Earlier this week, on April 15, I noted a family milestone and it had nothing to do with taxes.
Thomas Jefferson Lewis, my great-great-grandfather was born on that day in
1850. Before we get to him, I want to
share about one of his sons, Paul Lewis, who played a role in my lifelong
interest in family history.
Thomas Jefferson Lewis Sr with his wife, early 1920's (he died in 1925I met the man just once but our time together has proved to be significant,
and has steered the course of my life into the past. At a multi-generational
family reunion where the stories flowed faster than the creek waters beside our
pavilion and fried chicken filled our bellies, my great-great uncle Paul, my
great-grandfathers brother, fired my imagination and set me on a path leading
backward into history. At the time, he was one of the oldest living members of
the Lewis family, my maternal grandmothers family and when my mother introduced
us, he told her to leave me with him for a while. So, she did.
I don’t know what he saw in me that day that was any different than the
dozen or more other children running around the park, but I sat on the grass at
his feet and listened as he talked about the family history. Although I don’t
recall every word he said, I do remember much of what he said. He talked about
his father who had been acting sheriff of Buchanan County when outlaw Jesse
James died, and about his grandparents who made the pioneer trek into Missouri.
They were headed for California when they ended up in St. Joseph, Missouri but
when their seventh son, Thomas Jefferson Lewis, made his appearance on April 15,
1850, they stayed. Maybe it was originally for the season, and maybe not, but
they settled down and put their roots into Missouri soil.
By the time they reached St. Joe, the Lewis family had already trekked
across the ocean from Belfast to the colony of Virginia. They homesteaded there
long before the American Revolution but when that war erupted, they fought for
the fledgling nation and some of my ancestor died for it as well. As the years
passed and the country expanded westward, they moved into Kentucky, and lived
there for a few generations before packing up once more to spend some time in
Sangamon County, Illinois. From there, they were bound for California (or some
say it might have been Oregon) but they stopped in St. Joe.
Uncle Paul’s stories fired my imagination. At nine, I already had a
passion for the past. When other little girls played house, I preferred to take
it a step farther and play what I called olden days or wagon train. When I learned my own
folks had been pioneers a few generations back, I was hooked for a lifetime of
pursuing genealogy.
From the few scraps of information I inherited, over the years I’ve traced
the Lewis family line back into the 1700s. Their story is a rich historical
tapestry filled with triumphs and tragedies, a personal version of the American
story.
A few years ago, when my daughters and I made a trek to northern Virginia, we passed through the country where my ancestors first settled in the New World. I delighted in viewing the country they called home and trying to imagine it as it once was.
During our travels, we came across many highways designated as memorials
in several states. In Virginia, we found ourselves traveling down the John
Lewis Memorial Highway, then also on the Andrew Lewis Memorial Highway. John
Lewis is a direct ancestor of ours and Andrew is his brother. We passed
through Lewis County in Virginia, also named for another of our Lewis kin. As
the saying goes, I felt like I was walking in tall cotton that day.
My maternal grandfather also came from Virginia but from the southwest
corner of the state. Other ancestors on various branches of my family tree also
have a connection to Virginia or one of the other states we traveled through in
the region.
The Lewis history is far too detailed and diverse to share in a single
column but my Missouri branch began in April 1950, when my great-great
grandfather was born in St. Joseph, Missouri to pioneers who decided they’d come
far enough.
