FRANK LEWIS

 The following bio was taken from page 287 of the book entitled “Rusk County History” compiled and edited and used with permission of the Rusk County Historical Commission.

 Transcribed by Shirley Koym

 Submitted by Gloria Briley Mayfield, Cemeteries of Texas

Pioneers in every sense of the word, Frank and Willie Lewis blazed a trail that continues to light the way for their descendants, family, friends, and community.

 The ancestors of Frank Lewis can be traced back to Jackson and Elvira Blair.  Slaves on a plantation in Georgia, they had six children.  Their daughter, Sarah, married Edd Lewis.  From their union came fourteen children of whom Frank Lewis was the oldest.

 Born March 16, (1878-1962) in Rusk County, Frank barely escaped slavery.  As a young man, tall and statuesque, he met beautiful, soft-spoken Willie Mae Myers.  Willie Mae, born May 15, (1887-1974), was the daughter of Lum and Frances Myers of Pine Hill.  Frank and Willie married October 15, 1905 and together raised Frank’s brothers and sisters, as his parents died early, as well as their own five children.  They made their home in Antioch, a small community seven miles east of Henderson.

Even though Frank had only a sixth-grade education, he could out add an adding machine.  He possessed a quick business sense, yet he chose to be a farmer.  Starting with fifteen acres, Frank and Willie worked on their little farm raising vegetables, fruit, cattle, poultry, and swine until it had grown to a five hundred acre spread.

 With doors always open to help their fellow man, their home became the “house by the side of the road.”  The home always bustled with activity from quilt-making gatherings and canning to hog killing and harvesting.  Known as “Brother Frank” and “Sister Willie” to everyone in the community, they were an integral part of the Antioch family. 

Frank Lewis was a deacon and trustee of the church from 1913 to his death in 1962.  He donated the land on which the Antioch Baptist Church and its original cemetery now stand.  Religion was very important in the lives of the Lewis family.  They often held prayer meetings around a crackling fire in their home, sometimes with just the grandchildren present.

 Also believers in education, Willie and Frank donated land for the Antioch School, of which Frank was a trustee.  Their five children were educated there and all went on to pursue higher educations.

 Their oldest child, Odis, of Henderson, is a retired principal of Oak Hill and Goldsberry Schools.  Aaron Columbus, deceased, was a barber in Houston.  Earnest, deceased, was a teacher and coach in the Tatum and Kilgore Schools and a politician and businessman in Wilmington, Delaware.  Arnell Carroll taught in the Antioch and Henderson schools and is presently employed in the Englewood Public Schools in New Jersey.  Carnell Wright, of Henderson, taught in Sulphur Springs and Tomball, Texas school systems and is presently a librarian in the Henderson School system.

The six grandchildren and the ten great-grandchildren of Frank and Willie live in Delaware, New Jersey, and Texas.  They enjoy careers as a school administrator, a telephone business executive, music educators, a medical doctor, and a municipal judge.

 The union of Frank and Willie Mae Lewis was truly blessed and beautiful as it reached out and touched all that came in their paths.

 Submitted by Carnell Lewis Wright