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3978. Nathan Barber LEWIS (Mary SISSON
, Lodowick
, Peleg
, Peleg
, Thomas
, George
, Richard
) was born 26 Feb 1842.
Thanks to Barbara Austin for sending the following quotation which comes from "The Seventh Regiment of Rhode Island Volunteers in the Civil War, 1862-1865" by William P. Hopkins; Snow & Farmham Printers, Providence, RI, 1903:
NATHAN B. LEWIS
"Corporal Nathan Barber Lewis, son of James and Mary SISSON Lewis, was born in Exeter, Feb. 26, 1842. His father was one of the largest farmers in that town, owning about a thousand acres of land. He believed children should be brought up to work, so time not spent at school was utilized in minimizing his labor bill. The education afforded by the district school was supplemented by some academic training, but at the age of seventeen he commenced teaching, sometimes in his native state and sometimes in Connecticut. Up to the date of his enlistment he divided his time between attending school and teaching. He never was absent from the regiment for any cause for a single day during its term of service. He acted as clerk of his company nearly all that time and as regimental postmaster from Jan. 24, 1864, until the final muster out. He participated in the various marches and battles in which the command was engaged, serving much of the time on the color guard. He was excused only from guard and fatigue duty on account of his labors as clerk and postmaster. On the morning after the battle of Cold Harbor, June 3, 1864, he was one of seven men remaining in his company ready for duty. Although never in any hospital, he returned from service much broken down in health and spent the first years thereafter in improving his education and in teaching. The former he secured at the academy in East Greenwich. In June, 1866, he was chosen a member of the school committee in Exeter, and was continuously a member of that body until June, 1887, a large part of the time superintending the schools of that town. He was its town clerk from June, 1872, to June, 1888, and an assessor of taxes from June, 1875, to the same date. He held the office of trial justice and of coroner from July, 1873, to June, 1876. On the establishment of the district court system in Rhode Island in May, 1886, he was elected justice of the district court of the second judicial district, and has continuously held that office until the present time, having been re-elected thereto once in three years by the General Assembly. In June, 1888, he removed from Exeter to Wickford in North Kingstown, where he resided until October, 1894. He was moderator of the town for three years and auditor from June, 1890, until he removed from that village. In August, 1893, he was chosen president of the Veteran Association, and has been annually re-elected to that office ever since. He is also chairman of the Historical Committee. He was postmaster at Pine Hill, Exeter, from July 21, 1872, to April 1, 1888, save when he was disqualified for the position by being a member of the General Assembly (1869-72 and 1876-77), when his wife held the office. In May, 1891, he was appointed one of the five commissioners to obtain plans, secure a site, and erect a new courthouse for Washington County. He was chosen president of that commission whose service extended well-nigh through four years, and the fine Romanesque granite structure at West Kingston is the result of its labors. Judge Lewis is a past grand of Exeter Lodge, No. 43, Independent Order of Odd Fellows, and a past chief patriarch of Uncas Encampment, No. 14, of the same order, consequently being a member of the Exeter Grange and the Washington County Pomona Grange. He was a charter member of Charles C. Baker Post, No. 16, Grand Army of the Republic, its quartermaster during the first four years and its commander in 1892. He was judge advocate of the department of Rhode Island in 1890 and 1893. Furthermore he is a member of Charity Lodge, No. 23, A. F. and A. M., of Franklin Chapter, Royal Arch Masons, of Hope Valley, and of Narragansett Commandery, Knights Templar, of Westerly. Judge Lewis has always been a Republican. Originally surrounded by Baptist influences he inclined to more liberal views as he grew older, and, although he is not a member of any church, his sympathies and beliefs are emphatically Unitarian. He is a busy man, maintaining an office in Westerly beside discharging his duties as district judge, and practising in all the courts of the state and in the United States courts of which he is an attorney. He has been twice married; first to Rowena K. Lillibridge, March 7, 1869, who died July 5, 1879, and second, to Nettie Chester, Aug. 15, 1880, now living. He has had four children, all deceased except one, Aubrey C. Lewis, born April 7, 1870, who is a graduate of Dartmouth College."
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