Ancestors
Henry B. Lewis
1878-1931 · West Virginia
Born 1878, Greenbrier County, West Virginia
Died 1931
Children include Sarah
Henry B. Lewis was born about 1878 in Greenbrier County, West Virginia. His parents are not known. When he died, the space for his father's name on his death certificate was filled in with the word "Unknown", and the lines for his mother's name and birthplace were marked with ditto marks under it.
On 25 April 1901 he married Susie Mullins in Greenbrier County. He was 22 and she was 18. The register gives his birthplace as Greenbrier County and hers as Clay County, and both were living in Greenbrier. The minister was G. W. Boothe. Their first child, Sarah Ann, had been born on 1 March 1900, a year before the wedding. Nine more children came over the next twenty-seven years.
In January 1920 the census taker in Greenbrier County found Henry, 41, and Susan Lewis with Dessie B., Lee Opal, James, Kenna, May and Roscoe at home. Kennie had been born at Trout and Mae Fannie at Falling Spring, both in Greenbrier County. A month before, on 9 December 1919, his eldest daughter Sarah had been married at his house to Silas Hammons, and Henry had gone with the young couple to the county clerk to give his consent.
About 1925 the family moved over the mountain into Pocahontas County, to a place near the mouth of Tea Creek on the Williams River, in Edray district. Henry worked there as a woodsman, a man who cut timber in the forest. Robert, the last child, was born on Tea Creek in 1928, and in April 1930 Henry, 51, was at Edray with Susie and James, May, Robert, Berlin, Edna, Kinnie and Roscoe. Sarah, married to Silas Hammons, was living nearby with her own children.
He had been ill for some time. His doctor recorded heart valve disease of a year and a half and chronic Bright's disease, an old name for kidney failure, of two years. Henry Lewis died on 28 April 1931, aged 53, and was buried at Tea Creek the next day. Z. S. Smith of Marlinton was the undertaker. His children were aged from three to thirty-one. Susie outlived him by thirty-two years and was buried at Richwood.
Sources
West Virginia, Deaths, 1804-1999, two index entries for Sarah Ann Hammonds, Nicholas County, 1948, as indexed on FamilySearch.
West Virginia, Deaths, 1804-1999, entries for Henry Lewis (1931) and Berlin Joe Lewis, as indexed on FamilySearch.
United States censuses of 1920 (Greenbrier County, West Virginia) and 1930 (Edray, Pocahontas County), households of Henry Lewis, as indexed on FamilySearch.
Obituary of Lee Opal Hanna, January 1981 (Waters Funeral Home, Summersville), on Find a Grave memorial 182683382; Akron Beacon Journal, 24 March 1995, page B7, on memorial 234097860; Charleston Gazette, 11 December 1999, on memorial 101398967.
Greenbrier County, West Virginia, marriage licences, page 378, Silas Hammons and Sarah Lewis, licence 8 December 1919, return of G. W. Boothe; West Virginia Archives and History, Vital Research Records, film 594325, image 367.
Greenbrier County, West Virginia, register of marriages, 1901, page 147, line 50; West Virginia Archives and History, Vital Research Records, film 595040, image 337.
West Virginia certificate of death 5708, Henry Lewis, Pocahontas County, 1931; West Virginia Archives and History, Vital Research Records, film 1953612, image 2744.
West Virginia certificate of death 10935, Sarah Ann Hammonds, Nicholas County, 1948; West Virginia Archives and History, Vital Research Records, film 1984021, image 1948.
West Virginia Deaths 1804-1999, Henry Lewis, 28 April 1931, Pocahontas County, spouse Susan Mullins, as indexed on FamilySearch; the same collection, Berlin Joe Lewis, naming Henry B. Lewis and Susie M. Mullens, and Sarah Ann Hammonds, 1948, naming Henry Lewis as father; United States censuses of 1920 (Greenbrier County) and 1930 (Edray, Pocahontas County), as indexed on FamilySearch; Find a Grave memorials 229720418 (Mae Fannie Riddle, "Daughter of Henry Lewis") and 213373112 (grandparents "Martha Mullins and Henry B Lewis"); death certificate of Henry Lewis, Pocahontas County, 1931, certificate 5708; Greenbrier County register of marriages, 1901, page 147, line 50; Greenbrier County marriage licence of Silas Hammons and Sarah Lewis, 1919, all from West Virginia Archives and History, Vital Research Records.
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Cite: Heirology, "Henry B. Lewis (1878-1931)", https://heirology.com/ancestors/henry-b-lewis-1878-1931-de2c31.