John Lewis



My grandfather, John Lewis, was born in Williamsburg, Virginia, February 5, 1867 and died in Birmingham, Alabama , December 15, 1959. He left Virginia at age seventeen and moved to Alabama, where he married my grandmother, Naomi Elizabeth Danforth, February 5, 1888. Their only child was my father, James Herbert Lewis(he later reversed his first and middle names), who was born June 7, 1890. My grandmother died July 25, 1903. She was born in Abbeville(Henry County, Alabama) October 15, 1858.

John married a second time a woman whose name is unknown. They were divorced within a short time. He then married Hattie Dedman with whom he lived over fifty years. They married about 1907. She survived him over fifteen years and died in September 1974.

John is buried at Elmwood Cemetery, Birmingham Elmwood Cemetery, Birmingham in his plot there. My grandmother was buried at Oak Hill Cemetery, Birmingham in the Danforth plot.

John began earning his living as a carpenter and later became a small contractor. His savings sustained him in his later years and he was never dependent upon anyone even though he was nearly ninety-three when he died. He was a Methodist and a member of Free Masonry and other fraternal orders. My father was his only child.

John's family had lived at Hampton Virginia and the surrounding area for many generations. They moved to Williamsburg when Hampton became the scene of battle in the Civil War (1862). At the time of her death in 1917, John's mother lived in the oldest house remaining in Hampton.

I know little concerning John's father who was Lewis Warrington Dobbins. Family tradition has it that his family was successful in shipbuilding and had accumulated substantial assets. There were servants and plate and wine on the sideboard. In any event the father apparently enjoyed the wine, and whatever had accumulated ceased to be. He was born in January 1837 and died November 25, 1886. He married Emily Susan Bowen in October 1859.


John's mother Emily Susan Bowen was born in June 1834 and died November 17, 1917. Through her John was descended from a Revolutionary soldier, William Morris, who served at Valley Forge and at Yorktown. The line of descent is as follows:

WILLIAM MORRIS m. ELIZABETH HUNT
He was born about 1727-8 and died 1802 in Yorktown. She was his 2nd wife and was born about 1756 in York County, Virginia
REBECCA MORRIS m. JOHN BOWEN
Rebecca was born in 1797 and married John Bowen February 24, 1817. She was his 2nd wife. John Bowen was born 1777 and died in 1842
EMILY SUSAN BOWEN m. LEWIS W. DOBBINS

Other children of William Morris were: HANNAH b. 1797- married WILLIAM TOPPING in April 1824
JOHN
AMY

In 1927 I visited Hampton, Virginia with my grandfather. We stayed in the home of Mrs. Hermione Owens, John's sister. They lived on one of the many inlets near the Chesapeake Bay and on the water. The old house of John's mother was across the street. My grandfather and I fished in the inlet and one boat went within sight of the scene of the MERRIMAC and MONITOR battle. Dolly Gray and her mother were also visiting at that time. Her mother was Mrs. L.E. Gray who was married to a West Point grad while he was stationed at Fort Monroe.

John had three sisters: HERMIONE, OLIVE, and LAURA. He had a brother ARTHUR who moved to Richmond. John's father's sister, Mrs. Mary Ann Herbert married a plantation owner before the Civil War. He apparently was killed in action or died of wounds. She developed some of the property at BUCKROE BEACH as a recreational area and small hotel, which existed until the early 1900s.

There is family tradition that Elizabeth Hunt who married William Morris was descended from Robert Hunt, the first minister in the colonies, who was at Jamestowne shortly after its founding in 1607.


William Morris' Revolutionary service is documented in the files of the DAR in the applications of nieces and other kin.He served until the surrender at Yorktown.


See War Department rolls 236 page 2-family record of great great grandmother that her father served through the war; that his uniform was burned at the church in Yorktown, where it had been placed after the war


H.J.LEWIS JR.