 |
- STEPHEN B. LEWIS is president of the Knitting Co. which bears
- his family name, and is one of Janesville's honored citizens.
Both his father and grandfather were natives of Connecticut,
of English stock, although he himself was born at Turtleville,
Rock Co., Wis., on July 12, 1848. Abel F. LEWIS, his grandfather,
for many years commanded vessels engaged in the coasting trade.
It was not his wish that his sons should follow this calling,
however, and as they began to grow up he removed inland, taking
up his residence at McGrawville, Cortland Co., N.Y. In 1842 he
came to Wisconsin, settling at Turtle Creek, in Rock County,
where he constructed a dam and erected a saw and grist mill,
from which he furnished lumber and flour to all the surrounding
country. At that time Janesville was in its infancy, and life
was comparatively primitive in its simplicity, the farmers hauling
grain and flour with ox-teams. Mr. LEWIS was a man of considerable
prominence, and an active worker in the Baptist Church, occasionally
filling
|
- its pulpit in the absence of the regular preacher. He died
in Rock County in 1864, from pneumonia, aged about sixty-one
years. He was the father of three sons and one daughter.
- Edward F. LEWIS, son of Abel F., and the father of Stephen
B., was born in Connecticut,
- before the migration of the family to New York, and was about
eighteen years old when he accompanied his father to Wisconsin.
About 1849 he removed to Columbia County, Wis., before it had
been surveyed, and there opened a hotel, which he successfully
conducted for several years, until he was elected sheriff. After
filling that office for two years, he opened a store. He was
a man of substance and of influence, and during the Civil War
filled the post of deputy provost marshal. He was virtually the
founder of the LEWIS Knitting Co., although he began manufacturing
in 1871 in a small way. Prior to the above date there were no
machines adapted to knitting double-ribbed underwear, it being
the custom to sew together strips made of as great a width as
the machines then in use could produce. In that year he invented
the process (which now bears his name) of knitting double-ribbed
garments entire. He first experimented with underwear for his
own use, and from this small beginning sprang the present large
business of the LEWIS Knitting Co., of Janesville. His first
factory was at Portage, and there he resided until his death
in 1885, at the age of sixty-two. He was a Baptist in faith,
as was also his wife, Betsey BARRETT. She was one of nine daughters
of Stephen BARRETT, a descendant of Col. BARRETT, commander at
Concord Bridge, where was fought the first battle of the Revolutionary
War. Stephen BARRETT was a woolen manufacturer, and moved from
Concord, Mass., to New York, thence to Ohio, and in 1842 to Rock
County, Wis., settling at Turtle Creek. He was a deacon in the
Baptist Church, and a man held in high esteem by his neighbors.
He passed away at the home of his daughter, Mrs. E. F. LEWIS,
in his eighty-fourth year. His widow died about two year later,
at the home of Mrs. LEWIS, and was buried beside her husband
at Portage, Wis. To Edward F. LEWIS and his wife were born seven
sons, of whom only three are living, Stephen B., Franklin F.,
and William L. Their first-born, Judson A., was a sergeant in
Company C, 23d Wis. V. I., during the war of the Rebellion, and
was killed by a bullet through the forehead while charging the
enemy's works before Vicksburg.
- Stephen B. LEWIS was reared a farmer's boy, although his
educational advantages were of a
- far higher order than were usually enjoyed by Wisconsin country
lads of his day. He was educated in the Normal school at Whitewater,
being graduated therefrom in 1874, and for ten years was principal
of the high school at Clinton. At the expiration of that period
he abandoned the chair of teacher for the more active life of
a business man, he and his brother Franklin F. associating themselves
with their father in the manufacture of knit goods. Upon their
father's death in 1885, the brothers succeeded to the control
of the business, which they removed from Portage to Janesville,
in 1887, the name of the firm having been changed from E. F.
LEWIS & Sons to LEWIS Brothers, and later to the LEWIS Knitting
Co. Some eighty-six hands are employed in the factory, and the
output of the concern finds a ready market in all the principal
cities of the country. Mr. LEWIS is a deacon in the Congregational
Church, and a liberal supporter of the cause of evangelical religion.
A man of keen perception and sound business sense, he is respected
for his high moral principle, and beloved for his many amiable
traits of heart. He is a Republican, but has always declined
office.
- Our subject was married July 10, 1877, to Elizabeth, a daughter
of Samuel and Sarah (WHITE)
- CHURCH, and they have one son, Rollin C., born Aug. 29, 1884.
|
-
- Taken from "Commemorative Biographical Record of
the Counties of Rock, Green, Grant, Iowa and Lafayette Wisconsin"
(c)1901, p. 304-305; lithograph from same book.
-
- Courtesy of Carol
|
