Leuretta Campbell (youngest) and Brother Trig, Sister's Clarene (seated) and Eugenia:

James Washington Campbell and Mary Dunton Lewis:

George Thomas Lewis came to Tennessee in about 1834-1835. He lived at Cumberland Iron Works, and in Clarksville where all their children were born. Moved to McMinnville, TN in 1872 where he died.

George was the manager of the Cumberland Iron works. The works turned out massive iron kettles for sugar manufacturers in the South and overseas. The furnace which supplied charcoal and pig iron used in the foundry, and the rolling mill kept 500 slaves and scores of white men employed, and their families lived on a 60,000 acre company owned domain.

The Cumberland Iron Works collapsed in February 1862 when nearby Fort Donelson fell into Yankee hands. The foundry had been making small cannon balls for the Confederate navy, and it was a valuable target for enemy forces. Union soldiers took George prisoner, tied him to one of their own gunboats in the Cumberland, and forced him to watch while they burned and destroyed the plant he had spent a lifetime building. Eugene Castner (16 years old) became enraged and openly boasted of the revenge he would exact from the occupying forces. George and Margeretta were advised that if they did not want him thrown in prison, they were to get him out of the state. George and Margeretta, both Pennsylvania natives, chose Pennsylvania Military Academy for him.³⁸

George Thomas, younger:

Notes on Eugene Castnor Lewis, Son of George Thomas Lewis (he is a several times great uncle of mine)

After Eugene (aged 16) was sent to PA Military Academy , He graduated from the academy in 1865; it was there the cocky schoolboy rebel won the title "Major." No other title seemed to fit, and he was called "Major" for the rest of his life.

Trained as a civil engineer, E.C. Lewis worked as a surveyor for railroad lines and constructed them through KY, TN, and Mississippi. Much of his early work was with Louisville and Nashville Railroad, but his work with the Queen and Crescent Railway in KY led him to Sycamore Mills. Lewis was 28 yrs. old and concentrating on the business end of railroad construction. He handled contracts for the material used in heavy construction jobs, he made large purchases of explosives from Dupont Powder Company. This led to a personal friendship with the Duponts. Since they were interested in Lewis, they appointed him the agent to sell powder from their subsidiary mills at Sycamore. Samuel Watson was the chief stockholder of the mills at that time and, when he died in 1876, the Duponts bought his share of the business and made E.C. Lewis general manager of the mills.

Lewis revitalized Sycamore County by fixing the dam,built blast-proof walls between the mill houses, built new bridges and new roads. On the old road to the river, the company-owned Hydes Ferry Turnpike, E.C. Lewis encountered Jesse James. Lewis was driving a 4 horse carriage and Jesse James was riding on horseback. Both stopped to have their horses shod; while they waited for the work to be finished, the two men chatted.

Lewis had no idea who Jesse James was (he was living under an assumed name) until a few days later, when Lewis was called upon to establish an alibi for the bandit. James had been accused of robbery which occurred in Alabama the day after the blacksmith shop meeting.

"That's right," Lewis told the Alabama jury, when he was summoned to testify. "I did see this man in Tennessee the day before the robbery. That would have given him just about time to get to Alabama on a fast horse in time for this robbery."

By the time he was 35, Lewis had become president of Sycamore Mills, and that same year he married Miss Pauline Dunn of Memphis. Their seven children were "practically born with the powder plant" and they went to school with the children of the millhands.

Although he did not attend church, Lewis enforced strict observance of the sabbath; commerce came to a "dead stop" on Sundays.

In 1897, Lewis was so involved in managing the state's belated celebration of TN's 100th birthday that he moved to Nashville. Already a large stockholder and member of the board of directors of the Nashville, Chattanooga and St. Louis Railroad, he planned and directed the TN Centennial Exposition - chiefly to promote railroad travel to Nashville. While promoting the Centennial, he bought, in 1896, a newspaper - "The Old Nashville American" to publicize the event.

Lewis also took the time to plan every detail to his huge Nashville home and build a complete model of it before construction.

Lewis was named director-general of the Centennial Exposition. As director-general of the exposition, he was responsible for construction of all the physical buildings. He asserted the exposition would be no "log cabin and grease lamp" affair. He wanted and got landscaping, reflecting pools, flowers and glistening white buildings of classic design. The idea of building the replica of Greece's Parthenon was his - and he carried it through to completion. It was perhaps his greatest work.

After the exposition, he threw himself into business life of the community. He became publisher of "The American", the city's leading Newspaper. He also became a member of the board of the L&N Railroad and chairman of the board of the NC & St. L. RR.

