James Hale Lewis, born 4 DEC 1860 AR, son of John Comer Lewis II and Ruth Lloyd Baker. Died 15 FEB 1943 in Ripley County, Missouri, buried in the Old Lewis Cemetery, Ripley County, Missouri.

James Hale Lewis, from the "first family" of John and Ruth Lewis, eventually purchased his brothers' and sisters' portions of the farm and became sole owner of the northern portion of the Lewis farm. An Indenture has been found, dated 22 March 1889, between John C. and Isabel Bell-Lewis and James H. Lewis recording the sale of 1/8 interest of this farm to James H. Lewis for $70.00.

The north portion of the farm consisted of some cleared farmland and some native scrub brush and timber on flatland and hilly wooded areas. The land was never rich, but was rocky and subject to spring flooding which carried off much of the good soil. James Hale Lewis, however, was a scholar, mainly self-taught, and practiced crop rotation on his farmland. His daughter Zelma Lewis-Henderson remembers his anger at neighboring farmers who refused to believe in crop rotation and planted corn year after year, depleting the soil on other farms in the community.

A dispute arose between the two Lewis families as to which family owned one certain field near the Cave Spring Branch. It was taken to court to resolve and, despite the fact that the Will stated the farm should be divided by the Cave Spring Branch and all fields north of the Branch would belong to the "first family" Lewis’s, the Judge ruled just the opposite and granted it to the "second family" Lewis’s. It might be interesting to note that the sitting Judge in the matter was none other than Samuel Ernest Glore, Jim's brother-in-law, and they never particularly liked each other! Ernest was a life-long Republican and Jim was a staunch Democrat. But there was very possibly another reason for the discord which will be soon revealed.

On December 26, 1886 James Hale Lewis married one of his students, little Abbie May Glore, not quite sixteen years old. Abbie was a strong-willed young lady and, upon her first glimpse of James Hale, who was riding down the road on his horse, said to her then-companion,"I'm going to marry that man (if I never get him!)." When James Hale went to her parents to get permission to marry Abbie, she informed her parents that if they didn't let her marry him, she would run away and do it. And James Hale, in a cocky threat to his future in-laws said, "I am going to marry your daughter Abbie; what are you going to do about it?" And so they were married before preacher Morgan Cotton at the Glore home on Buffalo Creek, Ripley County, Missouri. Small wonder that Abbie's brother, Samuel Ernest, had little regard for his brother-in-law Jim.

Jim continued to teach school in the county for twenty years. It was his true profession because he had such an abiding love and passion for learning. Jim and Abbie lived in various places for a while, finding a home in the vicinity of whatever school Jim was teaching. Eventually he gave up teaching and they settled on the Lewis farm, first living in a small cabin adjacent to a well in one of the fields just north of the Lewis Cave. They then built a log house on top of a small hill just north of Lewis Cave. Jim believed it was healthier up there and, besides, the spring floods would not invade their place. Of course the family had to carry water up the hill from the well in the field for all the years they lived there, but by that time there were enough children to share the task. They eventually dug a cistern at the log house on the hill to catch winter water run-off, but this cistern would always go dry in the summertime.

The younger daughters were born in the log house on top of the hill and lived there until time to attend high school in Doniphan.

In a letter to a niece written in the early 1930's, James Hale testified to the fact that his parents were members of the Primitive Baptist Church. He indicated that it was not too popular a branch of the Baptists at that time. He went on to affirm a tenet of the Primitive Baptists; strict Calvinism—that is, God has placed each name of his chosen ones in his Book of Life, and there is no deviation from that!

In a day and age when many children died in childhood from disease, only one of Jim and Abbie Lewis's children died in infancy, little William Albert Lewis, their firstborn, who lived only seven months. James Hale is credited with saving the lives of the other eleven children. His ambitious reading on any subject available made him somewhat of a layman's doctor. The little ones would get diarrhea, which was called "summer complaint" and was attributed to many things such as feeding the baby mashed green peas, but was actually caused by fly infestation during the summer months. James Hale would forbid Abbie to nurse them, but would on occasion carry the baby in his arms and let it cry, not allowing its mother to feed it. He would then scrape green apples and feed the baby; enough to prevent dehydration and massive loss of minerals. (Nowadays mothers feed sick babies a commercial liquid formula with many of the same minerals as found in green apples.) The young sisters were sometimes fed mare's milk after an illness, which was believed to have healing and extra-nutritious properties.

