Page:Appletons' Cyclopædia of American Biography (1892, volume 3).djvu/740

From Wikisource
Jump to navigation Jump to search
This page needs to be proofread.
702
LEWIS
LEWIS

chief of the Continental army, he recommended Lewis for major-general, but the latter was over- looked, and accepted the rank of brigadier-general on 1 March, 1776, which he resigned on 15 April. 1777. In 1776 the committee of safety sent him to dislodge Lord Dunmore, whom he attacked on 9 July, driving him from Gwynn's island. He resigned his command on account of illness, and died on the way to his home on Roanoke river. He possessed a strong physique and commanding pres- ence, and was extravagantly described as making the earth " tremble as he walked." His statue occupies one of the pedestals around the Washington monument in Richmond, Va. — His brother, Thomas, legislator, b. in Donegal; Ireland, in 1718 ; d. in 1790, was a member of the Virginia house of burgesses, where he faithfully supported the rights of the colonies. He advocated the resolutions of Patrick Henry in the session of 1765, was a member of the conventions of 1775 and 1776, and also of the State convention that ratified the Federal constitution. — Another brother, William, soldier, b. in Ireland in 1724 ; d. in Virginia in 1811, was engaged in the French and Indian warfare under his brother Andrew, and served during the Revolution with the rank of colonel. — Another brother, Charles, b. in Virginia; killed at the battle of Point Pleasant, 10 Oct., 1774, also served under his brother Andrew, was a leader in the conflicts on the western frontier of the state, and became a colonel in the army. — Charles's nephew, Joshua, jurist, b. in Virginia in 1774; d. in New Orleans, La., 5 June, 1833, emigrated to Kentucky in early manhood, and settled in Lexington, where he was the politi- cal adviser of Henry Clay. He was appointed by President Jefferson in 1803 one of the three com- missioners to take possession of the newly pur- chased province of Louisiana, and was subsequent- ly judge of the state supreme court. — Joshua's son, John Lawson, soldier, b. in Lexington, Ky., 26 March, 1800; d. in New Orleans, La., 15 May, 1886, removed to New Orleans in boyhood, and was educated in that city and at Litchfield, Conn. He served as courier to Gen. Andrew Jackson at the battle of New Orleans, was admitted to the bar in 1821, became inspector-general and major- general of the first division of Louisiana state troops in 1842, was sheriff in 1850, and mayor in 1855. During the civil war he was major-general of state militia in the Confederate service, was se- verely wounded at Mansfield, and served through- out the campaign that ended in the retirement of Gen. Nathaniel P. Banks from the Red river. After the war he held several public posts in New Or- leans, including that of jury-commissioner.


LEWIS, Dio, physician, b. in Auburn, N. Y., 3 March, 1823; d. in Yonkers, N. Y., 21 May, 1886. He studied at the Harvard medical school, and, adopting homoeopathy, practised it for several years in Buffalo, N. Y., where he also edited and published a medical magazine in which he depre- cated the. use of drugs and advocated physical exercise as a part of public education. From 1852 till 1863 he was engaged in lecturing on hygiene and physiology, and at the latter date he settled in Boston and founded the Boston normal physical training-school, at which, in seven years, five hun- dred pupils were graduated. His influence had much to do with the establishment of the present system of physical culture in most of the institu- tions of learning in the United States. In 1864 he established in Lexington, Mass., a school for young women which was based on hygienic principles, but in September, 1868, the buildings were burned, and the next year the school was given up. He then resumed lecturing, principally on hygiene and temperance, and originated the women's temper- ance crusade in Ohio. He edited " To-day," " Dio Lewis's Monthly," " Dio Lewis Nuggets," and the "Dio Lewis Treasury," the latter being put to Eress immediately before his death. He published, esides numerous pamphlets and papers in maga- zines, '* New Gymnastics " (Boston, 1862); "Weak Lungs, and how to make them Strong " (1863) ; " Talks about People's Stomachs" (1870); "Our Girls" (New York, 1871); "Chats with Young Women " (1871) ; "Chastity" (1872); " Gypsies ?r (1881) ; and " In a Nutshell " (1883).


LEWIS, Dixon Hall, senator, b. in Hancock county, Ga., 10 Aug., 1802 ; d. in New York city, 25 Oct., 1848. He was educated at the College of South Carolina, studied law, and removed to Ala- bama, where he practised his profession. After serving two terms in the legislature he was elected in 1828 to congress as a state-rights Democrat, and held his seat till his appointment by Gov. Benjamin Fitzpatrick to the U. S. senate in 1840, to fill the unexpired term of William R. King. He was re- elected in 1846, and served until his death. Mr. Lewis was a forcible speaker and a sound lawyer. His politics were of the extreme state-rights school, and he advocated nullification and secession. His stature was enormous and his weight 430 pounds. Furniture was made for his special use, and he was compelled to engage two seats in railway and other public conveyances. On one occasion a steamer on which he was a passenger was wrecked, but. fear- ing to imperil the others, he refused to enter the boat till all the passengers were saved, and for a time was in imminent danger.


LEWIS, Edmonia, sculptor, b. near Albany, N. Y., 4 July, 1845. Her father was a negro and her mother a Chippewa Indian. She was left an orphan at the age of three, and. after living for some time with the Indians, was sent by her brother to school, where she obtained a partial education. She early began to model in clay, and attracted attention by her portrait bust of Robert G. Shaw, colonel of the first negro regiment in the National service, which was exhibited in Boston. In 1865 she went to Rome, where she studied, and has since resided. Her works, which show consider- able ideality and talent, have found their chief patronage abroad. Among them are " The Freed- woman " (1867) ; " Death of Cleopatra," a vividly realistic work, sent to the Centennial exhibition of 1876 ; " The Old Arrow-Maker and his Daugh- ter," " Hagar," " Rebecca at the Well," and por- trait busts of Henry W. Longfellow, Charles Sum- ner, John Brown, and Abraham Lincoln. The last- mentioned work is in the San Jose library, Cal.


LEWIS, Edmund Darch, artist, b. in Phila- delphia, Pa., 17 Oct., 1837. His parents took him from school when he was fifteen years old and placed him under Paul Weber, with whom he studied for five years. Up to 1876 he worked principally at landscape-painting, but since then has devoted himself to marine views. Mr. Lewis's collection of paintings, bric-a-brac, antique furni- ture, and curios is larger and more valuable than that owned by any other artist in this country, and possibly in the world. Among his works are " Queen of the Antilles," " Valley of the Umri," " Autumn on the Susquehanna," " Middav on Lake George," " Fairmount Park," " Bass Rocks after a Storm," "Indian Rock of an Afternoon," and " The Casino at Narragansett Pier."


LEWIS, Elisha Joseph, physician, b. in Baltimore, Md., in 1820. He studied at Princeton for two years, was graduated in medicine at the Uni-