LEWIS GENEALOGY

Lewis Home Site in Gerty, Oklahoma, by Paulyne (Lewis) Church.

Paulyne's daughter says that her mother said that there was the porch on which Grandmother would put a cot when she (mother) was ill.  Grandmother would pour water over the vine growing on the porch, creating an evaporative cooler to lower her temperature.  The home place was in town, on a sandy lane.  The farm was a ways out of town.

Lewis Family Story – Who Are We?

The descendants of Howell Lewis and his wife, Nancy Copeland, have been proven, and are listed below.  The lineage of Nancy can be traced back nine more generations, but the father and mother of Howell Lewis are not proven as yet.

The Copeland Connection

The Copeland family came from England to Virginia in 1635.  Ripley⁹ Copeland (Nicholas⁸, Nicholas⁷, Joseph⁶, John Nicholas⁵, John⁴, Lawrence³, Robert², Copeland¹) was born in Chatham County, North Carolina on March 10, 1761, and died June 6, 1843, in Sumter South Carolina.  It appears, from family tradition, that he wanted revenge on the British because of corruption and tyranny of British office holders against his father, and the almost hanging of his kinsman, James Copeland.  So, at age 16 he joined the Continentals on March 10, 1777, enlisting for three years in the company of Capt. Matthew Ramsey, Lt. Col. Mabane’s Battalion, 9^th North Carolina Regiment, commanded by a Col. Clark.

Ripley and his regiment were at Valley Forge in winter of 1777-1778.  After the attack on Monmouth, New Jersey in June 1778, the regiment was disbanded.  Ripley went back south where he was assigned garrison duty at Charleston, South Carolina, until his three-year enlistment was up March 15, 1780.  He drew a Federal pension for his service in 1819.  Ripley married Rachel Tucker in 1781.  After the war, Ripley was granted land in Davidson County, Tennessee, but he assigned his grant to another and moved to Cheraw District South Carolina.

Nancy¹⁰ Copeland  was born May 15, 1787, in Cheraw District South Carolina, and died before 1860, in Mississippi.  She was the daughter of Ripley Copeland and Rachel Tucker, one of fourteen children.  Nancy married Howell Lewis in about 1808, in Sumter District, Salem Township South Carolina.

After Mississippi’s statehood in 1817, Federal lands were opened to settlement to anyone for the first time, rather than just veterans of the Revolutionary War or the War of 1812.  A Moses Copeland, possible the brother of Ripley, had been in the State in Wayne County since 1813.  Reuben Copeland, with Howell Lewis, moved there in about 1817/18 to that area which is now Lawrence, Covington, Wayne, Smith and Jones Counties, Mississippi, when the county was “filled with Indians,” as said by G. W. Lewis, Nancy’s grandson in an 1892 interview.  After a short time, Reuben Copeland returned to South Carolina for a time, while the Lewis family stayed in Mississippi.

Our Lewis Line

1. Howell¹ Lewis was born in North Carolina between 1766 and 1782, according to the 1850 and 1860 Federal census.  He died in Smith County, Mississippi some time after the 1860 Federal census for was taken.  His ancestry is, however, difficult to prove.  The reason for the difficulty is burned court house and lost records as to when and where our Howell was born.

Some Lewis descendents claim our Howell Lewis was the son of Howell Lewis, Jr., and Betsy Coleman, and grandson of Howell Lewis, Sr., and Mary Willis, who moved from Virginia to Granville County, North Carolina in 1767.  This had been proved to be incorrect through DNA testing of the descendants of John Lewis of the Warner Hall Lewis and other colonial Virginia and Carolina Lewis families.   Perhaps future DNA evidence will point us to the correct Lewis family.

The children of Howell Lewis and Nancy Copeland were:

2.      i.    Isham was born about 1809 in Sumter County, South Carolina.

        ii.    Martha was born about 1811 in Sumter County, South Carolina.

       iii.    Nancy was born in 1813 in Sumter County, South Carolina.

3.     v.    Moses was born about 1815, and in Sumter County South Carolina, and died in Texas in 1873.

4.    vi.    John was born about about1818 in Mississippi.

5.   vii.    Howell Jr., was born about 1820 in Mississippi and died 1868 in Alabama.

6.  viii.    Eli was born September 30. 1825 in Mississippi; and died in Dutch Creek, Arkansas.

