Tulare County Biographies

THOMAS LEWIS

Transcribed by: Craig A Hahn

This file is part of the California Genealogy & History Archives
http://www.rootsweb.ancestry.com/~cagha/index.htm


     The late Thomas Lewis, whose widow lives in Tulare, two blocks west of A 
street and Kern avenue, was born in Michigan, April 3, 1838, and was raised to 
maturity at Toledo, Ohio. In 1859, when he was about twenty-one years old, he 
came to California by way of the Isthmus of Panama and took up land on the 
Mokelumne river, about twenty miles from Stockton. There he lived until 1865, 
when he sold out and went to Sacramento, and here he bought farm land and 
operated a dairy until 1870, when he located to Tulare on a homestead of eighty 
acres and pre-empted one hundred and sixty acres more and a timber culture tract 
of the same area. Later he bought four hundred and thirty acres on the Tule 
river, in the vicinity of Woodville and about twenty miles from Tulare, and for 
a time raised cattle and horses and kept a dairy, but later he gave some 
attention to farming and devoted two hundred acres of land to alfalfa, and in 
following out his plans herein indicated he spent the remainder of his life. He 
died November 28, 1887, and his widow conducted the ranch until April, 1891, 
when she sold part of the land and removed to Woodville. There she made her home 
until in 1907, when she disposed of her property in that town and took up her 
residence in Tulare, renting her farm property to tenants.
 
     Before her marriage Mrs. Lewis was Miss Martha A. Johnson and was born in 
Missouri, a daughter of James T. and Elizabeth (Bond) Johnson. She came to 
California in 1864 and lived in Woodbridge, San Joaquin county until 1866, and 
she was married May 15 of that year. Of the five children she bore her husband, 
four survive, namely: Chloe E. married Edwin Hamlin; Rosa is the wife of A. 
Wann; George S., of Fairbanks, Alaska, is an engineer; and Ruby is Mrs. William 
Beare of Tulare. Charles is dead. Mrs. Lewis is a member of the Baptist church 
and with her husband she was formerly connected with the Grange. 
 
SOURCE:  History of Tulare and Kings Counties, California with Biographical 
Sketches - Los Angeles, Calif., Historic Record Company, 1913  Pp 445