LITTLE GRANDMA

Great Grandma Mary Wilderson Lewis was called Little Grandma by her family because she was more slender and shorter than her daughter, Cora, who she lived with at the Phillips' house in Ellet. Little Grandma is the only great grandparent I knew personally until I was almost 16. She lived 98 years, starting her life in a log cabin in Newton Township, Trumbull County, Ohio. Adjoining her parents' farm was the farm of John Lewis. Their son, David, and my great grandma married after the Civil War in which David served from 1861 to 1865. David and Mary had three daughters and they all lived on the John Lewis farm until David wasn't able to be a farmer anymore. About 1898 the family moved to Cleveland where David could work for the railroad in a less physical position. Nevertheless, David's health worsened and he died of heart failure in the early 1900s.

About 1909, Mary Lewis joined her daughter Cora's family in moving to Ravenna in Portage County, Ohio for a few years. Then, they all decided to move to Akron where Cora's husband found work at the Goodyear Tire and Rubber Company c. 1912 or so. Mary also found employment as a companion for the wealthy widow, Mrs. J. Alexander Park, at her lovely mansion on West Market Street where Dave Towell's Cadillac business is located today and across the street from my nephew's business, "The Time Traveler". Mary and Mrs. Park became very close friends and Mary did enjoy the experience.

All of Mary's grandchildren appreciated having such an elderly woman to chat with. We all loved her dearly, seeing her rock in her special rocking chair, watching her work jigsaw puzzles with Cora on a regular basis, taking walks with her around the Phillips' yard, and sitting with her at church time. She was always pleasant, quiet, and trim in her neat dresses with a pretty pin at the neck. I am enclosing a newspaper clipping from the  Warren Tribune, from Warren, Ohio about her 98th birthday, where she was living with her oldest daughter the last few years of her life. 




Mary Ann Wilderson Lewis
Born: 28 Mar 1849 Newton, Trumbull, OH
Died: 07 Apr 1947 Warren, Trumbull, OH

Sources: Census: 1850,1860,1870,1880,1900,1910,1920,1930,1940; marriage certificate, death certificate, David Lewis' pension application, interviews with cousins and siblings and aunts and Great Aunt Emma Lewis Flory and best of all, Little Grandma's scrapbook.