7.    ix.    Elbert was born in 1828 in Mississippi, and died in January 1864, as the result of his Civil War service in Company A of the 8th Mississippi Infantry Regiment.

2.  Isom (Isham)² Lewis was born in about 1809 in South Carolina.  He may have died before 1853 (if his wife was the former Mary McLemore, who married H. C. Woods in that year.)  He married a lady named Mary, who was born in 1813 in Tennessee.  Islam's time and place of death is yet to be determined.  He was living in Wayne County, Mississippi in 1840, and in Jones County in 1850.

The children of Isham and Mary Ellen Lewis, all born in Mississippi, were:

         i.    John was born in 1831.

        ii.    William was born in 1842.

       iii.    Lavina was born in 1842.

       iv.    Elley was born in 1847.

        v.    Craven was born in 1850.

       vi.    Mary was born in 1852.

      vii.    Isom was born 1854.

3. Moses² Lewis was born in about 1815, in South Carolina.  He married twice.  His first wife was a lady named Elizabeth, who was born in South Carolina, and died in Texas, possible the result of child birth in 1860.  All but the last of the children of Moses and Elizabeth Lewis were born in Mississippi.

The children of Moses and Elizabeth Lewis were:

8.      i.    George W. was born in 1838.  He had a son, John Henry Lewis, born 1874, who had a son and grandson named John Henry Lewis.

        ii.    Mary Ann was born in 1840.

       iii.    Howell was born in 1841.

       iv.    Irvin was born in 1842.

        v.    Barbara was born in 1848.

       vi.    Catherine was born in 1851.

      vii.    Warren was born in 1853

     viii.    Coleman was born in 1856.

       ix.     John was born in 1860 in Texas.

Moses Lewis married a second time to Ann Cain Texas after 1860.  They had three children:

        x.    James was born 1863.

       xi.    Elizabeth was born 1865.    

      xii.    Nancy was born in 1867.

4. John² Lewis was born in about 1818 in Mississippi.  He married a lady named Harriet in Mississippi.  She was born in South Carolina in 1824.  All their children were all born in Mississippi.  They children of John and Harriet Lewis were:

         i.    Martha was born in 1842.

        ii.    Cynthia was born in 1833

       iii.    Nancy was born in 1846.

       iv.    Mary was born in 1848.

        v.    Sarah was born in 1850.

       vi.    Maranda was born in 1851..

      vii.    Elizabeth was born in 1851.

       ix.    John L. was born in 1858.

5. Howell² Lewis, Jr. was born in Mississippi about 1820, and died in Alabama in 1868.  He married Ellenear Halverson.  She was born in 1826 in Alabama.   She may have been related to “Mr. Halverson” mention as a neighbor in the book, “Life and Confession of the Noted Outlaw James Copeland.”  The children of Howell and Ellenear Lewis were:

         i.    Martha was born in 1847 in Alabama.

        ii.    Alfred was born in Mississippi in 1852.

       iii.    John was born in Mississippi in 1854.

       iv.    Thomas was born in Mississippi in 1857.

        v.    Fannie was born in Mississippi in 1862.

       vi.    Nancy was born in Tennessee in 1864.

      vii.    William was born in Tennessee in 1867.

6. Eli² Lewis was born in Mississippi September 30, 1825 and died in Dutch Creek, Arkansas before 1870, possible during the Civil War.  Why and when Eli went to Arkansas is not yet know.

In 1848 he married Thursy Ann Brady, in Jones County, Mississippi.  She was born in South Carolina January 10, 1831, and died shortly after December 9, 1899, which was the date of her last letter to her son Addison Lewis.  She was living in White Sand Mississippi at the time.  Thursy Brady had brothers named Tom, Peck, Charles and Peck, and a sister named Ann, who had died the year before her letter.  After Eli Lewis died, she married a Mr. Polk.

Some time before 1858, Eli moved his family to Mendenhall, Simpson County, Mississippi.  After Eli died, Thursy Lewis is living in Covington County, Mississippi in 1870.

The children of Eli and Thursy Lewis were:

9 .    i.    Joseph Warren was born in Jones County, Mississippi August 20, 1848.  He died January 23, 1926, in Yell County, Arkansas.

        ii.    Rubin was born Mississippi February 2, 1851.

       iii.    Samantha was born in Mississippi January 18, 1852.

       iv.    Franklin was born in Mississippi February 3, 1855.

