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John F. Lewis

American politician (1818–1895)

Summary

American politician (1818–1895)

Field	Value
name	John Francis Lewis
image	John F. Lewis - Brady-Handy.jpg
order1	9th and 14th
office1	Lieutenant Governor of Virginia
governor1	William E. Cameron
term_start1	January 1, 1882
term_end1	January 1, 1886
predecessor1	James A. Walker
successor1	John E. Massey
governor2	Gilbert Carlton Walker
term_start2	October 5, 1869
term_end2	January 1, 1870
predecessor2	Leopold C. P. Cowper
successor2	John Lawrence Marye, Jr.
jr/sr3	United States Senator
state3	Virginia
term_start3	January 26, 1870
term_end3	March 4, 1875
predecessor3	Lemuel J. Bowden
successor3	Robert E. Withers
birth_date
birth_place	Lynnwood, Virginia, US
death_date
death_place	Lynnwood, Virginia, US
party	Republican
spouse	Serena Helen Sheffey (m.1842)
children	6

| jr/sr3 = United States Senator John Francis Lewis (March 1, 1818September 2, 1895) was an American planter and politician from Rockingham County, Virginia. He represented Rockingham County as a Whig during the Virginia Secession Convention of 1861 and refused to sign the final document, and twice served as Lieutenant Governor of Virginia following the American Civil War and represented Virginia as a Republican in the United States Senate during the Reconstruction period after the Civil War.

Early and family life

John F. Lewis was born on the "Lynnwood" plantation in rural Rockingham County, Virginia, a son of Samuel Hance Lewis and Nancy Cameron Lewis. He attended a private school and farmed as a young man. He owned one 25 year old enslaved mulatto woman in 1850. He (or more likely another John Lewis who married a woman named Amanda in Rockingham District 1) owned 8 slaves in 1860.

Lewis married Serena Helen Sheffey (1823–1901) in October 1842, and they raised two sons and four daughters. Daniel Sheffey Lewis (1843-1912) became a newspaperman as well as served for many years as treasurer of the city of Harrisonburg, and became one of the state's most prominent Republicans. His brother John Francis Lewis Jr. (1860-1915), survived him but committed suicide after suffering a stroke and learning he would not heal completely.

Career

He was a delegate to the Virginia secession convention in 1861, but refused to sign the ordinance of secession. He was the only member from east of the Allegheny Mountains that refused to endorse the document.

During the Civil War, portions of the Battle of Port Republic were fought on his family's land.

Lewis was an unsuccessful Union Party candidate for Congress in 1865. He was elected as Virginia's lieutenant governor in 1869 and served from October 5 of that year until January 1, 1870. Upon the readmission of Virginia to representation in the U.S. Congress, Lewis was elected as a Republican to the United States Senate and served from January 26, 1870, to March 4, 1875. He served on the Committee on the District of Columbia in the Forty-third Congress. He was not a candidate for reelection as the Republicans had already become a minority party by 1874 and wouldn't control either house on their own in Virginia for the rest of the 19th century.

He returned home and was appointed by Presidents Ulysses S. Grant and Rutherford B. Hayes as the United States Marshal for the western district of Virginia 1875–1882, when he resigned. Lewis was again elected lieutenant governor in 1881, alongside Readjuster Party candidate William E. Cameron, and served with him from 1882 to 1886. After his term, no Republican served as Virginia's lieutenant governor until John N. Dalton served from 1974 to 1978.

He retired from politics after his term and resumed farming.

Inscription on the John F. Lewis monument at the Lewis Family cemetery

Death and legacy

Lewis died at Lynnwood in Rockingham County, Virginia. He was buried in the family burial ground on the plantation.

References

1850 U.S. Federal Census, Slave Schedule for District 56 and a half, Rockingham County, Virginia, p. 9 of 11 on ancestry.com
"The Republican Party of Virginia in the Nineteenth Century".

Wikipedia Source

This article was imported from Wikipedia and is available under the Creative Commons Attribution-ShareAlike 4.0 License. Content has been adapted to SurfDoc format. Original contributors can be found on the article history page.

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