JOHN R. LEWIS

      JOHN R. LEWIS, who lives about a mile north from Coulee City, is, doubtless, one of the best known men in Douglas county.  Since the very early days, he has been prominent in every line of industry in the building up and improvement of the country, and has labored here with excellent results.  After settling here, he at once gave his attention to making known the resources of the country and especially to his countrymen, the Welsh people having a desire for a large settlement in the Big Bend country.  He wrote numerous newspaper articles and assisted settlers in finding good locations and in every way possible was very influential in getting the country filled up with a good substantial people.

      John R. Lewis was born in Cardiganshire, Wales, on January lo, 1855, being the son of Thomas and Mary (Jones) Lewis, natives of Wales, also.  His educational training was received in the common schools and he remained in that country vmtil September 24, 1880.  On that date, he landed in Philadelphia, from which place he went to Braddock, Pennsylvania, and took up work at his trade, that of the stonemason, which he had thoroughly mastered in his own country.  For two and one-half years, he labored there, working on the Edgar Thompson steel works.  Mr. Lewis then came west via San Francisco and in March, 1883, filed on a pre-emption and timber culture claim near the present town of Almira.  After spending some years there in building up and getting the country settled, he came to his present location and took a homestead.  But one other settler, Philip McEntee, was in the Coulee.  Mr. Lewis has given his attention almost exclusively to stock raising, since settling in the Coulee, and he has gained remarkable success in this line.  During the year of 1889-90 he l0st two-thirds of his cattle, owing to the heavy winter and storms.  Since that time, however, he has increased his herds until he has a very fine holding at the present time.  Mr, Lewis has always taken a very active interest in political matters and from 1888 to 1892, he served as county commissioner of Douglas county.  He is at the present time, a member of the state central committee of the Republican party and has always attended the county conventions and many of the state conventions.  In 1904, Mr. Lewis received the unanimous voice of the convention nominating him for the state legislature; but owing to the railroad complications, which, as he viewed the field, deterred him from doing what he deemed his duty for the people in that capacity, he refused the nomination.  Mr. Lewis is a progressive, wide awake and talented man.

      In August, 1880, at Aberystwith, Wales, Mr. Lewis married Miss Ellen, daughter of David and Ellen Jones, natives of Wales.  To this union ten children have been born, named as follows: David, March 19, 1884; Mary, April 24, 1885; Edith, March 9, 1887; Olwen, February 7, 1890; Arthur, October 10, 1891; Ellen, January 1, 1893; Blodwen August 14, 1894; Annie, October 18, 1897; Sarah, March 11, 1900; and John, January 28, 1903.

      Mr. and Mrs. Lewis were raised under the influence of the Presbyterian church and are stanch and upright people who have won hosts of friends and are deserving of the esteem and confidence granted them by their fellows.

      [Blodwin and Ellen graduated from Coulee City High School in 1914; Annie (Anna) in 1916; Sarah in 1918; and John (Jack) in 1921.]

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DOUGLAS CO BIO INDEX

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