Ashton Lewis and his wife Mary Hannah Corbett with their sons Rupert Lewis in the back and Luther Lewis with the wonderful smile in front. Mary Hannah Corbett, the daughter of Joseph Corbett, Sr. and Esther Ellen Melloy, married Ashton Lewis 29 Nov 1894 in Webster County.

In September 1901, Mary Hannah, Ashton and the children made a visit to Petersburg, VA for a fair. Mary Hannah caught a cold that persisted and turned into pneumonia which killed her 22 Mar 1902. She is buried at Big Hill Cemetery in Webster County.

In 1903, Ashton couldn't stand the loneliness without Mary Hannah in the little home he had built for his bride, so he went back to his homeplace of Ford, Dinwiddie County, VA. There, on 9 Oct 1906, he married Mattie Ray Alley and they had eight children. Ashton Lewis died in Ford, VA 22 Mar 1934, the same day of the year his first wife had died in 1902.

Ashton Lewis' sister, Bettie Holt Lewis Bormuth loved Rupert and Luther Lewis so much that she did not want the memory of Mary Hannah and their Corbett grandparents to fade away from them. She kept family photos in her trunk and showed them to the boys often. As John Bormuth and his wife Aunt Bettie Bormuth had no children of their own, they delighted in keeping Rupert and Luther. Aunt Betty spent her last days in the home of Rupert Lewis and after her death, the old pictures were found once more and copied and shared with the family. Marilyn says, "When I look at these old pictures, I always say a little prayer of gratitude for folks like Aunt Bettie Bormuth who had an eye to the future and preserved these treasures for us all!"

Read a letter written by Hannah to her brother C.S. Melloy in 1894.

Picture courtesy of Betty Lou Lewis Cummings and Carol Lewis.