DAVID H. LEWIS, M. D., is descended from old Virginian stock, probably the purest in the land. The grandfather, Lewis Lewis, a native of that State, followed farming there all his life, on his plantation near Winchester. His son John was born in 1820, in Darkesville, Va. In 1830, when yet a boy, he moved along with a brother to Greene county, Penn., to live with an uncle who had no heirs, and here he remained, following agricultural pursuits, but is now living in Waynesburgh with his wife. In 1840 he married Cyrene Long, of Greene County, Penn., and children were born to them, as follows: David H., the subject of this sketch, and Hiram, both residents of Washington, Penn.; George, in Ohio (he was a soldier in the Civil war); three daughters, in Greene county; Richard and Garrison, both of whom died in the army. The grandfather of our subject, reared as he was in the midst of slavery, and possessing slaves himself, most naturally had his sentiments and sympathies drawn toward the Southern cause; and as his son had in his Northern home imbibed the spirit of liberty, and became identified, he and his family, with the defenders of the Union, an irreparable breach of friendship grew between the families which has never healed. David H. Lewis was born in Greene county, Penn., February 9, 1851, and received his primary education at the common schools of the neighborhood, which was supplemented with a thorough course of study at Waynesburg College. On leaving this academy he began reading medicine under Dr. D. L. Woodruff, at Leonardsville, Penn., and was graduated from Jefferson Medical College, Philadelphia, with the class of 1877. The Doctor then opened an office in Lone Pine, a village in Washington county, remaining there in the practice of his profession till 1889, in which year he moved into the borough of Washington, where he has since been numbered among the most prominent and successful physicians of the place. In 1873 Dr. Lewis was married, in Greene county, Penn., to Alice W., daughter of Sylvanus Smith, of that county, and three children blessed their union, viz.: Thomas S., at present attending Bethany (W. Va.) College; Gaylord K. and Gordon, both still under the paternal roof. In February, 1889, the mother was called to her long home, at the age of thirty-seven years. Politically the Doctor is a Republican; he has held, under the Government, the position of pension examiner, and for two years was president of the board of pensions for the District as it then was. Socially, he is a member of the Improved Order of Heptasophs, Knights of the Maccabees, Royal Arcanum and Junior Order American Mechanics. In religious matters he is a member of the Christian Church. For three years he was extensively engaged in the oil business, was one of the first movers toward developing the "Wildcat" well south of Washington, and is still interested in various wells. He was a member of the first A. B. Caldwell Oil Company at Lone Pine, but this well proved to be nothing but a "dry hole," and was abandoned. He was more successful in other ventures in the Washington field.

Text taken from page 80 of: Beers, J. H. and Co., Commemorative Biographical Record of Washington County, Pennsylvania (Chicago: J. H. Beers & Co., 1893). Transcribed April 1997 by Neil and Marilyn Morton of Oswego, IL as part of the Beers Project. Published April 1997 on the Washington County, PA USGenWeb pages at http://www.chartiers.com/.

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