concluded,
under pretence of entering fo an alleged breach of condition, attempted by the
aid of a band of ruffians, hired fo his pupose, to take forcible possession of
the premises. For this end, he surrounded the house with his ruffians, and
called upon Lewis to evacuate the premises without delay, a demand which was
instantly and indignantly refused by Lewis; though surprised with a sick
brother, his wife, and infant children in the house, and with no aid but such as
could be afforded by a few faithful domestics. With this small force, scarce
equal to one-fourth the number of his assailants, he resolved to maintain his
legal rights at every hazard. The enraged nobleman commenced the affray by
discharging his fowling-piece into the house, by which the invalid brother of
Lewis was killed, and Margaret herself severely wounded. Upon this, the enraged
husband and brother, rushed fom the house, attended by his devoted little band,
and soon succeeded in dispersing the assailants, though not until the noble
author of the mischief, as well as his steward, had perished by the hand of
Lewis. By this time the family were surrounded by their sympathizing frieds and
neighbors, who, after bestowing every aid in their power, advised Lewi to fly
the country, a measure rendered necessary by the high standing of his late
antagonist, the desperate character of his surviving assailants, and the want of
evidence by which he could have established the facts of the case. He therefore,
after drawing up a detailed statement of the affair, which he directed to the
proper authorities, embarked on board a vessel bound for America, attended by
his family and a band of about thirty of his faithful tenantry. In due time the
emigrants landed on the shores of Virginia, and fixed their residence amid the
till then unbroken forests of west Augusta. John Lewis's settlement was a few
miles below the town of Staunton, on the banks of the stream which still bears
his name. It may be proper to remark here, that when the circumstances of the
affray became known, after due investigation, a pardon was granted to John
Lewis, and patents are still extant, by which his majesty granted to him a large
portion of the fair domain of western Virginia. 

For many years after the settlement at Fort Lewis, great amity and good will
existed between the neighboring Indians and the white settlers, whose numbers
increased space, until they became quite a formidable colony. It was then that
the jealousy of their red neighbors became aroused, and a war broke out, which,
for cool though desperate courage and activity on the part of the whites, and
ferocity, cunning and barbarity of the part of the Indians, was never equalled
in any age or country. John Lewis was, by this time, well stricken in years, but
his four sons, who were now grown up, were well qualified to fill his place, and
to act the part of the leaders to the gallant little band, who so nobly battled
for the protection of their homes and families. It is not my purpose to go into
the details of a warfare, during which scarcely a settlement was exempt from
monthly attacks of the savages, and during which Charles Lewis, the youngest son
of John, is said never to have spent one month at a time out of active and
arduous service. Charles was the hero of many a gallant exploit, which is still
treasured in the memories of the descendants of the border riflemen, and there
are few families among the Alleghanies where the name and deeds of Charles Lewis
are not familiar as household words. On one occasion, Charles was captured by
the Indians while on a hunting excursion, and after having travelled some two
hundred miles, barefoot, his arms pinioned behind him, goaded on by the knives
of his remorseless captors, he effected his escape. While travelling along the
bank of a precipice some twenty feet in height, he suddenly, by a strong
muscular exertion, burst the cords which bound him, and plunged down the steep
into the bed of a mountain torrent. His persecutors hesitated not to follow. In
a race of several hundred yards, Lewis had gained some few yards upon his
pursuers, when, upon leaping a prostrate tree which lay across his course, his
strength suddenly failed, and he fell prostrate among the weeds which had grown
up in great luxuriance around the body of the tree. Three of the Indians sprang
over the tree within a few feet of where their prey lay concealed; but with a
feeling of the most devout thankfulness to a kind and superintending Providence,
he saw them one by one disappear into the dark recesses of the forest. He now
bethought himself of rising from his uneasy bed, when lo! a new enemy appeared,
in the shape of an enormous rattlesnake, who had thrown himself into the deadly
coil so near his face that his fangs were within a few inches of his nose; and
his enormous rattle, as it waved to and fro, once rested upon his ear. A single
contraction of the eyelid--a convulsive shudder--the relaxation of a single
muscle, and the deadly beast would have sprung upon him. In this situation he
lay for several minutes, when the reptile, probably supposing him to be dead,
crawled over his body and moved slowly away. "I had eaten nothing," said Lewis
to his companions, after his return, "for many days; I had no fire-arms, and I
ran the risk of dying from hunger, ere I could reach the settlement; but rather
would I have died, than made a meal of the generous beast." During this war, an
attack was made upon the settlement of Fort Lewis, at a time when the whole
force of the settlement was ot on active duty. So great was the surprise, that
many of the women and children were captured in sight of the fort, though far
the greater part escaped, and concealed themselves in their hiding places, in
the woods. The fort was occupied by John Lewis, then very old and infirm, his
wife, and two young women who were so much alarmed that they scarce moved from
their seats upon the ground floor of the fort. John Lewis, however, opened a
port-hole, where he stationed himself, firing at the savages, while Margaret
reloaded the guns, In this manner he sustained a siege of six hours, during
which he killed upwards of a core of savages, when he was relieved by the
appearance of his party. 

