My Genealogy Hound

CAPT. CHARLES J. LEWIS was born in the township of Bethel, Windsor county, Vt., Sept. 21, 1840. His father, Reuben T. Lewis, was a shoemaker by trade, and during the greater portion of his business life carried on the business of a boot and shoe merchant. His mother’s maiden name was Jane Caroline Sanders, who descended from a line of distinguished New Englanders. In 1845 he removed with his parents to the town of Petersburg, Ill. Poor health and reverses in fortune compelled his father to return with his family to Vermont in the year 1851. Young Lewis was almost entirely deprived of early school advantages, so much so that at the age of fifteen he had not been taught even the rudiments of the English branches. At the age of sixteen he began to realize the necessity of a suitable education, and accordingly, in the fall of 1856, entered the People’s Academy, at Morrisville, Vt., penniless and almost shabbily dressed, but determined to acquire a fair business education, though dependent upon his own exertions for his support. At the close of the first term he appeared before the school commissioners and successfully passed an examination, and received a certificate of qualification as a teacher in the common schools. Armed with this authority he engaged and taught the winter term of a back district school, building the fires and sweeping the schoolroom himself, and “boarding round,” receiving as compensation the sum of twelve dollars per month. By teaching winter terms, and working for farmers during vacations, he maintained himself at the academy until the summer term of 1860, when he graduated, and in the fall of that year entered Middlebury College, of Middlebury, Vt., as a freshman. In the fall of 1862, in his sophomore year, he left the college and enlisted in the Eleventh Vermont Regiment of Volunteers (First Regiment of Heavy Artillery), which he assisted in organizing. In the formation of Battery D, of that regiment, he was appointed a second lieutenant, and was mustered into the service with that rank. He served until the close of the war, being present at the surrender of Lee. He was mustered out as captain on the fifteenth day of May, 1865, considerably broken down in health from the effects of chronic diarrhoea, which the exposure and fatigue of the last campaign proved. He participated in a great number of the important battles in which the Army of the Potomac were engaged; viz., Wilderness, Cold Harbor, Spottsylvania, Petersburg, Charlestown, Winchester, Cedar Creek, Bald Hill, Opequan Creek, Five Forks, and Sailors’ Run, besides numerous engagements of lesser consequence. During his school days he had been preparing himself for the legal profession, devoting what time he could to that end. At the close of the war he at once resumed these studies, and at the December term of the Lamoille county court (1866) he was admitted to practice in the courts of the State of Vermont, and at once opened a law office at Morrisville, Vt. He was married Feb. 1, 1866, to Maria L. Slocurn, a refined and educated lady, who had been his schoolmate while at the academy. One child, a boy, was born to them, who died in his infancy, and was buried in Lawrence, Kan. Capt. Lewis was prosecuting attorney of Lamoille county, Vt., for two terms; was also superintendent of schools for one term. In 1868 he moved west and located at Lawrence, Kan., where in the spring of 1870 he was elected judge of the city court. In 1875 he became interested in the construction of gas-works, and in April of that year moved to Sherman, Tex., where he constructed the city gas-works for a St. Louis firm. In the fall of 1876 he moved to Joplin, Mo., where he still resides. He constructed the gas-works of that city, of which he still has charge. In 1878 he built the gas-works at Carthage, Mo., with which he still holds the position of consulting engineer. Dec. 1, 1881, he was appointed by the stockholders of the Joplin Water Company as their superintendent and general manager. This appointment very greatly increased his already very long line of duties, but the different institutions under his charge have all prospered to the full expectation and satisfaction of the owners. Capt. Lewis is a fifth degree member of the I. O. O. F., and a member of the Encampment; he is also a Mason of the degree of Knight Templar. In politics he is a Democrat of the anti-Bourbon school, but does not take an active part in their management. In religious belief he is a free-thinker.