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Permanent LinkSenator Lester W. Lewis View All Years
LESTER W. LEWIS was born at Lodi, DeKalb County, Illinois, August 8, 1860, and died in Seattle, Washington, April 5, 1933. Burial was in Seattle. His parents were Seth and Celina (Woodworth) Lewis. He attended public school, was graduated from high school in Chicago in 1877, and from Wheaton College, Wheaton, Illinois, in 1882. His father removed to Seymour, Iowa, in 1882 where he engaged in banking and other business lines, and Lester W. assisted as a bank clerk. In 1884 he established the Lone Tree Press, a local newspaper, and edited it for ten years as a side line to his banking work. In 1887 he was elected representative from Wayne County, was re-elected in 1889, and served in the Twenty-second and Twenty-third general assemblies. In 1891 he was elected senator from the Wayne-Lucas District and served in the Twenty-fourth and Twenty-fifth assemblies. In the Twenty-fifth he was chairman of the Appropriations Committee of the Senate. In 1894 he removed to Clarinda where he engaged in banking. In 1901 he was elected senator from the Page-Fremont District and served in the Twenty-ninth, Thirtieth, and Thirty-first general assemblies, being continued over through the Thirty-first because of the then new biennial election law. Mr. Lewis rendered excellent service as a legislator, being a man of good judgment, industry and integrity. In 1907 he removed to Seattle, Washington, where for several years he was engaged as a banker and an organizer of banks.