Researching our family for many years I've run across a lot of different stories dealing with the family's history and various doings. Many truthful, many fictious, many yet to be determined. This is my attempt to consolidate them all and sort out what we know and what we don't about where we came from.
The first Levis family to come to America was headed by Samuel Levis, a Quaker maltster, who brought his wife, children, and I believe a couple sisters to Pennsylvania in 1684. Several generations later his numerous descendants were all confined to Chester and Delaware counties, south of Philadelphia. Occasionally one might have wandered into Philadelphia proper, but this was the exception. They were a prominent family, with numerous members in the colonial Pennsylvania Assembly.
However, at this point we cannot find a link between our family and this one.
Our earliest Levis ancestor that we can trace ourselves to is Samuel Levis, allegedly born 1779. I can find no record of him in the Levis hotbed areas south of Philadelphia. The first sign of him appears in 1798, where he begins a string of land transactions in Bristol, Bucks Co, just north of Philadelphia, that continue until his death in 1830, where his widow sells his last land holdings. I also found a bill to him for the surveying and deeding of lands, where he is referred to as "Dr. Samuel Levis." His will was proved in November of 1830. Also, we have copies of Samuel Levis's Family Bible. A biography written on his son Edward, says that he was a baker and "also engaged in the coasting trade." Unfortunately, none of these give any hint to the Levis ancestry. We know that his wife's family had been in Bucks Co at least a few generations, from what I've seen of wills. But it seems that Samuel just materialized there.
The lore of our Levis ancestry, laid out in an obituary of George Washington Levis states that the original immigrant Samuel Levis, had a son Samuel, had a son Thomas, a Rev. War soldier, who was the father of our Samuel b. 1779. A Gen. Mahlon Levis from the French and Indian War is also mentioned (in the obit as an uncle, in other places as a direct ancestor). Upon inspection this ancestry seems to have been totally fabricated. Samuel did have a son Samuel, but he did not have a Thomas. There was a Thomas who was a prominent Rev. War soldier who had a son Samuel. However this Samuel married a cousin Rebecca Levis. I tend to doubt that this is the same Sam Levis with two different wives. I have never found any record of a Gen. Mahlon Levis who supposedly settled in Quebec.
It is likely that Samuel's father or grandfather? was a Revolutionary War Soldier or sympathizer, as our Samuel was a Methodist. The Quakers who served in the war were forced to switch to a religion not so stuck on pacificism. Mary's father, Abraham Johnson, is fabled to have been a Captain in the Rev. War, but I haven't had the time to research this yet. I'd guess that he probably participated, but did not have such a high rank.
Samuel and Mary (Johnson) Levis had 8 to 9 children. Ester is the questionable one, as I have seen listings of her in some places, but not in others. I believe that Sarah. died young. After Samuel's death in 1830 I presume that the family hung around Bristol. In 1837 William Levis moved to Alton, IL, soon followed by brothers Joseph and Edward and later, I believe, the rest of the family. The brothers went their own ways. Edward and I think George stayed in Alton. John, William and Mahlon went to Black River Falls, WI. Mahlon later went to Selma, CA. Mary, the wife of Samuel Levis died in 1869 and is buried in Black River Falls next to John.
Children:John Levis b. July 17, 1807, Bristol, PA. The oldest child, his mother was only 17 when he was born. He presumably moved to Alton sometime after his brother William, maybe around 1840. He only spent a few years there and, according to his obituary, went up the Mississippi to Black River Falls in the Spring of 1842. Wisconsin would not become a state until 1848. In about 1845 he built a saw mill on the mouth of Levis creek, where it enters the Black River, a couple miles north of Black River Falls. I believe the land was originally bought by his brother Mahlon and then transferred to him. John Noble owns the land now and has all the history of its transactions. In the 1850's a German outfit came in and set up a an Iron mining operation near the mill. John platted out a town "New Denamora, " or as it was later called by the locals "Old Iron Town," around his mill, which was rather successful for awhile. One of the first official metions of John is in the 1850 census, were he appears in Black River living with seven other lumbermen. In 1851 he married Emeline Gullord down the River in Prairie du Chein. The Iron mine did not last long and John's town died with it. By the 1920's all that was left was empty foundations. The mill was washed away and rebuilt a couple times. Now there is nothing left but some timbers buried deep in the muck of the creek. Their children found some fame. John and George were players in the Wisconsin political arena. One of Frank's sons started the Paul Bunyon amusement center in Minneasota. Julia and Mary Ann are notiable just for having many, many children, and therefore, making this the largest branch of the Levis family.