10.   v.    Addison Jefferson was born in Panola, Simpson County, Mississippi February 3, 1858, and died May 29, 1929, in Antlers, Oklahoma.

       vi.    Howell was born in Mississippi March 15, 1861, in Mendenhall, Simpson County, Mississippi.  He married a Dosha.  He worked for the railroad at one time, and lived in Texas.  Dosha and a Howell Lewis are buried in the Sheppard Cemetery in Yell County, Arkansas.  Their son James L. was born in 1889, and was living in 1910 with his cousin James H. Lewis, in the Centerville Township, Yell County, Arkansas.

      vii.    Sarah Elizabeth was born in Mississippi October 28, 1863, and lived there after her marriage S.T. Mullins, in Mendenhall, Mississippi where they died.  They are buried in the Stonewall Church Cemetery.  They had seven children.

(NOTE: It was Sarah Mullins’ family Bible that provides much of the information on Eli and Joseph Lewis presented here.  Sarah Mullins’ son Wayne Mullins of Mendenhall, Mississippi, also contributed information in July 1986.  The material was gathered by Mrs. Harold L. Connely (Thelma Lewis Connely, who was born in Ola, Yell County, Arkansas.) and published in 1987 in the Yell County Historical and Genealogy Association, Bulletin Volume 12.)

7. Elbert² Lewis was born in Mississippi in 1828, and died January 1864.  He died as the result of his Civil War service in Company A of the 8^th Mississippi Infantry Regiment.  He married Catherine Stephens.   She was born in Mississippi on November 11, 1835 and died September 10 1871, possible in Rapides Parish, Louisiana.

In the late 1860s, the widow Catherine Lewis removed from Jones County, Mississippi to Rapides Parish, Louisiana, where she is listed as head of household in the 1870 U. S. Census.  Her sister-in-law, Mary Lewis, the widow of Elbert's older brother, Isom Lewis, had also removed to Rapides Parish shortly before 1860.  (To view a more complete Elbert Lewis descendants, go to: http://www.lewissurnamednaproject.com/Elbert%20Lewis.htm.)

The children of Elbert and Catherine Lewis were:

         i.    Nancy E. was born May 28, 1853 in Mississippi, and died there November 19, 1885.  She married Patrick A. Fletcher, November 17, 1870.

        ii.    Julia A. was born June 12, 1855 in Mississippi, and died September 4, 1904.  He is buried in the Lewis Cemetery, Beauregard Parish, Louisiana.

       iii.    John H. was born October 30, 1856 in Mississippi, and died in DeRidder, Louisiana August 23, 1918.  On January 18, 1882, he married Leah Emily Williams, who was born May 1, 1864 in Elmwood, Louisiana, and died January 23, 1944 in DeRidder, Louisiana.  John and Emily are buried in the Lewis Cemetery. 

       iv.    Caleb S. was born April 23, 1858 in Laurel, Mississippi, and died September 4, 1931 in DeRidder, Louisiana.  He married Sarah J. Cain January 7, 1867, and died November 5, 1962.  They are buried the Lewis Cemetery.

        v.    Elbert S. was born March 28, 1863 in Mississippi, and died July 17, 1935.  He married Amanda Cryer, who was born September 24, 1866, and died January 25, 1951.  They are buried in the Lewis Cemetery near DeRidder, Beauregard Parish, Louisiana.

8. George³ Washington Lewis was born in 1838 in Mississippi.

9. Joseph³ Warren Lewis was born in Pinola, Jones County, Mississippi on August 20, 1848.  He died July 23, 1926 in Yell County, Arkansas, and is buried in the Sheppard Cemetery in Yell County..  He married LeVicey Ann Bridge January 11, 1870, in Pinola, Simpson County, Mississippi.  She was born July 15, 1851, and died May 31, 1896.  She is buried in the Sheppard Cemetery with her husband.

 By the time of the 1880 Federal Census, they were in Lawrence County, Mississippi.  They moved to Yell County, Arkansas in 1881, according to their obituary.

