BIOGRAPHICAL SKETCHES, BELMONT COUNTY, OHIO "History of the Upper Ohio Valley" Vol. II, 1890. Presented by Linda Fluharty from hard copies provided by Mary Staley & Phyllis Slater. Page 541. WILLIAM B. LEWIS, manager of the Laughlin Nail mill, of Martin's Ferry, was born at Wheeling, W. Va., August, 1842. His father, Thomas E. Lewis, a native of Monmouthshire, England, was a mill-wright by trade, and on coming to the United States in 1825, first settled in Baltimore, where he resided several years. Removing then to Wheeling, he erected the first two rolling mills at that place, the old Top mill, and the mill which stood where the Baltimore & Ohio passenger depot now is. In 1850 he took a contract for removing a rolling mill from Cincinnati to St. Lous, but died in Cincinnati May 11, 1850. He was married in 1838 to Emily Tyson, a native of Fredericksburg, Va., daughter of James and Mary Tyson, a soldier of the war of 1812. She is still living with her son. The children born to this marriage were six in number, and three are now living. The subject of this sketch received his education in the night schools at Wheeling, and when only seven years old began work in the Top mill, where he continued until the mill was destroyed by fire in 1852. He found employment in various mills until he was twenty-one years old, when he went to Cincinnati, and until 1873 was manager of the Cincinnati Railway Iron works. At the time of the panic he went to San Francisco, where he was engaged in rail making two years. During that period he had partly contracted with the Chinese govern- ment for the running of a rolling mill in that country, but the death of his wife compelled him to give up the project. Returning to Moundsville in 1876 he remained there until 1878, when he entered the employment of the Laughlin Nail company as a roller. In 1884 he became a member of the joint stock company which erected the rolling mills at Brilliant, and he was manager of the forge department of that estab- lishment until January, 1889, when he accepted his present position with the Laughlin company. Mr. Lewis is one of the most skillful iron workers of the country, and as a manager he is very highly valued. In social and public affairs he takes an active part. He is a member of the Methodist Episcopal church, and of the I. O. O. F. and Knights of Honor and National Union fraternities, and has served the community three years as a member of the school board. Mr. Lewis was married in 1865 to Camilla Carpenter, of Wheeling, who died in 1878. By this union he had five children,William F., who represents his father's interests in a furniture store at East Liverpool; Laura C., deceased; Thomas E.; Emma, deceased; and John, deceased.