Interment source:
Bay View Cemetery Map, ca 1940
Map states: "S. S. Lewis and wife."
NO HEADSTONE
1. Biography
While Mr. S. S. Lewis has a simple flat granite stone to mark his grave, his widow has no such stone in Old Bayview Cemetery. There is no documentation of her death in the records of the Old Bayview Association (roughly 1897-1913) or the early churches, such as the Methodist from which her husband was buried. However, it has been presumed she was buried near him as their names are on an old map of the cemetery to show ownership of lots. It seems likely that in fact she may not be buried here. The obituary of Mr. S. S. Lewis states that he was a member of the firm of Lewis and Whitehead of Indianapolis, but that he came south because of his problem with asthma. It notes that for a time he lived more in the vicinity of Austin and them came to Nueces County where he had built a very nice residence in the country about three and a half miles west of town by 1892. He died shortly after that in July of 1893 following an illness of about six weeks (C. C. Weekly Caller, 8 Sept. 1893). The city directory of Indianapolis does report the firm of Lewis, Whitehead, & Co. as early as 1872/3. Those listed as members are usually given as William H. Lewis, Shaw S. Lewis, and W. C. Whitehead. The last listing for Mr. Shaw (sometimes given as “Snowâ€) S. Lewis is in the 1877 directory. After that only the other two officers are listed with the company. The firm has nice advertisements throughout the years for cemetery monuments in granite and marble. In the 1877 city directory of Indianapolis Mr. Shaw S. Lewis as well as Sylvester S. Lewis are listed as residing at 795 N. Tennessee Street. Their presumed relative William H. Lewis resides on the corner of Kentucky and Washington Avenues near the company whose headquarters that year are at 48 and 50 Kentucky Avenue. They are listed as “importers and dealers in Italian Marble and Scotch Monuments and Statuaryâ€. That S. S. Lewis left Indianapolis for Texas sometime around 1878 is confirmed by his presence in the 1880 federal census in Atascosa County, Texas. There he is listed as 50 years old, a native of Pennsylvania. His wife is a thirty year old native of Indiana and has been previously married as she has a son named “Samuel T. Williard†(sic). Mr. Lewis also has an old daughter who was born in California so he must have gone with his first wife to that state during its early years after the 1849 gold rush. The information on this daughter indicates that her mother was a native of Missouri. Mr. and his present wife also have a daughter together who is listed as “F. M. Lewis†(a 3 year old native of Indiana). Thus it seems that Mr. S. S. Lewis initially married and worked in California (where he may be found in an 1860 census as there is an “S. S. Lewis†in Nevada County, CA), and then he traveled to Indiana in the early 1870s after the Civil War to work with the firm of Lewis & Whitehead before heading south to Texas about 1878. Possibly he headed to Indiana after the death of his first wife to seek a wife for his children while working with other Lewis relatives who had settled there. This second Mrs. Lewis is identified in later deed records of Nueces County as “Eliza J. Lewisâ€. She is a native of Indiana, born about 1850, so she is about 20 years younger than her second husband. In a final sale of property the family still owned in Nueces County, she notes that she is now with her son Samuel T. Willard in Johnson County, Indiana. Others who are joined with her in this sale include what is probably a son of S. S. Lewis—Roe Dare Lewis. Listed also is the daughter who had been recorded in the 1880 census as F. M. Lewis. She is now listed as Florence M. Stanley, the wife of Andrew Stanley, and residing at the time in Tarrant County, Texas (Deed Records, volume 17, page 369ff). This sale of property takes place in January of 1906. It seems likely that Mrs. S. S. Lewis (Eliza J.) had returned to live near her relatives or relatives of her first husband (there are many Willards in Blue River, Johnson County, Indiana) by 1906 when she would have been about 56 years old. For that reason it seems most likely she died in Indiana and was buried among relatives there. Her name is found on the early map of Old Bayview Cemetery because of the purchase of the lots, but it seems likely she was not buried next to her second husband.
Research and transcription: Michael A. Howell