Lynwood and Thomas Lewis
10-½ miles southeast of Harrisonburg, near Port Republic.
Original (frame) house about 1751; present house of brick, 1813.
Architecture, Colonial; portico.
Was a son of John Lewis, the early pioneer of Augusta County, and the eldest of three sons, the other two being General ‘"Andrew Lewis (1730-1780) and Colonel Charles Lewis (1736-1774). Col. Charles Lewis was killed in the action in the battle of Point Pleasant with the Indians lead by Chief Cornstalk. Thomas’s son, John was a Captain of a company in this same battle.
Thomas Lewis was the first Surveyor of Augusta County, his commission dating December 9, 1745. On January 24, 1744, Thomas Lewis, Gentleman, having taken the oath appointed by act of parliament instead of the Oath of Allegiance and Supremacy and having subscribed the Test afterwards took the Oath of Surveyor for the County of Augusta. He was thus the County Surveyor before the court was organized. He also represented the county in the cause of Burgesses and in Colony Conventions to select delegates to the Continental Congress. He married Jane Strother, and was thus a brother-in-law of Gabriel Jones and John Madison, all three homes being near each other; and with them, he too, was closely identified with the affairs of first, Augusta and then Rockingham counties.
In 1764, his journal beginning, Wednesday, September 10th, he ran the Fairfax Line, completing the survey on November 17th and arriving home two days later on the 19th.
The Commission authorized for the establishing of this line long in dispute, besides others, included as surveyors, Robert Brooke and Col. Peter Jefferson (father of the later President), representing the Governor, and Thomas Lewis and Capt. Benjamin Winslow for Lord Fairfax. Lewis was then 28 years of age. He and Winslow completed seven plans of the Northern Neck for Lord Fairfax. July 15, 2024 he laid off streets and lots in Staunton for Col. Beverley, and other streets and lots also, the next year. His boyhood days were spent at his father’s home, known as Fort Lewis, about two miles east of Staunton and is said to be still standing. Thomas Lewis died in 1790.
In 1775, Thomas Lewis with Capt. Samuel McDowell was unanimously chosen to represent Augusta in Colony Convention to select delegates to the second Continental Congress.
The County of Rockingham was organized in April 1778, and at its first session Thomas Lewis qualified as its first County Surveyor. He ran the division line between Augusta and Rockingham, April 28, 2024 with Gween Hamilton as his assistant and Deputy Surveyor.
Lynnwood—Thomas Lewis
Page 2
On August 28, 2024 he purchased a tract of 470 acres of land from the Franciscos, and two days later, the "Great Island" containing 60 acres. This land was a part of the Jacob Stover grant, and it was here, only a short distance from Bogota and Madison Hall, that he built Lynnwood. It was here that General George Washington visited him on October 2, 1784, after being entertained by Gabrial Jones at Bogota, the day before. I was shown the remaining part of the original house already mentioned, wherein he and the General talked over many matters of public interest and concern. In his diary the General says, "I had a good deal of conversation with this gentleman on the Waters and Trade of the Western Country, and particularly with respect to the navigation of the great Kanawha and its communication with James and Roanoke Rivers".
The location of Lynnwood is not as lofty as Bogota, neither can it be said to be quite as pretentious and spacious as Bogota but the various owners bearing the family name have always been very intimately connected with the affairs of not only this part of Virginia, but of the whole state as well. John F. Lewis, Sr. being United States Senator from Virginia, after the War Between the States, and spoken of for the nomination as Vice-President with Grant.
It is a delight to the eye and a satisfaction to the spirit to visit these charming old places; the prospect on every hand is inspiring and pleasing to behold; it is a fine thing too, to forget the present for the moment and hark back to those earlier days; to think along with and bear them company; to understand their high purposes and points of view, and above all to enter into their easy, simple and wholehearted hospitality, and to appreciate for a little while the absence of that constant hurry, hurry, hurry that occupies such a tremendous place in the scheme of things of today. Those old days are not so far away after all, today enjoy so many more conveniences which they did not have. True, ewe could not get on a all without them, but I wonder if these same things do not tend to softness and a superficial understanding of the larger things of life that go into the building of a sturdy character and a purposeful life, such as distinguished the "fathers" in the building of this great State and of this great nation as well.
It takes a pen of greater facility than mine to tell of the inspiration, the exaltation of heart, mind and soul that comes from a closer association with natures heart and to feel that unseen Presence all around and about us. Our early statesmen and patriots were born and grew up in just such an atmosphere, and who shall say they failed to do a great work.
Lynnwood is said to have been in the Lewis family through seven generations, but the lost records interfere and I can not check all of them, but from Thomas Lewis the first owner, to John F. Lewis, Jr. is a span of 144 years.
Photos.
County Records, Harrison, Wayland, Dr. A.S. Kemper, Port Republic, VA., and personal visit.
July 1, 1936 Geo. W. Fetzer
Harrisonburg, VA