By
Bonnie Ruth Lewis
As taken from Selections from Morgan County History, Sesquicentennial Volume
by
Helen Price Stacy and William Lynn Nickell, Vol I
In this year of 1972 as Morgan County celebrates its Sesquicentennial, it seems fitting and necessary that the present descendants of her first families pause to pay tribute to the memory of their pioneering ancestors who, through much struggle and hardship, settled our great country.
Just as Colonel Hazelrigg noted in his Historical Address which celebrated our country's Centennial Anniversary that "it was a matter of congratulation and pride that the descendants of several of the Revolutionary War Soldiers were present to commemorate their memories". I beleive it is even more worthy of note that there are still among us today descendants of these same great and brave men.
While doubtless a better account of the Thomas Lewis family could be written by a more capable hand, the following collection of names and facts is contributed in an attempt to help trace and preserve its history for future generations. It is not contributed in an egotistical way as a means of only drawing attention to our "clan", but more in the old traditional Morgan County manner of gladly offering what we have. And it is submitted with the hope that these facts, limited by space and time, will be a convenient and helpful aid to other interested descendants and genealogists delving into the family's history. It is also hoped that it will serve as a spur to a fuller, more accurate, and satisfying investigation of family history, which is a part of the history of Morgan County.
There are so many Thomas Lewises in Kentucky and Virginia that in compiling family history it is very easy to get confused and misled. Both the pension application of Thomas Lewis and his wife (from Revolutionary War File W-9124, Washington, D.C.) distinguished him from other Thomas Lewises who have come from Virginia to Kentucky.
The Lewises of Morgan County, descendants of Revolutionary War Soldier, Thomas Lewis, have a large ancestry connection with the other first families of the county. Most of these families, especially those of Thomas Caskey, Gardner Hopkins, John Perry, Edmund Wells, Arch Day. John Nickell, John Day, William Wells, Thomas Lewis, James S. Elliott, and Peter Amyx--through marriage are so interrelated that it is impossible to write the story of one of these families without including the others. Ernest P. Lewis of Morgan County traces lineage through three sons of Thomas Lewis and his wife Hannah Hopkins, Francis H. Lewis, William M. Lewis and Gardner Hopkins Lewis lines, and a great-great-great-grandson through the William M. Lewis line.
Gardner Hopkins, also a Revolutionary War veteran, and Thomas Lewis were brothers-in-law. (Besides this being common "handed-down" family knowledge, we have Hannah's statement that she was Gardner's sister in a deposition made for Polly Hopkins when she filed for a widow pension.)
Thomas Caskey, whose daughter Ellen or Ellender, married Thomas Lewis' son Francis, was also the son-in-law of Gardner Hopkins. In a deposition in Gardner Hopkins's Revolutionary file, Thomas Caskey deposed that he became intimately acquainted with Gardner Hopkins and his family of Orange County, New York, in 1788 and that he and Gardner's daughter Lydia were married 19 Dec., 1790 "in the same room of the same house where her parents were married".
From the accompanying copy of this application for a pension (Revolutionary War File W-9124) we know that Morgan County's Thomas Lewis was living in Washington Co., Virginia when he was drafted in 1776 at Abingdon...and that he settled in Kentucky on the Dix River in 1782. (Part of the time he served as a spy or scout under Capt. A. Bowan, fought the Indians, and took part in the expedition led by George Rogers Clark.) From Hannah's pension application we know that he returned to Washington County, Virginia and married Hannah Hopkins, then a resident of that county, on the third day of March, 1784...and that they were married by the Baptist preacher, Thomas Woolsey. Census records show that they were living in Kentucky when their oldest child, Francis H. Lewis was born on March 3, 1786.
In Colonel Hazelrigg's address given at West Liberty July 4, 1876 in which he attempted to trace Morgan County's first half-century he stated, "It is an authentic fact that Thomas Caskey, Gardner Hopkins, Thomas Lewis, John Perry, John Nickell, John Day, Wm. Wells, Arch Day, Edmund Wells, John Lacy and Daniel Williams located here and made permanent improvements early as 1800, some of them perhaps before that time".