Thomas Lewis, the eldest son of John Lewis and Margaret Lynn, labored under a
defect of vision, which disabled him as a marksman, and he was, therefore, less
efficient during the Indian wars than his brethren. He was, however, a man of
learning and sound judgment, and represented the county of Augusta for many
years in the House of Burgesses; was a member of the convention which ratified
the constitution of the United States, and formed the constitution of the United
States, and formed the constitution of Virginia, and afterwards   sat for the
county of Rockingham in the House of Delegates of Virginia. In 1765, he was in
the House of Burgesses, and voted for Patrick Henry's celebrated resolutions.
Thomas Lewis had four sons actively participating in the war of the revolution;
the youngest of whom, Thomas, who is now living, bore an ensign's commission
when but fourteen years of age.

Andrew, the second son of John Lewis and Margaret Lynn, is the Gen. Lewis who
commanded at the battle of Point Pleasant. (See his memoir in Bottetourt Co)

Charles Lewis, the youngest of the sons of John Lewis, fell at the head of his
regiment, when leading on the attack at Point Pleasant. Charles was esteemed the
most skilful of all the leaders of the border warfare, and was as much beloved
for his noble and amiable qualities as he was admired for his military talents. 

William, the third son, was an active participator in the border wars, and was
an officer of the revolutionary army, in which one of his sons was killed, and
another maimed for life. When the British force under Tarleton drove the
legislature from Charlottesville to Staunton, the stillness of the Sabbath eve
was broken in the latter town by the beat of the drum, and volunteers were
called for to prevent the passage of the British through the mountains at
Rockfish Gap. The elder sons of Wm. Lewis, who then resided at the old fort,
were absent with the northern army. Three sons, however, were at home, whose
ages were 17, 15, and 13 years. Wm. Lewis was confined to his room by sickness,
but his wife, with the firmness of a Roman matron, called them to her, and bade
them fly to the defence of their native land. "Go my children," said she, "I
spare not my youngest, my fair-haired boy, the comfort of my declining years. I
devote you all to my country. Keep back the foot of the invader from the soil of
Augusta, or see my face no more." When this incident was related to Washington,
shortly after its occurrence, he enthusiastically exclaimed, "Leave me but a
banner to plant upon the mountains of Augusta, and I will rally around me the
men who will lift our bleeding country from the dust, and set her free."

I have frequently heard, when a boy, and anecdote related by an old settler,
somewhat to this effect: The white, or wild clover, is of indigenous growth, and
abounded on the banks of the rivers, &c. The red was introduced by John Lewis,
and it was currently reported by their prophets, and believed by the Indians
generally, that the blood of the red man slain by the Lewises and their
followers, had dyed the trefoil to its sanguine hue. The Indians, however,
always did the whites the justice to say, that the red man was the aggressor in
their first quarrel, and that the white men of western Virginia had always
evinced a disposition to treat their red brethren with moderation and justice. 


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