WESLEY B. LEWIS

Sacramento County

Biographies

WESLEY B. LEWIS

WESLEY B. LEWIS--A corporation representative whose ability, experience, devotion to his employers and never-failing attention to the wants and comforts of the public have not only made him many friends, but have contributed to effecting and maintaining a better working understanding all around, is Wesley B. Lewis, the popular station master in the service of the Southern Pacific Railroad at Folsom City. He was born, a native son, at Rocklin, in Placer County, on August 8, 1890, the son of George L. and Isabel (Burt) Lewis, the former a native of historic England, and a seaman for years on merchant ships. He arrived at the Golden Gate in 1880, and was married in San Francisco to Miss Burt; and they came to Rocklin, a newly built railroad town on the Southern Pacific, where for fifteen years he conducted a furniture store. Then he took up gold mining. He was an honored member of the Foresters and Druids, and his declining years were spent in the care of his son, our subject, at Folsom City, where he died, in November, 1918, at the ripe age of sixty-six. Mrs. Lewis, the devoted wife and mother, passed away at Newcastle, in 1913, at the age of fifty-two. She was survived by three children: Venus Holman lives at Klamath Falls, Ore.; Wesley B. Lewis is the subject of our review; and R. George makes his headquarters at San Francisco, and is identified with the lumber business in Eastern Oregon.

Wesley B. Lewis attended the public school at El Dorado City, to which place his parents had moved in 1896, and at the early age of thirteen entered the employ of the Southern Pacific Railroad as an apprentice under Agent C. E. Duden, at El Dorado City. At the end of twenty-two months, he began to go out as a relief agent on the Southern Pacific, Sacramento and Stockton divisions, filling offices in eighty-four different stations, where he acted as agent, up to and including Folsom City, thereby gaining a wealth of knowledge in railroad routing and the handling of traffic. He now belongs to the Telegrapher's Union. He is distinctly progressive in politics, favors wise legislation that alike safeguards the interests of the public and those of the investors in corporation stock, and is first, last and all the time for his native land and state. He has been located at Folsom City since 1916, and has been most successful in caring for the public both in respect to train service and in the freight and express business.

In 1911, Mr. Lewis was married at Auburn to Miss Clara Flannery, a native of Virginia City and the daughter of Maliche and Nellie (Blake) Flannery. The latter, born in San Francisco, still resides at Virginia City, an honored pioneer of sixty-nine years. Mrs. Lewis was graduated from the University of Nevada in 1909. Having taught school for a year when she was only seventeen, after graduation she pursued her professional work for a couple of years. One son, George E. Lewis, who was born at Colusa in October, 1912, and one daughter, Muriel Arlene, born in Sacramento on March 28, 1923, have blessed their union. Mr. Lewis belongs to Lodge No. 6 of the B. P. O. Elks at Sacramento, and to Lodge No. 123 of the Knights of Pythias at Loomis. He has certain hobbies, and one of these is baseball, in which he has figured prominently in many amateur teams and games, acting as a crack catcher and a heavy hitter. He is also fond of hunting and fishing, in which he well demonstrates his natural inclination to sport.

Transcribed by: Jeanne Sturgis Taylor.

Source: Reed, G. Walter, History of Sacramento County, California With Biographical Sketches, Pages 653-654. Historic Record Company, Los Angeles, CA. 1923.