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Submitted: 6/30/19 • Approved: 6/30/19 • Last Updated: 7/3/19 • R819967-G0-S3
4 Sep 1840 Alna, Lincoln County, Maine
20 Jan 1931 Carthage, Jasper County, Missouri
Parents:
Ward L Lewis and Martha Susan Howe
Spouses:
Matilda Estelle Francis Married 13 Nov 1860 Marion Co MO
Mary A. Faires Lewis Married: 24 Sep 1865 Laclede Co MO
Private
Company A
1st Kansas
Civil War
Appointed Post Master for Carthage, MO 30 Jan 1879 and 7 Feb 1883
Carthage Evening Press
January 20, 1931
MAJ. A.F. LEWIS, PIONEER IS DEAD
AT THE AGE OF 90
Veteran Publisher Bedfast Seven Years
FORMER POSTMASTER HERE
Prominent Early Day Editor and Civil War Veteran Will Be Buried Tomorrow
Maj. A.F. Lewis is dead.
The end came today to the prominent Carthage pioneer newspaper and veteran of the Civil War and former postmaster here, at 3:15 o'clock this morning at his home, 109 North Garrison avenue. He had been in failing health many years and had been bedfast the last seven years. Many, Many times it seemed that the end was near for him, but, the courageous old fighter that he was, he rallied and his indomitable will carried him through. Three days later he was stricken with pneumonia which caused his death. He was 90 years old.
Another link connecting Carthage of today with the Carthage of shortly after the Civil War is severed in the death of Major Lewis.
Came Here in 1872
Coming here in May, 1872 from Lebanon, MO., he purchased a half interest in the Carthage Banner, then published by Garland & Henney. Major Lewis acquired H. C. Henney's stock in the company. From that time on until his health failed he was to be actively identified with nearly every movement for the up-building of Carthage and the county.
In commenting upon his arrival in Carthage Major Lewis wrote in the Press' fiftieth anniversary issue edition of March 30, 1922:
"At that time Carthage had a population of about 2,500. I came to Carthage from Lebanon. There was no railroad into Carthage, though the line, [Memphis, Carthage and Northwestern Railroad, however on following July 4th was celebrated by 10,000 people, according to the Missouri Democrat], which is now the Frisco, was building this way and was within about five miles of the town's limits. At Pierce City I fell in with Walter Putnam, also a former Lebanon man, and induced him to come to Carthage with me, assuring him we could find something to do when we got here."
Major Lewis recalled in that article for the Press that Mr. Putnam became a solicitor for the Carthage Banner upon arrival here and spend his first summer in Carthage riding over the country on horseback soliciting subscriptions to the Banner.
MAJOR LEWIS NATIVE OF MAINE
Cornelius Roach Pays Tribute to Old Newspaper Contemporary
The following obituary by Cornelius Roach, now a prominent banker in Kansas City and former newspaper editor and friend of Mr. Lewis, was written by Mr. Roach sometime ago and forwarded by to relatives to be used in connection with his death:
Alonzo Ferdinand Lewis was born in a little town named Alna on the rugged coast of Maine, September 4, 1840. In that northeastern most state, he received his education. Lured by the tales of the West about the time he reached his maturity, he bade farewell to his native state and located at Elwood, Kansas, then a station on the line of the pony express to California. Elwood is on the west bank of the Missouri river opposite Saint Joseph.
Upon President Lincoln's call for troops in 1861, he enlisted in the United States army and recruited a company for the First Kansas Regiment. Throughout the war he was a staff officer and when the war closed he had been commissioned as major.
He saw active service and several times experienced the thrill and excitement of battle. Toward the close of the war, owing to his special capabilities, he was assigned to the accounting and commissary department. This work took him to Springfield and Lebanon, Missouri, the last assignment being the selling of supplies and army equipment at Lebanon during the closing days of the war.
Upon returning to civil life he engaged in newspaper work and became one of Missouri's outstanding editors and publishers. His first newspaper work was on the St. Louis Globe-Democrat. In the late sixties he he bought a weekly paper at Lebanon and edited that paper until he moved to Carthage and bought the Carthage Banner from Thomas M. Garland in 1872.
In 1867 at Lebanon he married Miss Mary A Farris. Of this marriage one daughter was born, Irene, who passed away in September, two years ago (1928).
During the eighties he served for six years as postmaster of Carthage and made one of the best and most popular officers this city ever had.
For several years, after he had parted ownership with the Banner, he was manager for the Bell Telephone Company at Carthage, Webb City, Joplin and Lamar. This was his last active work, for in 1910 owing to ill health he retired at the age of seventy.
There never was in this part of the state a citizen that achieved more as a builder of Carthage, and as an active influence in the development of Southwest Missouri. He was always in the forefront of every campaign for the establishment of a new project, for the betterment of the community, and the welfare and progress of its people. In all such work he was untiring and remarkably successful.
Though an ardent Republican, staunch partisan, and loyal party worker, he was always so fair he never sacrificed the friendship of Democratic friends, neighbors and opponents. His were differences only of honest opinion and judgement, never personal or narrow. His heart was too big, his mind too broad to entertain hate. In his make-up there was no intolerance; - his was the generous spirit to make allowance for the different angle from which the other man saw things.
Major Lewis' fine philosophy of life was shown by his unsurpassed patience throughout the years of his illness. His forbearance was truly remarkable. Does it not warrant the belief that a kind Providence has a happy reward in store for the sufferer that has been released from the cares and troubles of this world? Surely he can render a good account of his stewardship.
This sketch would not be complete did it not include a tribute to the faithfulness and devotion of Mrs. Belle Johnson, a distant relative through marriage, throughout the many years of Major Lewis' sickness, helpfulness and invalidism. Life furnishes few exemplifications of sweeter sympathy or more admirable friendship than that shown in the unselfish care bestowed by Mrs. Johnson.
He is survived by a sister, Mrs. Flora A. Berry of Waterville, Kansas and two granddaughters, Mrs. Earl Reed of Carthage and Mrs. Leroy Combs of Kansas City.
His has been a busy and beneficial life. He passes from the field of action with the highest esteem of fellow citizens, as was evidenced a little more than a year ago by unanimous vote of the Carthage Chamber of Commerce in volunteering to send a letter of cheer and good wishes reciting that in the years gone by Major Lewis and done much for Carthage enterprises calculated to promote the welfare of this city and its people.
May the reception that he receives in the land beyond be a benediction of eternal happiness.
CORNELIUS ROACH
Kansas City, Missouri
Contributed on 6/30/19 by tslundberg
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Record #: 819967