of land in the Valley. * * Lewis joined this party, came to the Valley, and was the first white settler of Augusta." Lewis is represented as coming, not from Williamsburg, but from Lancaster, Pennsylvania, and the date of his arrival here is given as "the summer of 1732." These statements and the authority upon which they are made appear conclusive of the matter.
John Lewis and his sturdy sons were just the men to battle with the adverse circumstances which surrounded them in this wilderness country. He was a native of Donegal county. Province of Ulster, Ireland, and of Scottish descent. He came to America from Portugal, in which country he had taken refuge after a bloody affray with an oppressive landlord in Ireland. It is stated, however, that upon an investigation of the affray, Lewis was formally pronounced free from blame. The story as related is briefly as follows: An Irish lord who owned the fee of the land leased by Lewis undertook to eject the latter in a lawless manner. With a band of retainers he repaired to the place, and on the refusal of the tenant to vacate, fired into the house killing an invalid brother of Lewis and wounding his wife. Thereupon, Lewis rushed from the house and dispersed his assailants, but not until their leader and his steward were killed.
It is a question what number of sons John Lewis had. Various writers state that he brought with him to America four sons, viz: Samuel, Thomas, Andrew, and William, and that a fifth, Charles, was born after the settlement here, but others mention only four, omitting Samuel. Ex-Governor Gilmer, of Georgia, a great-grandson of John Lewis, gives an account of the family in his book called "Georgians," printed in 1854, and is silent as to Samuel. Governor Gilmer's mother, a daughter of Thomas Lewis, lived to a great age, and it is hardly possible that she could have been ignorant of an uncle named Samuel, and that her son should not have named him if there had been such an one. All the others were prominent in the early history of the country, and we shall have occasion to speak of them often in the course of our narrative.
The permanent settlement of Lewis was in the vicinity of the twin hills, "Betsy Bell and Mary Gray," which were so called by him, or some other early settler, after two similar hills in County Tyrone, Ireland.
Concurrenriy with the setdement of Lewis, or immediately
