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From the Biographical Record of the Counties of Rock, Green, Grant, Iowa and Lafayette, Wisconsin, publ. 1901- page 649-650
WILLIAM LEWIS, of Lancaster, dates his coming to Grant county, Wis., from half a century ago, having arrived here in 1850. He is a native of Delaware county, N.Y., born Dec. 21, 1829, and was reared to agricultural pursuits.
William LEWIS, Sr., a father of William LEWIS, named above, was a native of Scotland, and came to the United States when a young man. About the first employment he found here was in assisting in the construction of the Erie canal in the State of New York - the most important artificial waterway used for passenger and freight traffic in the United States. It was completed in 1825, and has since conveyed, besides merchandise, thousands of pioneers from Albany to Buffalo, N.Y., on their way to the far West. Mr. LEWIS married, in the Empire State, Nancy BURNS, a native thereof, but whose father was from the north of Ireland. Soon after his marriage Mr. LEWIS settled on a tract of heavily-timbered land, cleared up a farm, on which he resided until 1858, and then, eight years after his son had arrived here, came to Grant county, Wis., where he purchased what was known as the Luther BROWN farm, where he passed the remainder of his life, his widow surviving him for a number of years. They were the parents of eleven children, of whom one only was a daughter, and she is now Mrs. Catherine RYAN, of North Anderson, Grant county. One son, James, died in early life, but the others all attained mature years. Four of the sons served in the Union army during the Civil war, viz.: Moses, Walter, James and Andrew. The last named died in the service just before the cessation of hostilities, and James died at homes soon after the close of the war, of disease contracted in the army. The surviving brothers are John, Thomas, William, Walter and Wilson.
William LEWIS, whose name opens this sketch, for a number of years after his arrival in Grant county, in 1850, worked out as a farm hand, but in 1865 he purchased the Preserve ALBEE farm in Patch Grove township, on which he made his home for thirty years, before retiring from active life. He was united in marriage Nov. 11, 1854, with Miss Catherine RYAN, who was born in Albany, N.Y., Aug. 7, 1835, a daughter of John and Debora (SHEDY) RYAN, and this union has been blessed with eleven children, of whom further mention will later he made. In 1836 or 1837 the RYAN family came from New York to Grant county, Wis., and after residing for some time in Cassville, the parents removed across the Mississippi river to Clayton county, Iowa, where the father died, after which occurrence Mrs. RYAN returned with her children to Cassville, and was married to James CAREY. By her first marriage she was the mother of five children, and by her second became the mother of two.
Of the eleven children born to Mr. and Mrs. LEWIS, Dr. James Monroe resides in Bloomington, Grant county; Nancy Debora is the wife of Joseph DONNELLY, also of Bloomington; Millie is married to Mr. FOLEY, proprietor and editor of the Cassville Index; William ELMER lives in Patch Grove; Dr. Walter Haines is in practice at Alden, Iowa; Andrew E. lives in Lancaster, Wis.; Dr. Ulysses Simpson resides in East Dubuque, Ill.; John Forrest is the next in order of birth; Luther L. and Frank Clarence went to Alaska in 1898; and Lela is the wife of Ray D. WALKER, of Lancaster, Wis. These eleven children have all been well educated, and all save one have been school teachers. The three sons who are practicing medicine were graduated from Rush Medical College, Chicago, and are useful and greatly respected citizens. Mr. and Mrs. LEWIS have a delightful home, and are possessed of all the comforts of life, the fruit of their well directed industry and intelligent management of their affairs. They mingle with the most worthy and reputable residents of Lancaster, and their friends are countless.
This biography generously submitted by Carol Holmbeck