Lewis, Thomas Jr.
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Person Biography
Thomas Lewis Jr. was born on 26 January 1760 to Thomas Lewis Sr., an Irish immigrant, and Jane Strother in Augusta County, Virginia. He was one of thirteen children.
During the Revolutionary War, Thomas Lewis Jr. and his two older brothers, John and Andrew, served as officers in the Continental Army. Thomas spent the brutal winter of 1777-78 at Valley Forge and was at the decisive battle of Yorktown in October 1781. After the war, he owned land in Loudoun County, which was worked by tenant farmers.
Lewis had a short career as a Federalist politician. He served two terms in Virginia’s General Assembly as a delegate from Kanawha County (now in West Virginia). Though he initially won election to the U.S. House of Representatives in 1802, his Democratic opponent successfully contested the election and unseated Lewis.
Lewis never married. He died in 1847 at the age of eighty-seven.
By Odessa Lamborn