The children of Joseph Lewis and LeVicey Bridge were:

         i.    William was born April 10, 1871, and died September 14, 1953.  He married Bittle Alabama, and had six children.

        ii.    Ella H. was born June 11, 1873 in Mississippi.  He was called Ely.  He never married.  He is burried in the Sheppard Cemetery in Yell County, Arkansas.

       iii.    John was born May 25, 1876 in Mississippi.  He married Lydia Holt.  He is buried in the Sheppard Cemetery in Yell County, Arkansas.

       iv.    Mary A. was born August 21, 1878, in Mississippi.  She never married.  she is buried in the Sheppard Cemetery in Yell County, Arkansas.

        v.    Oscar R. was born December 3, 1880, in Mississippi.  He married Mary Walker.

       vi.    Charles H. was born April 3, 1883 in Yell County, Arkansas.  He married Maude Wallace.

      vii.    Lillie M. was born December 13, 1885 in Yell County, Arkansas.  She married Mandar Maxey.

     viii.    James H. was born March 20, 1888 in Yell County, Arkansas, and died April 15, 1952.  He married Mattie Price.

       ix.    Jeptha L. was born August 11, 1890 in Yell County, Arkansas, and died March 7, 1891.  She is buried in the Sheppard Cemetery in Yell County, Arkansas.

        x.    Jodie D. was born April 18, 1892 in Yell County, Arkansas, and died May 9, 1983, at Ola, Arkansas.  He was Sheriff of Yell County and Mayor of Ola.  He married Elvia Evans, who died November 2, 1984.  They had three children.

       xi.    Bonnie was born August 20, 1895 in Yell County, Arkansas, and died young.  She is buried in the Sheppard Cemetery in Yell County, Arkansas.

(NOTE:  There are a Paul Lewis and a Liddy Lewis with no date on their stones.  They are possible children who died young.)

Left to Right:  Joseph Warren Lewis; Anna Jewell Lewis; Clara Lewis

Joseph Lewis married a second time to Luella Luretta (Harvey) Ladd, on December 13, 1896.  He was age 47 and she was the young widow of W. Ben Ladd, with whom she had a daughter, Bennie Luella, born May 4, 1896.  Mr. Ladd died in 1895 or 96, and is buried at Ola, Arkansas.  She was the daughter of James Madison Harvey (b. November 22, 1844 and died Antlers, Oklahoma in 1938) and Mary Catherine America Farrell.  After the death of her mother in 1881, she and her father moved to Arkansas.  Luella's father remarried and had three sons: Ike, Dub and James.

Luella was born about 1878, died in August 1974.  Her obituary stated that she was the oldest confederate widow when she died.  Mr. Ladd may have been the Confederate Veteran because Joseph was only 12-years old when the Civil War started.  A search for any Civil War record on Joseph continues.

In 1910 they were living in Centerville Township next door to William and James Lewis, his sons by his first marriage.

The children of Joseph and Luetta Lewis, all born in Yell County, Arkansas, were:

      xii.    David D. was born December 5, 1898 and died in 1999.  He married Lily Davenport, and had eight children who were: O. J.; Geraldine; Hartsell; Bobbie; Betty; Dewey J.; Bonny; and Wayne.

     xiii.    Barnie B. was born February 21, 1901, and died August 21, 1973 in Fort Smith, Arkansas.  He married Azel Sullivan, and had seven children, who were: Thelma; Bernece; Daisy; Dorothy; J. W.; Barnie, Jr.; and James.  Azel Sullivan was born November 23, 1905, in Yell County, Arkansas.

     xiv.    Mandie E. was born February 21, 1901, and never married.  She died December 25, 1985.

      xv.    Oma A. was born January 3, 1905.  She married Roscoe Sloan.  The had four children, who were: Pauline; James J.; Patsy R.; and Charles.

     xvi.    Glenia was born February 25, 1907.  She married Fay O. Allen and had four girls: Dorothy E.; Anna J.; Kathleen; and Linda.

    xvii.    James P. was born April 12, 1909, and died in 1917.

   xviii.    Verdelle was born February 25, 1912, and died June 20, 1971.  She married George Eberhart, but had no children.

     xix.    Claude A. was born October 18, 1914.  He married Carman Coker.  The adopted two children: Anita; and Gary.

10. Addison Jefferson Lewis was born in Pinola, Simpson County, Mississippi on February 3, 1858.  He died May 29, 1929, in Antlers, Oklahoma, where he is buried.  By 1880 he was in Yell County, Arkansas living as a border in the house of Jesse G. Grace.