William Lewis, second son of Thomas, was living at the time Colonel Hazelrigg made this speech and is a logical possibility that he could have been one of the sources consulted for some of the county's early history, because Colonel Hazelrigg further states, "All of the parties who participated in the organization of the county have gone to their reward except Edmund Vest and William Lewis. William Lewis is in his 90th year, and quite feeble in body yet his mind is rich in memories of incidents connected with the early settlement of the county."
According to family tradition and some census records, the older members of Thomas Lewis' family who were born before 1800, were born in the Dix River area and Montgomery County. It had always been family tradition that Gardner Hopkins Lewis, born November 8, 1801, was the first child of Thomas and Hannah to be born in what is now Morgan County. To the dissappointment of my relatives interested in documenting family genealogies my only record of this is that older members of the family said he said this. I am more positive, however of where he died. My aunt Cora Gardner Lewis often remarks that she was born exactly 100 years after Gardner Hopkins Lewis I, "in the same room in the same house in which he died". He died in the childhood home of my father, the home of my grand-father, Gardner H. Lewis II, a grandson of Gardner H. Lewis I, in December, 1887. His wife was "Polly" Amyx Lewis.
We know that Thomas Lewis, together with Gardner Hopkins, his brother-in-law, and Thomas Caskey purchased 1100 acres of land on the Licking River at the mouth of Elkfork Creek, as shown by early land records in the court house at Prestonsburg, KY. (deed book A-54). This portion of Morgan County at that time was included in Floyd County. They are all listed as residents of Floyd County at that time. This land was purchased from Henry French of Mercer County, KY, and the deed was witnessed by John Perry, James S. Elliott and William Hopkins. (All records for that part of Morgan County which was in Floyd between 1799 and 1808 burned with the Floyd County courthouse in 1808, so if Thomas Lewis had been living here earlier we have no record.)
The Thomas Lewis tract included 500 acres on the north side of the Licking River at the mouth of Elkfork Creek, and the Hopkins and Caskey tract was between West Liberty and the mouth of the Elkfork. Gardner Hopkins is buried in a cemetery 1 1/2 miles north of West Liberty on KY 7. Thomas Lewis' son acquired land across the river from the mouth of Elkfork, and at one time Francis Lewis' son, John P. Lewis was the largest land owner in Morgan County. A portion of the Thomas Lewis tract has remained in the Lewis family to this day. It presently (1972) belongs to Mrs. Dima Lewis, widow of Green Lewis who was a grandson of Henry H. Lewis, Thomas Lewis' youngest son. It was on this farm, on the present site of the Dima Lewis home that Thomas Lewis built the big log house which family tradition claimed was the first log house built in what is now Morgan County. The house stood until about 30-40 years ago when it was destroyed by fire.
Francis H. Lewis oldest son of Thomas Lewis helped organize Morgan County and was the first Tax Commissioner. He married John Perry's daughter Eleanor. His second wife was Ellender, daughter of Thomas Caskey.
William M. Lewis was appointed by Gov. Adair as one of the first Justices of the peace in Morgan County. He married Jane, daughter of John Perry. William Henry Harrison Lewis son of William M. Lewis was a Union volunteer in Co. A, 54th Reg. of Ky. Inf. during the civil war. He married Elizabeth Henry daughter of "Big" Lewis Henry and Annie Allan Henry of Caney area of Morgan County. William H. Lewis son of William Henry Harrison Lewis (Red Head Bill) was a Justice of the peace in the Yocum and Blaze area and raised the first tobacco for commercial use in the county. He was also the first person to make tobacco hogshead in Morgan County.
If you have corrections or additions and would like to share them please contact:
Dr. Helen Price Stacy 555 Prestonsburg Street West Libery, KY 41472-1141