Sedgwick County KSGenWeb

Portrait And Biographical Album of Sedgwick County, Kan.

Chapman Brothers 1888

Pages 664 - 665

PHILO C. LEWIS is another of Wichita's capitalists, one who came here by accident and staid by design. In 1882, along in the summer, is recorded his first appearance in Wichita. He came on a visit, thinking to remain a month or so and return to New York whence he came. But the place had attracted him; from attraction it became interesting enough to induce him, like many others, to seek a home here.

             About 6,000 inhabitants were all the town could muster at that date. It has grown some meantime, more even than Mr. Lewis thought it would in so short a time. Here he thought was the place to start a commercial college, and on Main street, in Russell's Hall, the work was begun. He conducted the institution eighteen months, but the result not being entirely satisfactory, the Kansas National Bank found employment for him as a book-keeper. He held that position about two years. While engaged there he made some investments in the north part of the city and on College Hill. He was gritty and bought about 900 lots, some of which he has sold. Others he holds, having faith in the future as well as in Wichita. His original number was 1105 North Market street; he built that property and now occupies a fine residence on Brooklyn Heights, some two and one-half miles east of the city, on Central avenue.

             Trumbull County, Ohio, Mr. Lewis delights to refer to as the place of his birth, the date of which was Feb. 28, 1826. He is the son of Gary and Emily (Leavitt) Lewis, natives respectively of Connecticut and Ohio. An ox-cart was the conveyance and an elder brother the pilot who steered it, that brought the father from Connecticut to Ohio when he was only ten years of age, their father having died in Connecticut prior to their starting out to the West. They settled in Vienna, Trumbull County; the father afterward settled in Howland, in the same county, where, as mentioned, the son we are speaking of was afterward born. The elder brother, Lambert, after bringing his little brother to Ohio, reared him and taught him to farm. He became an extensive farmer, having many men under his control. His father's name was Beach, the mother's Diana (Wheeler) Lewis. They were natives of Huntington and Southbury, Conn. They, too, were farmers.

             The grandfather of our subject was Beach Lewis, Sr., and the grandmother, Ruth Bennett. They were likewise farmers. His parents were Sevignion and Bathsheba (Burroughs) Lewis, of Huntington, Conn., also farmers. Again, his father was named Edmund, a Colonel, a farmer and surveyor. His mother, Hannah (Beach) Lewis, of Stratford, Conn. Again, his father's name was Benjamin, his mother's Hannah (Curtis) Lewis, of Stratford. His father's name was Edmund, his mother's name Mary Lewis. The former came from England in 1634, on the ship "Elizabeth" with the Sherman family. He settled at Watertown, Mass., in 1638, finally removing to Lynn, Mass., where he reared his family.

             Emily Leavitt's father was named John, a native probably of Connecticut, engaged in farming. Gary, the father of P. C. Lewis, was a wealthy man at one time, but like many others, met with reverses in mercantile and farm operations in Ohio. That determined him to come west to Iowa. He settled in Lee County, that State, about 1840. He farmed 400 acres of land there for about eight years, at the end of which he moved to Ft. Des Moines and bought some property, remaining there one year, then returned to Lee County to a place called Montrose. He remained in Montrose till his death, in 1865; his wife died there the year before. Their children were five in number, three of whom are now living -- P. C., Jefferson J. and Daniel.

            The subject of this biographical review was brought up a farmer and remained at home till his majority. He then went to Cleveland, Ohio, and engaged in book-keeping for five years. In 1855 he went to Boston and pursued the same vocation for a wholesale boot and shoe house two years. From there he went to New York City and engaged in the manufacture of hoop skirts, continuing until the war closed. Life insurance then interested him, and he took charge of a department in that line for five years. The coal business then had attractions for him and he embarked in that in 1875, closing in 1879. His health failed him and the Western air promised recuperation and a new country that diversion so essential to recovery.

            September 16, 1872, the records say Mr. P. C. Lewis and Miss Phebe A. Gardner were made man and wife. Her parents were named Lyman and Mary A. (Smith) Gardner, New Jerseyans, the father a tailor in early life but a farmer now. Nine children are the number credited to them - Phebe, Ida O., Isaac B., Susie, Samuel H., David M., Irving, Josephine and Mary E. Mr. and Mrs. Lewis have two children-William G. and Lillian. He is a Democrat in politics, and one of the solid men of the city.

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