Addison arrived in Arkansas before the 1880 Federal Census was taken, in which he is listed at age 22.  He went to work as a farm hand for a Civil War veteran, Redmond Roger Williams and his second wife.  The farm was located west of Dardanelle, Arkansas, and south of the Arkansas River.  Nebo Mountain is between the farm and the River.  (The genealogy of Redmond R. Williams can be found in the Ward family elsewhere in this website.  His Civil War service can be found at: www.robert-ford.ws.)

Redmond Williams had a beautiful daughter by his firs wife, Sarah J. Harrington, named Ella Jane Williams.  Well..., nature took its course.  Ella⁷ Jane Williams was born in 1867 in Yell County Arkansas.  She died June 17, 1920 of tuberculosis in he home in Edgewood, Colorado, where she is buried in an unmarked grave, as is her son Roger, from whom she contacted the sickness.  She and Roger went to the Denver sanatorium before her husband and family moved there to be with her.

Addison J. Lewis and Ella Jane Williams were married in Yell County, Arkansas in 1881 or early 1882.  Ella Jane worked as a laundress for the Lodge on top of Nebo Mountain after 1900.  A young Jamie Dee would go with her mother to her job on the mountain.  Janie tells of seeing her father plowing in a field south of the mountain.

The children of Ella Jane Williams and Addison J. Lewis are:

         i.    Garth Lewis, born October 14, 1882, and died July 9, 1947.  He married Margie Brice.

        ii.    Connie Lewis, born April 9, 1885, and died August 14, 1900 at age 15.

11   iii.    Janie Dee Lewis, born March 9, 1888, and died January 12, 1980.

       iv.    Glenna Lewis, born November 8, 1890, and died August 11, 1944.  She married Alexander Dessel in Texas.

        v.    Roger Williams Lewis was born October 10, 1892, and died August 11, 1921 of tuberculosis.  He is buried in the same Denver cemetery as his mother.  The family had not known that he had married, and did not know the name of his wife.  When Roger was back home in Gerty, Oklahoma from the Denver sanatorium (before the family moved to Denver), he awakened from a nap suddenly and announced that he was married and he was sure his wife had just died.  It turned out to be the exact time of her death.

       vi.    Terry Lewis, born January 13, 1895, and died in March 1962 in Essex, Illinois.  He married Evah Maxine Crawford, born August 23, 1899 and died April 15, 1966.  They had five children.  After Terry died, Evah married Joseph Kinney and had two children.

      vii.    Edith Lewis, born April 10, 1899, and died December 2, 1976.  She married Fred Gibson.

     viii.    Paul Lewis, born April 16, 1904,in Sebastian County, Arkansas and died December 31, 1978.  He married Johnnie Reeves.  They had three children.

       ix.    Paulyne Lewis, born May 11, 1907, and died March 28, 1989.

Addison J. Lewis and family

L-R: Glenna, Ella Jane, Edith, Roger, Janie D. Addison, and Terry Lewis

11. Janie Dee Lewis was born March 9, 1888 in Yell County, Arkansas.  She died at Ada, Oklahoma January 12, 1980.  She is buried in the Jackson Cemetery, west of Hartford, Arkansas.  She married Augustus L. Hill in 1905 in Hartford, Arkansas.  He was called Gus.  He was born December 13, 1870 and died February 9, 1940 at Gerty, Oklahoma.  He is buried in the Jackson Cemetery.  He was a watermelon farmer.  (His Hill ancestry is elsewhere on this website.)

The children of Jamie D. Lewis and Gus Hill are:

         i.    Gussie Ruth Hill, born July 24, 1906, and died May 30, 1954.  She married Guy Veazey.

        ii.    Pauline⁹ Valentine Hill, born February 14, 1909, and died September 9, 1985.  She married Robert W. Ford.

       iii.    Ben Leon Hill, born October 2, 1910, and died November 2, 1913 of diphtheria.

       iv.    Ida Jeanette Hill, born 1912/13 and September 14, 1913 of diphtheria.

        v.    Augustus Luther Hill, Jr., born December 13, 1870, and died February 9, 1940.  He married and divorced Mildred Thompson.

       vi.    Leroy Milburne Hill, born August 3, 1920, and died April 29, 1944, over Germany.

      vii.    Warren Francis Hill, born April 16, 1922, and died April 15, 2001.  He married Toni Morris in October 1943.

     viii.    Ellen Jane Hill, born May 11, 1929, and died June 5, 1986.  She married Odell, Dorsey.

Janie Dee and Gus Hill and early family with Ruth, Pauline and Gus, Jr.

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