My Genealogy Hound

R. LEWIS, an experienced business man and popular druggist of Dowagiac, Cass County, Mich., is a practical pharmacist and thoroughly at home in the responsible duties of compounding and dispensing. Our subject is a native of Marion County, Ohio, and was born July 6, 1856. He was one of the large family of Eben and Hettie (McWilliams) Lewis, about whose hearth clustered seven sons and daughters. The father, a native of the Empire State, was a miller by trade, and after an upright and industrious life passed away in Ohio, at the age of sixty-three years. The paternal grandfather, Eben Lewis, a lifetime resident of New York, was a lineal descendant of the noted Francis Lewis, an American Revolutionary statesman, born in Llandaff, Glamorganshire, Wales, in March, 1713. This honored ancestor of our subject was at the outbreak of the Revolution elected to the Continental Congress, and in May, 1775, took his seat in that body as one of the delegates from New York. He signed the Declaration of Independence, and, with the exception of one short interval, continued to be a Member of Congress until April, 1779. Various branches of the Lewis family have attained to eminence, and the name is an honored one throughout the Empire State.

The mother of our subject was a Pennsylvanian by birth, and was a granddaughter of Samuel McWilliams, a pioneer settler and prominent resident of the Quaker State. The parents early made their home in the West, and in Valparaiso, Ind., Mr. Lewis completed his studies by attending the excellent Normal School of that thriving city. He next served an apprenticeship in the drug business, and thus employed was for four years located in Freeport, Ill. Before entering permanently into the handling of drugs, he successfully taught school nine terms in the States of Ohio and Indiana. In the spring of 1890, Mr. Lewis bought the drug business of Coleman & Defendorf, at Dowagiac, Mich., and has since given his entire time to the demands of his large and constantly increasing business. He first engaged in the drug business for himself in Nevada, Iowa, in 1885, where he continued in business for four years, under the firm name of Lewis & Simmons. In March, 1889, they closed out their business in Nevada and opened a drug store in Boone, Iowa, June 15, and continued the business until they were burned out, September 8, 1889. The following spring Lewis & Simmons came to Dowagiac and purchased the present business. This firm continued until September 15, 1890, when Mr. Lewis bought Mr. Simmons interest, since which time he has continued the business alone.

Our subject was united in marriage September 30, 1885, to Miss Ella Wood, of Deep River, Ind. Mrs. Lewis is the daughter of Nathan Wood and the granddaughter of John Wood. His father participated in the battle of Bunker Hill and was a native of New England, born in Salem, Mass., the Wood family being among the early colonists who settled upon the shores of the old Bay State. The pleasant home of Mr. and Mrs. Lewis has been brightened by the presence of one daughter, Claire. Although but comparatively a brief time residents of Michigan, they now enjoy the esteem of a large circle of acquaintances and find in their new home the generous hospitality and ready appreciation ever extended by the citizens of Dowagiac to all enterprising new-comers. Our subject, while not in any sense of the word a politician, is interested in public affairs and is in conviction a Democrat. Fraternally, he is a valued member of the Masonic order and is an active Knight of Pythias in the lodge of Dowagiac.