Clinton J. LEWIS has been a resident of Iowa the greater part of the time since he was a lad of about eighteen years, and here he has found ample opportunity for successful achievement in connection with the practical affairs of life. He was actively identified with farm industry many years, and he is now engaged in the real estate and insurance business at Mount Ayr, the judicial center of Ringgold County.

Mr. LEWIS was born in Marion County, Illinois, June 17, 1851. In 1869 he came to Davenport, Iowa where he engaged in farm enterprise in that vicinity. Mr. LEWIS is a son of Joel and Rachel (HITE) LEWIS. Joel LEWIS was a son of Walter LEWIS, who was born in Virginia and who was a representative of the same family line as was Martha, wife of General George WASHINGTON, her family name having been LEWIS. Of the same family was Meriwether LEWIS, a Revolutionary soldier and one of the principals in the great and historic LEWIS and CLARK expedition in the Pacific coast. The lineage of the LEWIS family is traced back to staunch Welsh origin, Charles R. O'NEIL, father of Mrs. Clinton J. LEWIS, went forth as a loyal soldier of the Union in the Civil war, in which he was wounded in battle, at Fort Donelson, in February, 1862, from the results of which injuries he died at the close of the war.

Clinton J. LEWIS was reared to the sturdy discipline of the farm and received the advantages of the public schools of the period, his initial training having been gained in district schools of rural order. While in Salem, Illinois, he studied law under the preceptorship of Judge Silas BRYAN, father of the late Hon. William Jennings BRYAN, and though he was duly admitted to the bar he never engaged actively in the practice of law. As a young man Mr. LEWIS was employed by a construction company that installed the first telegraph lines from Des Moines to Council Bluffs, and he reverts with satisfaction to his participation in this pioneer Iowa enterprise. Thereafter he was engaged in farm operation in Scott County, this state, and after his marriage, which occurred in 1875, he was similarly engaged in Taylor County until 1888, when he removed with his family to Ringgold County, where he became a successful and influential representative of progressive agriculture and stock-growing industry, he having developed one of the fine farm estates of the county and being still owner of this valuable property. The death of his wife occurred in 1904, and within a short time thereafter Mr. LEWIS retired from his farm and established residence at the county seat, Mount Ayr, where he has since continued to be engaged in the real-estate and insurance business. He is a Republican in political allegiance and has been influential in community affairs, especially in his several years of progressive administration in the office of mayor of Mount Ayr. He has membership in the United Presbyterian Church, of which his wife likewise was a zealous adherent.

In Madison County, Kentucky, the year 1875 recorded the marriage of Mr. LEWIS to Miss Addie O'NEIL, who was born in Illinois and who was graduated in the Kentucky Female Institute. Prior to her marriage she had been a successful and popular teacher in the Kentucky schools. She was of Irish Protestant ancestry and was a daughter of Charles R. and Harriet (HENSLEY) O'NEIL. As previously stated, the death of Mrs. LEWIS occurred in the year 1904, and she is survived by two sons and one daughter: Charles J. is a representative member of the Ringgold County bar and is engaged in the practice of his profession at Mount Ayr; Florence Mary is the wife of Grant FREDERICK, of Saint Joseph, Missouri, and they have two children, Lucy and Charles; Frank C. is likewise one of the successful and popular members of the Ringgold County bar and is associated in practice with his brother, Charles J., at Mount Ayr.

SOURCE: HARLAN, Edgar Rubey. A Narrative History of the People of Iowa Vol. IV. American Historical Society. Chicago. 1931.

Transcription by Sharon R. Becker, April of 2009