A. T. Lewis

 

SOURCE: "History of Champaign County, Illinois with Illustrations," 1878

SURNAMES: CLARK, LEWIS

A. T. LEWIS, lawyer and editor, was born in Franklin, Johnson County, Indiana, Nov. 10, 1848. He is the youngest of nine children of Andrew and Elizabeth (CLARK) LEWIS. Andrew Lewis is a native of Virginia; and of English and Celtic origin. When a boy he moved to Kentucky with his parents, where he grew to manhood, married, and soon after located in Indiana. In 1856 he removed with his family to Champaign County, Ill.

Andrew T., the subject of this brief notice, passed his boyhood days on his father's farm. His elementary education was obtained in the common schools.

He became a student of the State Normal University, at Normal, Ill., in the fall of 1867, and graduated in the class of 1871. Soon after he began reading law in the office of Oyler & Howe, of Franklin, Indiana. He was admitted to the bar by the Supreme Court at Springfield, Ill., at the January term of 1874, and in the fall of the same year, he entered the senior class of the University of Michigan, at Ann Arbor, and graduated from the law department in April, 1875.

He returned to Urbana and engaged in the practice of his profession, and as a lawyer has met with good success. Mr. Lewis was elected city attorney of Urbana in the spring of 1876. As an official, he has brought to the duties of his office that ability and tact required to make an honest and popular official. Easy, graceful, and eloquent in speech, he presents a case to court and jury with a force that usually carries conviction. Honest, prompt and upright with those who entrust their business in his hands, he has won an excellent reputation for integrity of character.

In the fall of 1877 he established the Champaign Co. Herald, a Republican paper in politics. Mr. Lewis is a ready, able and trenchant writer, bold and independent on all subjects which he deems for the best interest of the party with which he is identified, or the moral, intellectual, and material welfare of the people of the county. Articles from his pen are recognized for their wit, point and terseness. He is a genial, clever gentleman. His duties, both as a public man and private citizen, have always been performed to the satisfaction of all, and stamp him an honest and sincere gentleman.