Unfortunately some of the other remedies were not so good. In their later years, deafness plagued the family, possibly caused by the pouring of warm molasses into their ears to cure earaches, perhaps damaging the inner ear.

Abbie May supplemented their meager livelihood by becoming the postmistress at Short, MO. The post office was in the living room of their log house. She made a small profit off each piece of mail that went out. Additionally, she was able to ship her cream and eggs to town by the post at a reduced price. Her earnings bought staples such as sugar, salt and coffee. At holiday time there was always an orange in the toe of the children's stockings.

Jim and Abbie Lewis were leaders in their community, and neighbors always came to them for help in time of trouble. They were both called when a neighbor died and most often called upon in time of illness. Abbie mid-wifed many a new baby into the world. During the deadly flu epidemic of 1918 they nursed the whole neighborhood and managed never to contract the ailment themselves.

Abbie not only fed her family by keeping a large garden and canning vegetables and fruit for the winter, but made all their clothes, washed only with a big black iron wash kettle and wash board, knitted their socks, mittens and caps and made their quilts, comforters and featherbeds. She never had the benefit of electricity or running water in any of her homes. She lived to 87, proving that hard work never hurt anybody. If unexpected company arrived before mealtime, she would rush out into the yard, grab a chicken, wring its neck, douse it in boiling water, pluck the feathers off and then proceed to clean and cut up the chicken before frying it for the meal. She could have a chicken dinner on the table in little more than an hour.

In her later years, Abbie's mother, Nancy Jane Jackson Glore, lived with Jim and Abbie part of the year. She received a small Civil War widow's pension and with this money they hired a neighbor girl to help out with the household chores. With this beneficence, Nancy Jane considered it her privilege to run the household and boss everyone around. Abbie and Jim moved upstairs to sleep when Grandma Glore came to stay because there was only one bedroom on the ground floor.

Until his dying day Jim Lewis read to improve his mind. One incident illustrates his widespread reading. To supplement his income, son-in-law Elmer Randel, who lived down the road, often hauled loads to market with his stake-bed truck. Loads included such diverse things as railroad ties, farm produce or whatever was available. He left home one day with a load on the truck and, when nightfall came, did not return. There were no telephones in the community so the family was unaware what happened to him until the next day when the mailman brought word from Doniphan (from Zelma Lewis-Henderson) that Elmer had taken seriously ill with pneumonia and was in bed at her house under the doctor's care. James Hale had recently read of a new "miracle drug" (Sulfa - the first antibiotic) and had the mailman take a note to Doniphan to have the doctor send right away to St. Louis and get this miracle drug. The doctor had already been administering Sulfa around the clock and by midnight on the first night he received it, Elmer's fever was breaking. He certainly would have died without it. The point, however, is that Jim Lewis was so well-read he wanted to instruct the doctor on the latest remedy!

James Hale Lewis lived to be 82 years old, dying on 15 February 1943. He suffered from undiagnosed palsy the last ten years or so of his life and would become quite out of patience when he could hardly get his coffee cup to his mouth without spilling its contents. But he remained in good spirits, always sitting in his chair, reading to improve his mind and studying the Bible.

He was a storehouse of wisdom for those around him and esteemed by family and neighbors alike. His son-in-law Elmer Folk Randel looked up to him as a father figure and always called him "Dad Jim", a name accepted and used by Jim's own children.

James Hale Lewis died quietly of heart failure one early morning as he sat in his chair, putting on his shoes. Abbie May Glore Lewis lived for another 18 years, spending her time at the homes of her children. She lived most of her last years in Riverside, California with her daughter Edna and Elmer Randel.

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