Robert A. Lewis (deceased) was a prominent farmer of Lake County, and was born in 1833, in Fulton County, Kentucky; his father was Major R. N. Lewis.
Our subject had good educational advantages. In 1855 he married Mary Donaldson, who was born January 24, 1834 in New Madrid County, Missouri at Donaldson’s Point. She is the daughter of Andrew J. and Kate (Baird) Donaldson. Her father was born at Athens, Alabama, but was raised at Nashville, Tennessee, her mother at Chattanooga. Soon after they married they went to Missouri and remained until 1844 when they came to Lake County. Mr. Donaldson was a democrat and a farmer and died in 1845; his wife was a Methodist and died in 1866.
To Mr. and Mrs. Lewis were born nine children, four boys and five girls, only three living: Henry C., Charles A. and Zaida. Mrs. Lewis was a Methodist. In 1861 he volunteered with the Madrid Bend Guards as second lieutenant and was soon promoted to first lieutenant, holding that position until the close of the war. After the war he gave his time to farming. In 1877 he moved his family to New Orleans, and then to Florida and in a short time they returned to Lake County.
In 1880 Mr. Lewis lost his life in a painful accident. While turning down the wick in his lamp it exploded and he was burned to death. Mrs. Lewis is still living at the old homestead, owning a farm of 400 acres. Both the Lewis’s and the Donaldson’s are early residents of Lake County.