LEWIS, WAITE B

Waite B. Lewis (1871-1936), was born in Pleasant Township, Fulton, Illinois, on September 19, 1871, the son of a farmer and native of New York, Rosseel Lewis (1841-1915), and Lucinda Elizabeth Sargent Lewis (1839-1915). The family lived on their farm in Mount Pleasant, Whiteside, Illinois. He was educated at the Cottonwood Grove School, Bond County, Illinois. On June 12, 1890, he married Mattie Irene Hollinshead (1870-1947), daughter of Canadian born Joshua Hollinshead, and his wife Mehitable May Appleby Hollinshead, at the bride's family's home in Ustick.

He worked for thirty years in the union stock yards in Chicago as a cattle salesman. In March 1898, the Daily Register Gazette, reported he had nine loads of hogs shipped to Morrison. He seems to have had a livestock sales office in Gibson City, Fords County, Illinois, and in 1898, worked part-time as a coin dealer.

Fig. Advertisement for the sale of old coins and paper money of dealer Waite B. Lewis, with typical typo in Philatelic West giving his middle initial as D. Philatelic West, Vol. 7, No. 2, August (1898) : 40, and Vol. 7, No. 3, September (1898) : 78. Courtesy Lupia Numismatic Library, Special Collection, Philatelic West.

In 1900, he was a farmer in Mount Pleasant, Illinois with his wife and son Ward P. Lewis.

On May 5, 1901 he purchased farm land at an auction sale from the Wisconsin Land Company and Clover Land Company.

In 1920, he is listed at the firm of Riordon, Martin & Co., grain commission, Chicago, Illinois, where he probably worked supplying feed to livestock farmers.

In 1930, he is recorded as living on his farm at 87 Ridge Road, Jackson Township, Will County, Illinois.

He died on December 6, 1936 at his home in Manhattan Township, Will County, Illinois. He is buried in the Grove Hill Cemetery.

Bibliography :

Daily Register Gazette, Friday, March 4, 1898, page 5

U. S. Census 1900 - Mount Pleasant, Illinois

Minneapolis Journal, Tuesday, February 11, 1902, page 33

Whiteside Sentinel, March 17, 1915, Obit of father

Whiteside Sentinel, August 2, 1915, Obit of mother

The Sixty-Third Annual Report of the Trade and Commerce of Chicago For the Year Ending December 31, 1920 (Chicago Board of Trade, 1921) : 169

U. S. Census 1930 - Jackson Township

Register-Republic, Tuesday, December 8, 1936, page 20 Obit

Sterling City Directory, 1939, page 262- address of widow Mattie Lewis

James Oliver Knox, "Some Information About the Lewis Family of Whiteside County, Illinois" (Odell Public Library, Morrison, Illinois)

Christopher Robert Reed, Black Chicago's First Century (2005) : 182-183