Retired farmer, Rush Township, Jo Daviess County, was born near Montreal, Canada, July 15, 1833, the son of Joshua 0. and Melinda (Hall) Lewis, who removed from Canada to Chautauqua County, N. Y., in 1835, where the father died in 1840. The subject of this sketch, after having taught two winter terms of school in Chautauqua County, came west in 1855 and, for two years, was located at or near Warren, Ill. In the fall of 1857 his mother and four sisters joined him at Apple River, Ill., where he resided until the fall of 1876. From July, 1862, to June, 1865, he served in the Civil War as a member of Company E, Ninety-sixth Illinois Volunteer Infantry, being attached to the Army of the Cumberland under the command of Generals Sherman and Thomas. For twenty-five years he was mainly engaged in teaching. nine years of this time being spent in the Apple River schools, where he taught two generations. In 1882 he bought five acres of land in Rush

Dori Leekley - History of JoDaviess 1904