Virgil A. Lewis

Virgil Anson Lewis (July 6, 1848, West Columbia, Virginia—December 5, 1912, Mason City, West Virginia) was a historian of the U.S. state of West Virginia. He was prominent in education and history writing in his home state, serving as the first State Historian and Archivist of West Virginia (1905-1912).

Biography

Lewis was born in a log cabin in Mason County, then part of Virginia, to George W. and Lucie Edwards Lewis. His pioneering ancestors were known for their military service on the frontier. Notably, his great-grandfather, Benjamin Lewis, was wounded in the Battle of Point Pleasant (1774) and settled in what became Mason County in 1792. Upon the death of his father in 1858, Virgil Lewis, the oldest child, was compelled to go to work to support the family. He continued his education, however, working as a printer’s assistant and later as a shipping clerk. Lewis taught for many years in county schools and, in 1878, he became the principal of the Buffalo Academy in neighboring Putnam County. He read law and was admitted to the bar in 1879. He became disenchanted, however, and soon returned to Mason County and to teaching. In 1886 he married Elizabeth Stone of Mason City.

History became Lewis’ main enthusiasm. In 1890 he became one of the organizers of the West Virginia Historical and Antiquarian Society, and in 1892 became editor of the Southern Historical Magazine. Lewis was elected State Superintendent of Free Schools in 1892 and was granted an A.M. in history from West Virginia University the following year. His 1896 textbook History and Government of West Virginia was utilized statewide in public schools for over fifty years. In 1905, Governor William M. O. Dawson appointed him first director of the Bureau of Archives and History, a post which he held until his death.

Legacy

• The Virgil A. Lewis House (Shumaker-Lewis House) was placed on the National Register of Historic Places in 1979.
• The West Virginia Historical Society’s Virgil A. Lewis Award is named in his honor.

Works

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• Lewis, Virgil A. and Brock, Robert Alonzo (1884), History of Virginia from Settlement of Jamestown to Close of the Civil War Two volumes; H. H. Hardesty.
• Lewis, Virgil A. (1888), Life and Times of Anne Bailey, the Pioneer Heroine of the Great Kanawha Valley
• Lewis, Virgil A. and Brock, Robert Alonzo (1888), Virginia and Virginians: Eminent Virginians, Vol. I, H.H. Hardesty, Richmond.
• Lewis, Virgil A. (1889), General History of West Virginia
• Lewis, Virgil A. (1892). Southern Historical Magazine: Devoted to History, Genealogy, Biography, Archæology and Kindred Subjects.
• Lewis, Virgil A. (1894), Biennial Report of the State Superintendent of Free Schools, State of West Virginia.
• Lewis, Virgil A. (1894), Manual and Graded Course of Study for the Country and Village Schools of West Virginia.
• Lewis, Virgil A. (1895), The Original Indiana Territory: It was in West Virginia; The Eleventh Amendment to the Federal Constitution, A Paper Read by Virgil A. Lewis, before the Fifth Annual Meeting of the West Virginia Historical and Antiquarian Society, January 17, 1895. Charleston, W.Va.: Press of Butler Printing Co.
• Lewis, Virgil A. (1896), History and Government of West Virginia (Revised editions: 1904, 1912, 1916, 1922, etc.)
• Lewis, Virgil A. (1903), The Story of the Louisiana Purchase
• Lewis, Virgil A. (1904), Handbook of West Virginia: Its History, Natural Resources, Industrial Enterprise and Institutions; Published by West Virginia Commission of the Louisiana Purchase Exposition.
• Lewis, Virgil A. (1909), How West Virginia Was Made: Proceedings of the First Convention of the People Northwestern Virginia at Wheeling May 13, 14 and 15, 1861, and the Journal of the Second Convention of the People of Northwestern Virginia at Wheeling, which Assembled...
• Lewis, Virgil A. (1909), History of the Battle of Point Pleasant; Charleston, West Virginia: Tribune (Reprinted Maryland: Willow Bend, 2000. ISBN 1-888265-59-0.)
• Lewis, Virgil A., "A history of Marshall Academy, Marshall College and Marshall College State Normal School."
• Three biennial reports (1906, 1908, 1911) of the State Department of Archives and History.
  • Extract of 1911 report: Lewis, Virgil A. (1911), The Soldiery of West Virginia in the French and Indian War; Lord Dunmore's War; the Revolution; the Later Indian Wars; the Whiskey Insurrection; the Second War with England; the War with Mexico. And Addenda Relating to West Virginians in the Civil War.