California Biographies Source: History of Santa Barbara, San Luis Obispo and Ventura Counties, California by: C M Gidney - Santa Barbara. Benjamin Brooks - San Luis Obispo. Edwin M Sheridan - Ventura Volumes II - Lewis Publishing Company, Chicago, ILL., 1917 This file is part of the California Genealogy & History Archives http://www.rootsweb.ancestry.com/~cagha/index.ht JOSEPH F. LEWIS. How much the enterprise and example of a single family or individual do to stimulate the progress and advancement of a community is well illustrated by the case of the Lewis family. For more than half a century the people of this name have had their home in Santa Barbara and Ventura counties, and in an important degree the commercial enterprise of the little City of Camarillo might be said to center around the name of Joseph F. Lewis. The founder of the family in California was the late Henry Lewis. Henry Lewis a Virginian, born in Richmond that state April 1, 1837, was reared and educated there and was of old southern stock. In 1852 he came to California via the Isthmus of Panama, and was engaged in mining in Sonora until 1860, and in that year moved to Santa Barbara County and settled on 109 acres near Carpinteria. Thereafter his life was quietly and prosperously spent as a farmer until his death in 1906. A historical distinction of no mean degree belongs to Henry Lewis. In 1868 he planted the first lima beans ever put into the soil of the United States. At that time a vessel happened to be anchored at Santa Barbara after a recent voyage from Lima, Peru. An intimate friend of Henry Lewis became acquainted with one of its sailors. This sailor had procured some of the beans which were being used on the table of the boat and which are indigenous to the country around Lima, and that geographical source has given this bean its special name. A handful of these beans were given to Henry Lewis and from them he raised the first crop of the species ever grown in the United States. He preserved and improved his seed from year to year, and for many years his crop of limas was regarded as the finest on the market and were in great demand for seeding purposes by all the ranchers in that section. It is interesting to record that the highest grade of lima beans is still known as the "Lewis Bean." Henry Lewis was married in Fairfax County, Virginia, to Elizabeth Jane Chatten, and they became the parents of eight children. Mr. Joseph F. Lewis was born on his fathers plantation at Carpinteria August 20, 1863. He was well educated, attending the public schools of his native village until sixteen, then the State Normal School at San Jose for a year, the high school until he was nineteen, and entering Heald's Business College in San Francisco he completed the regular six months' course in three months. Since then he has had a long and active business experience. Employed at first as errand boy with the Wittman Brothers Commission House in San Francisco, he was promoted to buyer, and remained with that firm two years. The following year he spent working on his father's ranch near Carpinteria, and he then started farming for himself. His home was near Carpinteria in 1889, when he came to Ventura County and rented 260 acres of the Camarillo Ranch. Here he himself became a pioneer in the planting of lima beans. He was the first to plant lima beans in that section of Ventura County. In doing so he went against the judgment if not the prejudice of people who claimed that this bean would not flourish in that particular locality. His experiment was successful, and due to his initiative it has since been proved that some of the finest bean land in Ventura County is in the section around Camarillo. After a year Mr. Lewis moved to Montalvo in Ventura County, where he rented 300 acres and was successfully identified with farming until 1901. In that year returning to Camarillo he formed a partnership with Adolpho Camarillo, and together they carried on farming operations on 10,000 acres, most of which was a magnificent bean plantation. When the partnership was dissolved in 1906, Mr. Lewis bought 8,200 acres of the Guadalasca grant located in Pleasant Valley of Camarillo Township. This special domain of agricultural land has been employed for mixed farming, 2,000 acres being planted in beans, 2,000 acres in beets, hay and grain, and the rest used as grazing land. Mr. Lewis keeps about 120 head of stock, and from twenty-five to seventy-five men are employed on his plantation in the various departments. His commercial operations centering at Camarillo deserve some special consideration. In June, 1916, he has completed at Camarillo a building of re-enforced concrete, one story high, and 122 by 140 feet in ground dimensions. This is modern in every point of equipment. It is divided into four distinct store rooms. One 70 by 135 feet is used for a department store. An 18 by 70 foot store room is used for a confectionery store, another of similar size for barber shop, a 16 by 70 foot room for the Farmers Bank of Camarillo, and another large section 50 by 70 feet has been recently completed as a garage building, known as the Knob Hill Garage. All of these various enterprises are now operated and owned by the J. F. Lewis & Sons Company, of which Mr. Lewis is president. In June, 1916, he organized the Farmers Bank of Camarillo, of which he is vice president and director. Only recently a branch of this bank was established at Moor Park. In matters of politics Mr. Lewis is an independent and is a member of the Christian Science Church. At Carpinteria October 5, 1884, he married Miss Sarah M. Richardson. They are the parents of five children. Guy E., the oldest, born at Carpinteria in April, 1886, was educated in the Ventura County public schools, in the Troop Polytechnic School at Pasadena, the Pasadena High School and Heald's Business College at San Francisco, and since leaving school has been active manager of his father's large ranch. Alma, now Mrs. Frederick Stein of Los Angeles, is a graduate of the Collegiate School of Los Angeles. Lulu, also a graduate of the Collegiate School of Los Angeles, is still at home with her parents. Joseph F., Jr., born in Montalvo August 22, 1893, had the course of both the grammar and high schools of Ventura County, and at the age of eighteen was graduated from Woodberry Business College of Los Angeles. He is now manager of the J. F. Lewis & Sons Company. Searles B., born at Montalvo July 30, 1897, after attending the grammar and high schools entered Harvard Military School at Los Angeles, where he remained until June, 1915. The following summer he spent on his father's ranch and since October, 1915, has been manager of the Knob Hill Garage in Camarillo.