Lewis Family
Biographical Statement
The Lewis Family of Natchitoches, Louisiana, produced civic leaders, community activists, educators, and three Grand Masters of the Most Worshipful Prince Hall Grand Lodge, Free and Accepted Masons of Louisiana.
John Gideon Lewis, Sr. was born on June 26, 1851, in Toronto, Ontario, Canada. He arrived in Louisiana sometime around 1866 for his teaching profession. There is information about Lewis, Sr. in the 1870 Census. He was listed as a Mulatto and it is recorded that Lewis' mother was born in Virginia. During this time, he lived with the Bandey family, J.B. Chevallier, and Jeanne Hanice, a 90-year old woman born in Africa. He received his naturalization papers in New Orleans before circuit court Judge Darrell in 1877 and became a citizen of the United States.
Lewis Sr. was a well-known civic leader, serving on many African American-led organizations during the 1870s and 1880s. An 1877 invitation was extended to Lewis Sr. “to attend an important caucus of the colored members of the General Assembly of the State of Louisiana.” The caucus described themselves as “an organization of members united as brothers in order to control such legislation we deem proper.” Lewis Sr. was also listed as a secretary in another organization called the Attucks Guards in 1881. The Attucks Guards that were formed in New Orleans were more than likely influenced by other African American military companies (government sanctioned or not) that had been formed from 1848 to 1865 in honor of Crispus Attucks, a Black seaman who is widely regarded to be the first casualty of the American Revolution. Lewis Sr. was serving during a time when it was becoming increasingly dangerous to be a Republican in the state of Louisiana. Lewis Sr. also taught at First Public in Natchitoches in 1876.
John Lewis, Sr. married twice. His first wife, whom he married in 1873, died in 1877 and produced two children, Mary Ethelinda Lewis, and John Joseph Lewis. John Sr. married his second wife, Mary Virginia Thompson, on February 20, 1886, in New Orleans. Thompson was the daughter of William Thompson, a man originally from North Carolina, and Sallie Burnett, a woman of "Spanish and negro descent" who was born in Louisiana. They had eight children Beatrice, Clara, Ruth, Anderson Scott, Lambert, Beulah, John Jr., and Vinita. John Jr. arose as the most prominent member of the children more than likely because of his Masonic leadership. He followed in the footsteps of John Sr. to become Grand Master of the Prince Hall Masons from 1941-1979.
Born in Natchitoches, Louisiana, on December 9, 1903, John G. Lewis, Jr. was the youngest son of John G. Lewis and Virginia Thompson Lewis. He studied at Fisk University and Central State College, where he received his Doctorate of Humanities. An ardent activist and philanthropist, Dr. Lewis served with the following organizations: Most Worshipful Grand Master, Prince Hall Grand Lodge, Free and Accepted Masons of Louisiana, 1941-1979; Grand Commander, United Supreme Council Thirty-third Degree Ancient and Accepted Rite of Freemasonry, Southern Jurisdiction, U.S.A., Prince Hall Affiliation, 1961-1979; member, YMCA and Kiwanis International; board of directors, Flint-Goodridge Hospital of New Orleans; Alpha Phi Alpha Fraternity; Sigma Pi Phi Fraternity; National Board of NAACP; Grand United Order of Odd Fellows. He was also a life member of the Louisiana Education Association; a national member of the Smithsonian Associates; served with the Prince Hall Youth Fund of Louisiana; a contributing member of the Southern University Foundation; Council for a Better Louisiana; executive board, Society of Christians and Jews; past member of board of trustees, National Urban League; president of Scotland Loan and Mortgage Company; editor of the Plum Line; chairman of Trustee Board and treasurer, Mt. Zion First Baptist Church. He died, April 1, 1979.
A graduate of the University of Chicago (B.A.) and Columbia University (M.A.) Vinita Lewis (1907-1969) spent her career dedicated to children’s issues both in the United States and abroad. She spent her early career as a child welfare specialist for the Children’s Bureau (U.S. Department of Labor), developing rural childcare programs in the South during the Depression. During the post-war period, she worked for the United Nations Relief and Rehabilitation Administration and was stationed in China, Germany, and Italy. Starting in the 1950s and until her death in 1969, she advocated for children’s issues and rural development with the Bureau of Indian Affairs.
Ruth Lewis Hedrick (1889-1943), the wife of surgeon Dr. Robert Hedrick, lived the majority of her adult life in Gary, Indiana. A graduate of Fisk University and the Chicago School of Nursing, Hedrick started off her career as a nurse and eventually became the superintendent of St. John Hospital in Gary where her husband was the chief surgeon. Among her many interests, Mrs. Hedrick belonged to a number of clubs, including the Lake County (Indiana) and national medical associations, the Booklovers Club, the American Legion Auxiliary, and served as a past Matron of an Eastern Star order in Indiana. She died at home in 1943 after a five-month-long illness.
In three letters dated from January to February 1941 from Ruth Lewis Hedrick to her mother Virginia Thompson, she mentions traveling to Chicago to the Civilian Bureau of Identification to “search for “Beau” either dead or alive.” Beau was the nickname for Lambert L’Ouverture Lewis who apparently "disappeared" from the family home in 1923 never to be heard from. In a letter from February 25, 1941, Ruth stated that she had received a printed circular with information on missing persons and that it included Beau's. She assured her mother that this bulletin would be evidence that they had attempted to find him and "in closing any legal business of the Estate, we would be required to furnish this evidence." In estate records for Thompson, dated from 1946, the family had still not been able to locate Beau. L’Ouverture was indeed alive. A draft card from 1942 described him as a “white man, 5’3” with brown hair and blue eyes. It is possible that Beau had left his family to pass for white and had decided not to contact his family anymore.
Ruth also seemed to have had a very close relationship with John Lewis Jr.
Beatrice Cecelia Lewis Breda graduated with a Bachelor of Science in Elementary Education from Grambling College in 1949. Tax statements said that she was employed by the Natchitoches School Board in 1954. Anderson Scott Lewis served in the military, was Grand Master of the Most Worshipful Prince Hall Grand Lodge, Free and Accepted Masons of Louisiana following his father from 1931-1941, and according to financial records left his two children, Vivian Lewis, and Scott Jr., a sizeable inheritance.