Lewis, Jackson

LEWIS

Posted By: Karon Velau (email)
Date: 9/22/2019 at 16:29:03

Jackson Lewis

(From the 1891 Biographical History of Pottawattamie County, Iowa, p.510)
JACKSON LEWIS, one of the enterprising and well-known citizens of Washington Township, has been a resident of this county since 1878, in which year he came from Fremont County, Iowa. He was born in Hocking County, Ohio, March 27, 1848, the son of Samuel James and Rebecca (Hardin) Lewis, the former a native of New Jersey, and of Puritan ancestry, and the latter of Pennsylvania, of Pennsylvania Dutch ancestry. The parents were married in Perry County, Ohio, and afterward removed to Hocking County, Ohio, where the father died when Jackson was four or five years of age. He was a farmer and blacksmith by trade. Politically he was a Democrat, and religiously was a member of the Old-School Baptist Church. The mother died August 9, 1888, in Lucas County, Iowa, at the age of eighty years. They were the parents of eleven children, two of whom died in childhood, but four sons and five daughters grew to maturity. Two of the sons served in the late war: Ben, who served in the Thirty-fourth Iowa Infantry, died in Lucas County, Iowa, in 1882; Ammi, who served in the same regiment, now resides in Colorado. Jackson was a lad of eleven years when his mother and family moved to Clark County, Iowa, and they afterward returned to Hocking County, Ohio, where they remained for a time, and then returned to Iowa.
Our subject grew to manhood on a farm in Clark County, Iowa, and in 1871 removed to Fremont County, where he lived seven years. He then came to Pottawattamie County, Iowa, first settling on eighty acres two miles south of where he now lives. In 1885 he bought his present farm of Chancey Serry, which consists of 160 acres of well improved land. It is watered by the Little Silver flowing through it, and everything about the farm shows the thrift and prosperity of its owner. He is engaged in general farming and stock-raising.

Mr. Lewis was married May 1, 1870, in Clark County, Illinois, to Isabelle Beal, a woman of intelligence and education, who was born in Washington, Tazewell County, Illinois, the daughter of John Beal, a native of Beaver County, Pennsylvania. He was a son of George Beal, a native of England. John Beal was County Judge of Blackford County, Indiana, many years, and died in Decatur County, Iowa, when seventy-two years of age. The mother of Mrs. Lewis was Ruth (Prichard) Beal, who was born in Virginia and died in Clark County, Iowa, in 1853. She was a daughter of Rev. John Prichard, who was a predestinarian or old-school Baptist minister and baptized Alexander Campbell. Mrs. Lewis was reared and educated in Clark and Decatur Counties, Iowa, and was also a successful teacher before her marriage. Mr. and Mrs. Lewis have four children, viz.: Myrtle Irene, Sarah Elizabeth, Edgar B. and Cornelius Benjamin. They lost one by death, Eva May, their second born, at the age of one year. Politically Mr. Lewis is a Democrat, and has served as Township Trustee and as a member of the School Board. Both he and his wife are members of the Evangelical Church, and both are workers in the Sabbath-school.