Page:Encyclopedia of Virginia Biography volume 5.djvu/542

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VIRGINIA BIOGRAPHY

America today, and in every portion of the country are to be found distinct branches that run back to a period so remote as to render reliable trace impossible. Francis Lewis, one of the signers of the Declaration of Independence, was from New York, while Ellis Lewis, an eminent jurist, was from Pennsylvania. Every portion of New Eng- land has its representative Lewis families, all of them of Welsh origin but tracing to different sources. The Lewis family of Virginia embraces five distinct branches be- tween whom there is no discoverable rela- tion. The heads of these branches are : General Robert Lewis, of ^Vales, who set- tled in Gloucester county, Virginia, in 1635; John Lewis, of Wales, who settled in Hen- rico county in 1660; John Lewis, of Wales, who settled in Hanover county in 1675; Zachary Lewis, of Wales, who settled in Middlesex county in 1692; and John Lewis, of county Donegal, Ireland, who settled in Augusta county in 1732. Charles Howard Lewis, of Richmond, Virginia, belongs to the Gloucester county branch, son of George Thomas Lewis, and grandson of James H. Lewis, both born in Gloucester county.

James H. Lewis died in Baltimore in 1899, aged seventy years. He was engaged in the oyster business for many years and was a brave soldier of the Confederacy. He mar- ried Sarah Jane Smead, also born in Glou- cester county, who bore him two sons, George Thomas, of further mention, and Levin Winder.

George Thomas Lewis was born in Glou- cester county, Virginia, in 1846, died in Bal- timore, Maryland, in 1901. He entered the profession of law and when a young man located in Baltimore, Maryland, where he attained distinction in his profession and in public life, serving two terms in the city council. He married, in 1876, at Baltimore, Martha Jane Taylor, born in Essex county, Virginia, who survives him, a resident of Baltimore. Children : Charles Howard, of further mention, and George Taylor, born March 19, 1884, a banker of Baltimore.

Dr. Charles Howard Lewis was born in Baltimore, Maryland, Alarch 18, 1877, and after a preparatory course in the Baltimore High school entered the Baltimore City Col- lege, whence he was graduated in the class of 1896. The University of Maryland fur- nished him with his training in the medical profession, and from this institution he re-

ceived the degree M. D. in 1900. For two years after the completion of his course in this university he was first assistant resi- dent physician at the Bay View Hospital, and afterward spent three years in profes- sional work abroad. Since June, 1908, Dr. Lewis has been a general practitioner of Richmond, his office at the corner of Main and Robinson streets, and he has become well and favorably known in medical circles. His fraternities are the Kappa Sigma and the Omega L^psilon Phi, and he is a member of the local medical societies, the Richmond Academy of Medicine, and the American Medical Association. His studies in his pro- fession have been of extraordinary breadth, and the success that has attended him in his practice is commensurate with the high place he holds among his fellow physicians. Dr. Lewis is a communicant of the Prot- estant Episcopal church.

Dr. Lewis married, in New York City, Maud Marie Ansell, born in London, Eng- land, her father now living in -Rochester, England, a retired member of the Royal Stock Exchange, her mother, deceased. Children of Dr. and Mrs. Lewis : George Alexander, born February 6. 1905 ; Martha Virginia Elizabeth, born August 29, 1909.

Charles Virgil Shoemaker. Descendant of German ancestors and a Pennsylvanian by birth, the life-work of Charles V. Shoe- maker, as yet only begun, makes him in all essential respects a Virginian, for it is in that state that he recived his academic education and to her that he has rendered service as an educator. He is now super- intendent of the schools of Woodstock, Vir- ginia, coming to his duties as the head of the educational system in the city familiar both with the system and existing condi- tions through previous experience as a teacher therein and as principal of the Woodstock Norman Training School, a position he held from 191 1 until 1914. Thus, Elthough Mr. Shoemaker's present office is one new to him, he is nevertheless prepared for his work by his acquaintance with aft'airs relating to education in Woodstock, and his administration will lose little through the necessity for marking time, as it were, while gaining a knowledge of the ground on which it stands.

The founder of this line of the Shoemaker family in the United States was Philip