Samuel Levis b. January 6, 1810, probably in Bristol, PA. No record beyond birth entry in family Bible.
Joseph S. b. April 4, 1811, probably in Bristol, PA. No record beyond birth entry in family Bible. Allegedly came to Alton with Edward.
Sarah K. Levis, b. May 9, 1812, probably in Bristol, PA. No record beyond birth entry in family Bible. Died young?
William K. Levis b. October 16, 1814, Bristol, PA. Came to Alton, IL in 1835 or 1837. The rest of the family soon followed. Appears in Alton in the 1840 Census. Probably moved to Black River Falls sometime in the early 1840's. His obit claims he came in the 1830's . In 1847 he married Mary Blanchard in one of the first area weddings. He bounced around the Jackson County area for a number of years, engaging in various industries as detailed in his obituary. Eventually he settled in Osseo, north of Black River Falls and became a farmer. Although I don't have an abundance of information on his descendants, one person of note in this branch is John Miller, son of Mary Blanchard by her first husband. He fought in the Civil War and voted for Abraham Lincoln in 1864 despite being under age, and lived long enough to see D-Day.
Edward W. Levis b. April 5, 1820 in Bucks Co, (probably Bristol) PA. The most noteworthy child of the family, Edward followed his brothers to Alton, IL in the late 1830's. Edward became a carpenter and had a furniture business in Alton. He later bought the Illinois Glass Works with a business partner and became wildly successful. He ran the business with his sons and it was passed on to them after his death. The company was bought by Owens, I believe sometime in the 1920's. I don't know much about his descendents, other than his sons and their families stayed in Alton, at least for a time.
Ester Levis? b. Abt 1821. I have heard an Ester Levis mentioned in this family by some. However, the more I research it, the more I doubt that this child exists. She is not in the family bible, nor is she ever mentioned in any family histories.
Mahlon Levis, b. February 29, 1824 in Bristol, PA. Probably the most colorful child of the family, I've heard him described as the black sheep and a maybe a woman chaser. He came to Alton with the other brothers in the late 1830's. In 1842 he followed his brothers to Black River. In 1849 it is said that he jumped on a ship to California, going around the Horn and earning his passage as a cook. He probably took a steamboat down to New Orleans and caight a clipper from there. He doesn't show up anywhere in the 1850 Census. But in 1853 he married Maria Olden back in Alton, IL. I haven't found her parents yet, but I know they came from England to Canada, where Maria was born, and then ended up in Alton. They moved back to John's town of New Denamora, and had their first child there in 1855. Around 1873 Mahlon took the family back out to California where he settled in Tulare County to raise sheep. After for years of sheep herding he lost his whole flock to drought and relocated outside of Selma in Fresno Co in 1877. Here he became successful as a farmer. A year after his wife died in 1903, he remarried to the neighboring widow, Lovie Berry, a match that I think many of the children looked down upon. Most all of Mahlon's descendents stayed in California, except some descendents of his first daughter, Emma, who came back to Wisconsin. Notables here include the poet Larry Levis
George M. Levis b. February 27, 1827 prob. in Bristol, PA. Don't know much about George. He came to Alton with the other brothers and stayed there awhile, if not to his death. He married there in 1856 and his daughter there also in 1877.