As a builder, Lewis was responsible for the building of the Castner-Knott building on Church Street in Nashville, and he superintended the building of the railroad's Union Station. As president of Nashville Street Railway System, he was responsible for the building of its transfer station. An engineer and builder, Lewis had a great feeling for art and classical history. He was responsible for placing the statue of Mercury atop the Union Station building - a figure missed to this day by older Nashvillians who had an affection and admiration for the winged messenger which was destroyed by lightning.

Lewis designed the Shell Spring in Centennial Park, the monument to James Robertson, and the original bandstand (which resembled a giant mushroom with a circle of lights). Described by Major E.P. McWhirter: "I have known him to design with marvelous skill that wonderful piece of concrete work, the bandstand, profiles of which have been sought from across the continent. I was standing near it when it was stripped of its outer form and when it stood alone in its immaculate beauty and perfection. Surmounted by a golden harp, it looked as if the Divine Hand had made it and had dropped it from the celestial city..."

McWhirter on the Robertson Monument: "The Robertson Monument is another of his great conceptions. To raise this tremendous tonnage, he had a tripod of three sturdy oaks brought from the forest, and with the assistance of block and tackle, the great granite shaft was placed on its base with such an accuracy and precision that it seemed almost as if done by the hand of nature itself"

Lewis built his beautiful home in Nashville on 16th near Broad Street, the house had no sharp corners - they were all rounded at considerable expense. In this house, during his later years, Lewis had his bed suspended from the ceiling; perhaps this gentle rocking helped ease the discomfort of old age. His grandchildren would swing in that bed and one can remember "going almost out over the street".

As far back as 1909 Lewis questioned the Automobile. At a road's convention, he said, "What to do with the automobile is a great question. It toils not, neither does it spin, except to spin through your community and tear up the roads; it pays no taxes, but still demands the best roads to tear up."

Major Lewis decided that the Parthenon should be preserved in Nashville, and that the exposition grounds should become Centennial Park. He was thus hailed, after 12 years of service on the original park board, as the father of the city's public parks system.

When Dupont ceased operations at Sycamore Mills in 1904, Major Lewis helped the mill workers find jobs in Nashville's shops and plants; many joined railroads where Lewis had interests.

When the Dupont company contemplated another mill in Nashville, Lewis was asked to scout for a site. He selected the bend of the Cumberland River where Dupont's Old Hickory plant is located today.

In 1913, when the city publicly honored E.C. Lewis for his works, General Tully Brown paid him the ultimate compliment when he said: "Major Lewis is the most effective man I have ever known in civil life. There is only one man I have ever known with the same vim, energy, and ability as Major Lewis, and that was 'old Bed' Bedford Forrest."

The ornate house on the hill [in Sycamore Mills] where his family was brought up burned to the ground. The late Leslie Cheek built a summer, log cabin on the site.

At the precise movement of the burial of E.C. Lewis, all traffic on Major Lewis' railroads came to a dad stop for 5 minutes to observe his passing.³³

Eugene Castnor Lewis:

George Thomas Lewis and Margretta Oliver Barnes:

At the same time he administered the estate of his Father-in-Law [see Philip Litzenberg and wife Mary Elizabeth], Mifflin Lewis was living in Newtown Township, Delaware County. He removed however, to Tredyffrin Township, Chester County only a few miles away - where he kept Tavern. Henry Pleasants says "under the rectorship of Rev. Willie Peck...it is clearly established that about 1845 a number of Episcopalians spending the summer at the then popular hotel kept by Mifflin Lewis (one of the trustees of the Eagle School), at Eagle Station on the Philadelphia and Columbia Railroad, finding the distance to St. David's Church inconvenient for their attendance suggested that Episcopal services might be held in this building".²⁸

Mifflin & Mary Elizabeth Litzenberg Lewis:

At Orphans Court 4/1823 (See Phillip Litzenberg), Mifflin was awarded real estate from the estate of Simon Litzenberg, Sr. On 9/20/1823, Mifflin Lewis, joined by his wife Mary, sold the wood lot [4 acres] for $430.62., the conveyance also including "the privelege of a one-perch wide lane to a road leading to Goshen" (see draft of petition). On 4/9/1825 he sold the other lot [10 acres, cleared] which was situated on "a public road leading to Goshen".²⁶

To complete the title, on 4/26/1825, the other heirs of Philip Litzenberg, being James Frame and wife Hannah, John Hibberd and Catherine his wife, Harrison Litzenberg and Elizabeth Litzenberg (the two latter by their guardian Jonathan Hood) conveyed to Mifflin Lewis all title to lands of said Philip Litzenberg²⁷