James E. Lewis
The Hon. James E. Lewis, former representative from this district in the Ohio General Assembly, former clerk of the village of Jamestown, former treasurer of Ross township, present president of the board of education in the latter township, and proprietor of a fine farm in Ross township, situated on rural mail route No. 4 out of Jamestown, is a native "Buckeye" and has lived in this state all his life. He was born in Highland county on September 18, 1867, son of Alfred and Lucinda (Woolums) Lewis, both of whom were born in that same county, the former of whom was a building contractor, and who were the parents of seven children, of whom the subject of this sketch was the third in order of birth, the others being the following: Mrs. Ida Billingsley, of Adams county, this state; William A., who is now a resident of Los Angeles, California; Arthur N. and Jonathan K., residents of New Orleans; Charles, now a first lieutenant in the national army of the United States, and Mrs. Lydia Pense, of Highland county.
Following the completion of the course in the public schools of Highland county, James E. Lewis took two years of supplemental instruction in a normal training school and for two years thereafter taught school in his home county. He then became employed as a teacher in this county, making his home in Jamestown, and for eighteen years was a teacher in Ross township. In the fall of 1892 Mr. Lewis married and in 1895 moved to the farm on which he is now living in Ross township and has since then made that his place of residence. Mr. Lewis is operating a farm of about seven hundred acres and makes a specialty of the raising of Poland China hogs. He is a Republican and for fourteen years served as a member of the county central committee of his party. In 1893 he was elected clerk of the village of Jamestown and held that office until his removal to Ross township in 1895. For two terms he served as treasurer of Ross township and for five years served as a member of the Greene county board of deputy state supervisors of elections and was chief deputy at the time of his election to a seat in the state House of Representatives in 1908. Mr. Lewis's course in the House proved so satisfactory to his constituents that he was re-elected and thus served as representative from this county for two terms or until 1913. He has for many years been recognized as the leader in educational affairs in his home township and is now the president of the Ross township board of education. He and his wife are members of the Methodist Episcopal church at Jamestown and Mr. Lewis was for some time superintendent of the Sunday school of the same. He is affiliated with the local lodge of the Independent Order of Odd Fellows and with the local encampment, Patriarchs Militant, at Jamestown, and with the lodges of the Knights of Pythias and the Junior Order of United American Mechanics at that place.
On September 14, 1892, James E. Lewis was united in marriage to Rosa B. Ballard, who was born and reared on the farm on which she and Mr. Lewis are now living, three miles north of Jamestown. Mrs. Lewis is the only surviving child of four children bom to the late Jackson and Magdaline (Taylor) Ballard, who were for years residents of Ross township. Jackson Ballard, who became one of Ross township's substantial landowners, was born in Adams county, this state, October 25, 1822, and was but six months of age when his parents, Lyman Ballard and wife, came to Greene county and settled in Ross township, where he spent the rest of his life. In May. 1851, he married Magdaline Taylor, who was born on a farm in the Jamestown neighborhood, daughter of Isaac and Frances (Gilmore) Taylor, the former of whom also was one of Greene county's substantial landowners. Isaac Taylor was born on a sailing vessel on the Atlantic ocean while his parents were en route to this country from their native Ireland. They settled in Rockbridge county, Virginia, where Isaac Taylor grew to manhood and where he married Frances Gilmore, who was born in that county and whose father and grandmother had undergone a perilous experience years before at the hands of Indians, that experience having had what newspaper writer of the present day would call a "local end," inasmuch as it involved an enforced sojourn at the old Indian village at Chillicothe on the site of the present picturesque hamlet of Oldtown, in this county. Grandmother Gilmore and her then young son having been captured by the Indians during a savage raid into Rockbridge county and brought out here with other captives and held at the Indian village along the banks of the river where Oldtown is now situated until they were some years later rescued by a military party and restored to their family in Virginia. In 1827 Isaac Taylor and his wife came to Ohio and settled in Preble county, but two years later came to Greene county and permanently located in the Jamestown neighborhood. They were the parents of nine children, five of whom, Magdaline. William G., John F., Daniel and Isaac, grew to maturity and reared families. Jackson Ballard and his wife were the parents of four children, of whom Mrs. Lewis, as noted above, is now the only survivor, the others having been Frances, Isaac and Minnie.
From History of Greene County Ohio, Its People, Industries and Institutions, vol. 2. M.A.Broadstone, editor. B.F.Bowen & Co., Indianapolis. 1918