My Genealogy Hound

COL. JAMES HENRY LEWIS, attorney, of Lewisburg, was born September 17, 1837, in Maury County, Tenn. His grandfather, John C. Lewis, was a native of Virginia, and moved from that State to North Carolina, where he married a daughter of Nathan Forrest, near Orange Court House, at which place Fielding Lewis, father of the subject of this sketch, was born. Subsequently John C. Lewis, with his family, immigrated to Middle Tennessee. Fielding Lewis married Lydia Preston, in Sumner County, Tenn. Her father was a captain of Tennessee Volunteers, under Jackson, at New Orleans in 1815, and died soon after his return home from this campaign of disease contracted in the service. He was a member of the Preston family of Virginia and Kentucky. The grandmother, Lewis, was a member of the same family of which Gen. N. B. Forrest was a descendant, all at one time residents of Bedford and Marshall Counties. Lydia Lewis died in 1860, and Fielding Lewis in 1876. They were both members of the Cumberland Presbyterian Church. The husband was a farmer and mechanic, and was a relative of Gen. Meriwether Lewis, of the “Lewis and Clark Expedition” fame. Col. J. H. Lewis worked on a farm and in the shop until attaining his majority. His opportunities at school were limited, so that his education is almost entirely the result of his own efforts. At the age of twenty-one he began the study of law, and in October, 1859, was admitted to the bar. In 1861 he married Victoria J. Sims, who lost her father in the Mexican war. Her grandfather was John O. Cook, of Maury County, of whose family she was a member, being an orphan girl. Her other grandfather was Gen. Winn, of South Carolina. The result of this union is four children, three of whom are living. Both husband and wife are members of the Cumberland Presbyterian Church. Politically he is a firm Democrat. A short time before his marriage he enlisted in Company I, Second Battalion Tennessee Cavalry, Volunteers, as a private, and within a year was made captain of the company. After the consolidation of the Second and Eleventh Battalions the command was known as the First Regiment Tennessee Cavalry. He served as lieutenant-colonel of the regiment, and commanded the regiment for more than a year of the war. In the latter part of the war he commanded a brigade, including the command at the battles of Averysboro and Bentonville. N. C. After four years’ service he returned home, located in Lewisburg and engaged in the practice of law, and served in the Legislature of the State — session 1871-72 — as joint representative from Marshall, Giles and Lincoln Counties. Col. Lewis was largely instrumental in building the Duck River Valley Railroad, and served as president of the company two years prior to its lease to the Nashville, Chattanooga & St. Louis Railroad, having been a director before, and has been connected with the road ever since its building. He threw all of his energy and influence into the building of the road, and succeeded wherein most men would have failed. For twenty years he has practiced his profession, with ex-Gov. John C. Brown as his partner a portion of the time, and later with his brother, and now by himself. He is now the attorney for the Nashville & Chattanooga Railroad in Maury, Marshall and Lincoln Counties. His ability as a lawyer is too well known to need comment, and he is a public-spirited citizen of the county, having done much for the schools, churches, and all other benevolent organizations of the county and State. The firm name, Lewis Bros., was dissolved in 1885, and Capt. Thomas F. Lewis, the junior member of the firm, is now a member of the bar at Jackson, Tenn.