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Lewis, Margaret

Name: Lewis, Margaret
Occupation: Nurse
aka:
Sex: F
Birth: 1845
Death: 26 Feb 1915*
Marker: Yes
Spouse(s): Paul C. Lewis
Parents: Pleasant and Harriet Sammons Claxton
Children: James Lewis, Paul C. Lewis, Jr., Clarence E. Lewis
Affiliations:
Notes: *Official records indicate that she died at 10 o’clock in the morning on February 26, 1915. Undertaker – Jas. Perley & Sons

THE DAILY PROGRESS
(Charlottesville, Virginia)
Saturday February 27, 1915
Page 1

Her employer, Mrs. John E. Shepherd (mentioned in the obituary above) commissioned this Holsinger photograph of Margaret Lewis holding the Shepherd baby, taken on March 26, 1914.

“Mrs. Shepherd”
Holsinger Studio Collection
Courtesy of Special Collections
University of Virginia Library
(Charlottesville, Virginia)

Philena Carkin, one of the first teachers at the Charlottesville Freedmen’s School, wrote a detailed description of Margaret Lewis in her memoirs. The following passage is from from Volume 2, Chapter Eighteen of Philena Carkin’s Reminiscences of my Life and Work among the Freedmen of Charlottesville, Virginia, from March 1st 1866 to July 1st 1875.

[From pages 56-60]
“Margaret Lewis was the wife of one of the teachers in the Primary department of our school – Paul Lewis – and as unlike her husband as it was possible for two persons to be. While he was slow and ponderous, both in intellect and manner, she was quick bright, alert, and humorous.

“She was a handsome woman, slightly dark for a quadroon, tall, straight and lithe, with good regular features and a pair of clear brown eyes that took note of everything within their range of vision. She was our servant for several years, and was most faithful and devoted to us. She was of great assistance to us in ways outside her domestic duties, on account of her knowledge of the characters and needs of the people with whom we had to deal.

“Every year there were boxes and barrels of clothing sent to us from the north, for us to distribute among the most needy colored people, and we always took counsel with Margaret who seemed nearly always to know just where any certain article was most needed. We felt we could trust both her judgment and conscience in this matter, for she carefully avoided asking favors for those of her own kin until others had been provided for.

“. . . But perhaps nothing endeared her more to Miss Gardner and myself than the fact that she always had some amusing story or anecdote to relate, which, told in her own inimitable manner never failed to provoke our laughter. She never gave herself up to malicious gossip, but the queer speech, and actions of the many queer people with whom she came in contact furnished her with an inexhaustible supply of material to feed her sense of humor. Her life was far from being an easy one, with her husband, and four or five little children to care for, besides doing a good deal of work for us, but she made light of ordinary troubles, and performed her duties cheerfully in spite of them. Her gift for seeing the comical side of things in general, probably helped her over many rough places. After we left Charlottesville some very tragic circumstances shadowed her life, and I have often wondered if the cheerful spirit that had upborne her through so many minor troubles, was sufficient to carry her serenely through those that must have been so much harder to bear. I hope and trust it proved to be so. She was only one more example of a bright spirit forced to grovel in the mire of unkind circumstance. If living now she must be quite old — more than seventy five, and her children are middle aged men and women. They have had very good educational advantages some of them having been to the Hampton School for a longer or shorter period of time. None of them could compare with her in looks, when they were little children, and I doubt if any of them are as observing and quick witted as she was. I hope they give her good care, and make her declining years comfortable and happy in return for the efforts she made to educate them and give them a fair start in life.”

[From page 106]
“In a recent letter from Rives Minor I have learned that Margaret Lewis is now alone in the world, her husband Paul Lewis and all her children having passed away. Paul had become the owner of a home before I left Charlottesville, but I doubt if he had much other property so I fear her last years are to be not only lonely, but years of poverty as well. She truly deserved better of Fate.”

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