- 20190521HAv- http://www.paintedhills.org/POTTER/beersUlysses.htm
Biographies from Ulysses Township, Potter Co., PA
Submitted by Barb Hyde
CRAYTON LEWIS, the oldest son of William and Ruth A. Lewis, was born at Upper Lisle, Broome Co., N.Y., February 11, 1813.
He was married March 3, 1835, to Caroline Hinman, and very soon after moved to Potter county, Penn.
He settled on a piece of wild land now within the limits of the borough of Lewisville,
and in a few years made it one of the finest farms in the vicinity. He had but a limited education, but he was an industrious reader, had a very retentive memory, and he soon became one of the most intelligent men of the locality. He was very benevolent, with tender sympathies and a keen sense of justice, and he early became an Abolitionist, but when the Republican party was formed, he joined it and remained through life a member. He early espoused the cause of temperance, and as early as 1843 he circulated a pledge and procured numerous signatures, starting a movement which resulted in the organization of Ulysses Division of the Sons of Temperance, in 1849, and of Lewisville Lodge of Good Templars, a few years later, of both of which organizations he was an active and honored member. To his labors, more than to the labors of any other man, is due the strong temperance sentiment which prevails in the northeastern part of Potter, and which has made Lewisville borough the stronghold of prohibition, this election district having given at the election June 18, 1889, 125 votes for the amendment and only seven votes against it.
In August, 1857, Mr. Lewis was thrown from a buggy and received an injury in his head, from which he never fully recovered, and January 13, 1870, he was killed by falling in his barn.
He reared five children, all of whom are living:
- Emily, now Mrs. T.E. Gridley, of Bingham, Penn.;
- John, living on the old homestead with his mother;
- Martin, a farmer of Ulysses, Penn.;
- Fayette, a surveyor and lumberman at Genesee Forks, Penn., and
- Carlos A., a merchant of Lewisville.
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