My Genealogy Hound

JAMES C. LEWIS, manufacturer, Emsworth, a suburb of Pittsburgh, was born Feb. 22, 1822, and is the fifth son of George Lewis, Sr., and Susannah (Hunt) Lewis, who were the parents of ten children. George Lewis, Sr., was born in Merthyr Tydvill, South Wales, Jan. 12, 1788. He was the pioneer in the manufacture of rolled iron in America. After serving an apprenticeship to the iron trade in his native country, he immigrated to America in 1816, and joined his brother, Thomas C. Lewis (who had crossed the ocean the year before), in erecting a rolling-mill for Isaac Mason, in Fayette county, Pa. Previous to this time bar-iron was made by the slow, imperfect and expensive process of forging under a forge-hammer. As in other new enterprises, failure was predicted, but the operation was successfully performed, and a complete revolution in the manufacture of iron was inaugurated in this country. In starting these works Thomas C. Lewis was engineer, George Lewis, Sr., roller and roll-turner, Samuel Lewis, heater, and James Lewis, catcher (all brothers), and Samuel C., son of Thomas C., heave-up. George Lewis, Sr., continued in the management of the mechanical department of these works till 1819, when he resigned to go to Pittsburgh to take charge of the rolling and turning departments of the Union Rolling-mills, then being erected. In 1823 he went to Maryland to complete the Gunpowder Iron-works of Mr. Ridgeley. In 1824 he returned to Pittsburgh, formed a company and erected the Dowlais Iron-works, now known as the Kensington Iron-works. He was regarded as one of the best mechanics of his day, and was applied to whenever there was to be a new mill erected, either to take charge or to furnish plans of the same. He died April 6, 1841, leaving a widow and seven children, of whom James C. Lewis alone survives.

James C. Lewis received his education in private schools and the Western University of Pennsylvania. In boyhood he learned the iron trade, and in 1845, with his brother George and James O’Hara, formed the firm of Lewis, O’Hara & Lewis, and erected the Vesuvius Iron-works at Sharpsburg, Pa., which in 1847 was changed to Lewis, Dalzell & Co. In 1863 George Lewis died and Lewis W., his brother, was taken into the firm. In 1878 the firm was dissolved, and in 1880 Mr. Lewis went to Portsmouth, Ohio, where he organized the Portsmouth Iron & Steel company, of which he was elected president and general superintendent, and his sons, George Sargent, secretary-treasurer, and Frank C., assistant superintendent. Some three years after, Mr. Lewis disposed of his interest in this company and returned to Pittsburgh. He was also connected with the Isabella furnaces at Etna for many years, and was actively engaged in various other kinds of business. Mr. Lewis was married March 7, 1848, to Miss Sarah M., daughter of Dr. John Sargent, of the city of Allegheny, and ten children have been born to them, viz.: Martha M., deceased wife of Dr. W. C. Shaw, of Pittsburgh; George S., who died in November, 1888; Florence E., wife of Charles Linford, artist in Philadelphia; Frank C., superintendent of the cold-die department of Carnegie, Phipps & Co., Beaver Falls, Pa.; Sarah B., wife of John E. Jones, of Portsmouth, Ohio; Alice, Lily and James S., at home, and William and John, who died when children. Mr. Lewis and family are Presbyterians, of which church he has been a ruling elder for some thirty-two years. Politically he is a strong republican, and was a member of the first county, state and national conventions held at Pittsburgh to organize the republican party.