Featured Family Friday: James West Lewis and Sophia Adeline Millwee

James West Lewis
b. Nov 1835, South Carolina
d. 20 Mar 1904
& Sophia Adeline Milwee
b. 5 Mar 1839, Anderson District, South Carolina
d. 30 Dec 1926, Vernon, Willbarger, Texas
m. 28 Feb 1867
|--Sophia Caroline Lewis
|----b. 2 Dec 1868, South Carolina
|----d. 1932
|---& James A. Puckett
|----b. Oct 1861, Texas
|----d. bef 1930
|----m. 1888
|--Samuel Millwee Lewis
|----b. 2 Feb 1871, South Carolina
|----d. 19 Apr 1942
|---& Edith Cederia Sparks
|----b. 29 Dec 1880, Alabama
|----d. 21 Feb 1975, Slaton, Lubbock, Texas
|----m. 1908
|--Robert Lewis
|----b. 3 Mar 1873, South Carolina
|----d. bef 1880
|--Blake Henry Lewis*
|----b. 10 Jun 1875, South Carolina
|----d. 20 Jan 1962, Vernon, Wilbarger Co., Texas
|---& Mary Nancy “Mollie” Starr
|----b. Nov 1877, Missouri
|----d. 20 Jul 1917, Vernon, Wilbarger Co., Texas
|----m. 3 Mar 1900, Vernon, Wilbarger Co., Texas
|--Blake Henry Lewis*
|----b. 10 Jun 1875, South Carolina
|----d. 20 Jan 1962, Vernon, Wilbarger Co., Texas
|---& Florence Belzora Osborne
|----b. 29 Feb 1884, Callihan, McMullen Co., Texas
|----m. 22 Aug 1925
|--David J. Lewis
|----b. 22 Apr 1877, Texas
|----d. 7 Jul 1961, Los Angeles, California
|---& Alice A. McKinney
|----b. 26 Feb 1882, Texas
|----d. 11 Dec 1966, Los Angeles, California
|--Manning Hyson Lewis
|----b. 17 Oct 1879, Texas
|----d. 21 Oct 1964, Wichita Falls, Wichita, Texas
|---& Myrtle Mae Kincheloe
|----b. 10 Apr 1886, Hamilton Co., Texas
|----d. 2 Dec 1961, Vernon, Wilbarger Co., Texas
|----m. 15 Aug 1905, Vernon, Wilbarger Co.,

This is the family of my great-grandmother Martha E. Lewis’ oldest brother, James West Lewis. I initially did not know if this James West Lewis was the same as the James W. Lewis I had identified as her brother, but when I saw that one of his sons was named Manning, I knew he was the correct person. This Manning was named for James’ and Martha’s brother Manning, who died in the Civil War. (The latter was named for his grandfather, Manning Poole, whose given name was his mother’s maiden name.) I suspect that son Samuel was named for another Lewis brother who also died in the Civil War and who served in the same unit as James, the 4th Regiment, SC Infantry, Company B.

This Lewis family probably moved from South Carolina to Texas in the same year as the other Lewis siblings who moved (1877, possibly earlier in the year, however), but settled first in Travis County and then in Wilbarger County instead of Dallas County, where the other Lewis siblings settled. Wilbarger County is only one county over from Baylor County, where James’ nephew Kirby Runion Moore, my grandfather, moved in 1917, so I wonder if the cousins were aware that they lived so near to one another.

Sophia Adeline Millwee was a cousin of James West Lewis; if I remember correctly, she was his first cousin once removed.

If you are researching this family, please contact me (using the button at the left of this blog).