Lewis, Daniel M. (1829-1918)

LEWIS

Posted By: Karon Velau (email)
Date: 12/1/2016 at 22:55:21

The Advocate-Tribune newspaper, Indianola, Iowa, Thursday, Jan 4, 1906, front page

History of Warren County, by Geo. A. Epps

Daniel M. Lewis
D. M. Lewis was born January 10, 1829, in Tyler county, West Virginia. When he was eight years old his father moved to Cleremont county, Ohio, and remained there two years, when he moved to Vigo county, Indiana, and bought a farm; here he farmed and kept tavern for five years; he then moved to Clay county, and from there to Randolph county. Mr. Lewis worked on the farm for his father until he was eighteen years old and then he went to work for a man named Harris, in Wayne county, Indiana, where he stayed until he came to Iowa in 1852. After coming to Iowa he worked a while in Greenfield township, this county. He then went to work for John D. Parmalee in his saw mill on Middle river in Richland township. In 1856 he rented a 160 acre farm located on Middle river and farmed one year before he was married; raised a big crop; after shelling it with the old fashioned flail, sold it at ten cents a bushel. During the six years he farmed this place he sold at one time sixty head of hogs to Lewis Igo, driving them to Palmrya for which he received 31.7 cents per cwt. Mr. Igo drove the hogs to Keokuk. At one time he sold 3,000 bushels of corn at Avon, delivering it at twenty cents a bushel. He says we thought in those days that we were getting booming prices when corn went up to fifteen and twenty cents. Farm machinery was crude and imperfect in those days. In ‘50s and ‘60s [1850s & 1860s] I planted 100 acres of corn by the old fashioned hand drop method, my brother doing the dropping at the rate of ten to twelve acres a day; I covered the corn with a double shovel plow of my own contrivance (I still have it). The two shovels throwing the dirt inward so as to ridge up over the row slightly. The first corn marker I ever saw I made for marking this field; I used four runners so that eight rows were marked out at a round, and he says that I am ashamed to say that I made this marker on Sunday. There were no reapers, binders, mowers, corn planters, riding plows, cultivators, potato diggers, hay rakes, in those days. We used the scythe and cradle for harvesting wheat; there was but few oats raised then. After farming the old Pierson farm for six years I bought the farm on which I now live. I married in 1857 Miss Thankful Burt; George P. Renslow now living in southern Missouri, then clerking for John D. Parmalee at the mills, and Miss Emily Steele were married at the same time. All four of us went to
Des Moines on a wedding tour; it rained all day. At that time there was not a covered two seated carriage in Richland township, but we hired an old mail hack and went to the capital of the state in great style, proud of the strength of our young manhood and proud of our new brides. Mr. Lewis was forty years old when he joined the church and determined to travel that straight and narrow path which leads unto everlasting life; his only regret is that he did not start earlier; and for nearly thirty seven years he has been endeavoring to lead the life of a manly man. He is a member of the M. E. church, worships with the congregation at Farmers’ chapel of this society. He has been that faithful class leader for many years. Forty years is a critical period in the age of every individual; his character is then formed, his ideal is then realized. After that period it is much more difficult to change and build character than before. Our acquaintance with Mr. Lewis for the last thirty five years leads us to believe that the change which occurred when he united with the church has been a permanent one. In politics Mr. Lewis has always identified himself with the republican party, but he has a strong leaning in the direction of prohibition, and again party ties are not so strong with him but what he would sometimes vote for what he thought was for the best man regardless of the party to which he belonged. Like a great many men of Mr. Lewis’ age, the facilities for education in his boyhood were not good, so that about three months was all that Mr. Lewis ever attended school, so that his education is of that practical sort which his experience in life made it possible for him to pick up. He says that he found a word in the back part of his spelling book one day which he could not pronounce; he placed his finger under the word and went to his teacher for help; his teacher was an elderly gentleman with a great pair of brass framed spectacles astride his nose; the teacher looked at the word for a while and then a nervous cough escaped from this throat, he then lowered his glasses and looked over them at the word for a while and told Mr. Lewis to go to his seat saying that it was some outlandish word which had no meaning therefore not necessary to waste valuable time in trying to pronounce the word. Thus we see that the teachers of ye olden time often knew more about chopping wood and splitting rails than they did about teaching the young mind how to think. Mr. Lewis’ farm of ninety acres is situated six miles northeast of Indianola in the southwest part of Palmyra township; he has a good house and barn, and is certainly a nice place to spend the sunset of life. In January 1902 the good wife, who for forty-five years had assisted him in making his home, passed away. His adopted daughter, Mrs. Willis Eicher, and family are living with him. Mr. Lewis is not a man who looks at the dark side of the picture of life, although approaching the four score mile post in life he enjoys a good joke and loves to talk of the hardships and adventures of the early settlers of old Warren county.