Abraham B. B. Lewis (1821 - 1908)

Born 3 Jun 1821 in Marion County, Indiana

Ancestors

Husband of Artemissa Harris — married [date unknown] in Williamsport, Warren County, Indiana

Descendants

Died 4 Feb 1908 at age 86 in Philomath, Oregon

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Biography

This biography was auto-generated by a GEDCOM import.^[1] It's a rough draft and needs to be edited.

Note

Note: #NI0088

Sources

1. ↑ Lewis-13645 was created by Bill Huitt through the import of hehuitt7.GED on Sep 8, 2014. This comment and citation can be deleted after the biography has been edited and primary sources are included.

Notes

Note NI0088Abraham B. B. Lewis. In the days of his buoyant youth , and when teaching school or farming, or risking his life on the battlefields of the Mexican or Civil wars, Abraham B. B. Lewis was as fine a specimen of physical manhood as one could find in the length and breadth of this great country of ours. Six feet two inches in height, broad chested, perfectly proportional and erect as an arrow, he was the cynosure of all eyes wherever he went, and the admiration of all who were permitted to note the harmonious blending of his material and mental endowments. At present Mr. Lewis is a very old man, four score and two years, and paralysis has caused his shoulders to stoop, and his hardihood to vanish, but his mind is clear and rich in memory, and he is still a comfort to his many friends in Philomath.

For centuries the Lewis ancestors pursued their various occupations in the snug little country of Wales, the first to think seriously of departing from accustomed haunts being the paternal grandfather, John, who came to America at the age of fourteen. He settled presumably in the state of Kentucky, where he farmed for the rest of his life, and from where he enlisted in the Colonial army during the Revolutionary war. In Kentucky was born his son, Thomas S., the father of Abraham B. B., and who in 1819 removed to near Madison Indiana, later taking up residence on a farm near Indianapolis, Indiana, where Abraham B. B. was born July 3, 1821. Thomas S. Lewis removed to Schulyer county. Mo., and in 1855 to near Humboldt, Kan., where he died in 1858. He was a successful farmer and to an otherwise creditable life added valuable service as a non-commissioned officer during the war of 1812. Through his marriage with Margaret Ellen Bayle, a native of Scotland, and who died near Indianapolis, eight children were born, five sons and three daughters, Abraham being the second oldest.

Educated in common schools and at Franklin College, Indiana, Abraham Lewis began teaching school in the Hoosier state in 1844, and in 1854 shifted his educational field to Higginsville, Ill. In 1874 he removed to St. Clair, Mo., and after teaching a term engaged in general farming and stock-raising for about twelve years. Coming to Oregon in 1887, he took up a homestead near Veronia, Columbia county, and successfully improved his one hundred and twenty acres, remaining thereon until retiring from active life in Philomath in 1895. Interspersed principally with his teaching has been the military service of Mr. Lewis, which began in May, 1846, when he enlisted as a private in Company H, First Indiana Volunteer Infantry, and went to the front in Mexico, remainig away from home until the following January. He then re-enlisted in Company D, Fourth Indiana Volunteer Infantry as first lieutenant, and served until his discharge in July, 1848. During the service he participated in the battle of Huamantla, Mexico, a town located two days'march from Pueblo and where the Mexicans were defeated by the Americans October 9, 1847. He also took part in innumerable skirmishes of a more or less serious nature, during the first part of his service being in the Taylor line, and during the latter part in the Scott line. During the Civil war Mr. Lewis enlisted July 3, 1861, in Company 1, Thirty-fifth Illinois Volunteer Infantry as captain and at St. Louis was under General Fremont, and later under General Buell. He took part in many minor battles and skirmishes, and in 1862 found himself in Louisville, Kentucky. Here he was overtaken by a severe attack of rheumatism, in consequence of which his service was curtailed, and his discharge took place in Louisville in 1863.

Near Williamsport, Warren County, Ind., Mr. Lewis was united in marriage with Artemisa Harris, a native of Marion county, Ind.and daughter of Benjamin Harris, who came from Kentucky to Indiana, locating in Marion county, and afterward removing to Boone and Warren counties. Mr. Harris was a Baptist preacher and a farmer, and died in Park county, Ind. Of the ten children born to Mr. and Mrs. Lewis two are deceased. The oldest son, Willis Oscar, is living in Missouri; William Wallace is a resident of Oregon; Milton Douglas; Benton Edgar; Minnie Agnes is the wife ofJ. K. Atkinson, of Gaston, Ore.; Effie Estella is now Mrs. William H. Dark, of Portland Ore.; Orphia Nina is the wife of Robert A. Clark of Philomath: and Louise E. is the wife of S. O. Watkins, the latter a professor in the Philomath College. In politics thoroughly independent, Mr. Lewis has served as justice of the peace in Missouri and Oregon for about eleven years, and he was a school director in Columbia county, Ore. He is a member of the Cumberland Presbyterian Church, and during his life has contributed unstintingly toward its maintenance. a man of fine principle, great capacity for industry, and unflagging zeal in whatever he undertook to do, he furnishes a worthy example of the transported easterner who soon becomes at home and at ease in his new and more purposeful surroundings.

Source: Portrait and Biographical Record of Willamette Valley--Chapman Co., Chicago, 1903 (pages 980-981); Oregon Historical Society Library, 920 P832, Portland, OR.