Hancock County, West Virginia Biography of George Edwin LEWIS, M. D. This file was submitted by Valerie Crook, E-mail address: The submitter does not have a connection to the subject of this sketch. This file may be freely copied by individuals and non-profit organizations for their private use. All other rights reserved. Any other use, including publication, storage in a retrieval system, or transmission by electronic, mechanical, or other means requires the written approval of the file's author. This file is part of the WVGenWeb Archives. If you arrived here inside a frame or from a link from somewhere else, our front door is at http://www.usgwarchives.net/wv/wvfiles.htm The History of West Virginia, Old and New Published 1923, The American Historical Society, Inc., Chicago and New York, Volume III, pg. 218 GEORGE EDWIN LEWIS, M. D. Coming to Chester in 1900, Dr. George Edwin Lewis has been engaged in the unbroken practice of his calling ever since, and during these twenty- two years has not only built up a material success but has risen to a leading place in the Hancock County medical profession. He has likewise been identified with civic and business affairs, and in a number of ways has gained the right to be numbered among his community's most useful and highly-respected citizens. Doctor Lewis was born January 19, 1873, on a farm one mile from the National Road and about the same distance from the Pennsylvania State Line, in Ohio County, West Virginia. The first of the family to locate in this section was John Lewis, who was born March 1, 1775, and was reared near Baltimore, Maryland. He is known to have lived near Lake Erie, where he kept a public house at one time, and also was for a time a resident of Uniontown, Pennsylvania, as his son George was born there July 2, 1814. It seems that a removal was soon made to Whitely, near Morgantown, West Virginia, and that he served as captain of a company of infantry for eight months during the latter part of the War of 1812. The family removed thence to Central Ohio about 1820, as John Lewis met his death by drowning in 1845 while crossing Wills Creek in a skiff during a freshet. About the year 1854 his son George settled near Valley Grove, Ohio County, some twelve miles east of Wheeling, where he died at the age of eighty-seven years. Like his father, he was a shoemaker as well as a farmer. His son, William G. Lewis, was born in 1845. William G. Lewis, after his marriage to Samantha Cham- bers, then living in Washington County, Pennsylvania, but a native of Marshall County, West Virginia, where she was born February 7, 1851, settled on a farm near his old home place, which was located but one and one-half miles west of West Alexander, Pennsylvania, one mile from the Na- tional Road. There he spent his life on his farm. During the Civil war he was a member of the Home Guards. He was first a republican, later a prohibitionist and finally again a republican, but never sought office, being content with his farm and his home. He belonged to the United Presbyterian Church at West Alexander. His widow sur- vives him at the old farm, which is now being operated by one of his sons, James Chambers Lewis. George Edwin Lewis attended the country schools of Ohio County, later pursuing a course at the Normal School at West Liberty at the time when R. A. Armstrong was principal of that institution. Even while attending normal school he was engaged in teaching in the country schools, and thus divided his time for three years, following which he began to read medicine under the preceptorship of Doe- tor Woods of West Alexander. Later he pursued a course in the medical department of the Western University of Pennsylvania, now the University of Pittsburgh, and was graduated as a member of the class of 1897, receiving the degree of Doctor of Medicine. At that time he began his practice at Hanoverton, where he remained for over two years, and in 1900 came to Chester, prior to the organiza- tion of the town, when it consisted of only about 500 popu- lation. He is the only physician and surgeon at Chester of unbroken practice, and devotes all of his attention to the care of his patients. He has a large practice of a gen- eral character, is on the training school board of East Liver- pool Hospital, and serves as the local health officer at Chester. Doctor Lewis holds membership in all the leading medical societies. He is an original stockholder and a director of the First National Bank of Chester. Doctor Lewis belongs to the Presbyterian Church. He is a Knight Templar Mason at Wheeling and a Noble of Osiris Temple, A. A. O. N. M. S., of Wheeling, and in the Scottish Bite of Masonry has attained to the fourteenth degree. His hobby is the collecting of antiques, especially fire-arms, of which he has a large, interesting and valuable assortment of all times. He belongs to the local gun club and the National Bine Association, but, while an excellent marks- man, is not a tournament player. Doctor Lewis married Miss Hettie Curtis, of West Lib- erty, a normal school classmate, who is now a leader in Sunday School and missionary societies of the Presbyterian Church, and a woman of many accomplishments and numer- ous friends. She and her husband have two daughters: Helen Virginia, a graduate of the Chester High School, who is now a senior student at the Margaret Morrison School at Pittsburgh, Pennsylvania; and Elsie Marion, who is one of the most popular students at the East Liverpool High School, where she is president of the senior class, 1922. Doctor Lewis is a member of the East Liverpool Kiwanis Club.