Home County: St. Louis
Term of service at the Supreme Court of Missouri: September 1874 - December 1874
Judge Edward Augustus Lewis was born February 22, 1820 in Washington D.C.[i] Edward Lewis was orphaned in 1829, and sent to school for three years at Charlotte Hall, Maryland.[ii] From 1835 to 1838, Lewis worked in the printing trade, as a tutor, and in a general land office, in Washington D.C. and Virginia, before he settled in Yazoo County, Mississippi.[iii] In Yazoo County, he served as deputy circuit clerk and studied law.[iv] He was later admitted to the Mississippi bar in 1841, and practiced law there or four years, until he came to Missouri in January 1845.[v]
A month after moving to Missouri, had was admitted to the bar of the state.[vi] Edward Lewis began his legal practice at Richmond in Ray County.[vii] In 1851, Lewis along with Hon. Joseph B. Crockett, became the editors of the Intelligencer a St. Louis paper.[viii] In the fall of 1853, he returned to the legal field and in the following year, “was appointed attorney for the North Missouri railroad.”[ix] In 1856, Lewis moved his family near St. Charles and purchased 200 acres of land, which he developed into the town of New Florence, which was named after his daughter.[x] Later, in 1858, Edward Lewis was elected curator of St. Charles College, and eventually served as president for several years of the school.[xi]
In September of 1874, he was appointed by Governor Woodson to fill the unexpired term of Judge Washington Adams,[xii] as Chief Justice of the Supreme Court of Missouri.[xiii] Judge Lewis served the Supreme Court of Missouri for a few months, but his service with the Court was not the conclusion of his judicial career.[xiv] The Missouri Constitution of 1875 had created the Saint Louis Court of Appeals, which had appellate jurisdiction for the City of St. Louis, Warren, St. Charles, and Lincoln Counties.[xv] Judge Lewis was appointed by the Governor to the St. Louis Court of Appeals, and began his service in January 1875.[xvi] In 1876 Judge Lewis was elected, and became the presiding judge of that court.[xvii] He served with the St. Louis Court of Appeals until January 1889.”[xviii]
Judge Lewis died September 21, 1889, in the City of St. Louis.[xix]
[i] The Bench and Bar of St. Louis, Kansas City, Jefferson City, and Other Missouri Cities, (St. Louis, MO: H.C. Cooper Jr. & Co., 1884), 16, information courtesy of Archive.org, accessed on June 26, 2019, available from https://archive.org/details/benchandbarstlo00compgoog/page/n32
[ii] The Bench and Bar of St. Louis, Kansas City, Jefferson City, and Other Missouri Cities, (St. Louis, MO: H.C. Cooper Jr. & Co., 1884), 16, information courtesy of Archive.org, accessed on June 26, 2019, available from https://archive.org/details/benchandbarstlo00compgoog/page/n32
[iii] The Bench and Bar of St. Louis, Kansas City, Jefferson City, and Other Missouri Cities, (St. Louis, MO: H.C. Cooper Jr. & Co., 1884), 16-17, information courtesy of Archive.org, accessed on June 26, 2019, available from https://archive.org/details/benchandbarstlo00compgoog/page/n32
[iv] The Bench and Bar of St. Louis, Kansas City, Jefferson City, and Other Missouri Cities, (St. Louis, MO: H.C. Cooper Jr. & Co., 1884), 17, information courtesy of Archive.org, accessed on June 26, 2019, available from https://archive.org/details/benchandbarstlo00compgoog/page/n36
[v] The Bench and Bar of St. Louis, Kansas City, Jefferson City, and Other Missouri Cities, (St. Louis, MO: H.C. Cooper Jr. & Co., 1884), 17, information courtesy of Archive.org, accessed on June 26, 2019, available from https://archive.org/details/benchandbarstlo00compgoog/page/n36
[vi] The Bench and Bar of St. Louis, Kansas City, Jefferson City, and Other Missouri Cities, (St. Louis, MO: H.C. Cooper Jr. & Co., 1884), 17, information courtesy of Archive.org, accessed on June 26, 2019, available from https://archive.org/details/benchandbarstlo00compgoog/page/n36
[vii] The Bench and Bar of St. Louis, Kansas City, Jefferson City, and Other Missouri Cities, (St. Louis, MO: H.C. Cooper Jr. & Co., 1884), 17, information courtesy of Archive.org, accessed on June 26, 2019, available from https://archive.org/details/benchandbarstlo00compgoog/page/n36
[viii] The Bench and Bar of St. Louis, Kansas City, Jefferson City, and Other Missouri Cities, (St. Louis, MO: H.C. Cooper Jr. & Co., 1884), 17, information courtesy of Archive.org, accessed on June 26, 2019, available from https://archive.org/details/benchandbarstlo00compgoog/page/n36
[ix] The Bench and Bar of St. Louis, Kansas City, Jefferson City, and Other Missouri Cities, (St. Louis, MO: H.C. Cooper Jr. & Co., 1884), 17, information courtesy of Archive.org, accessed on June 26, 2019, available from https://archive.org/details/benchandbarstlo00compgoog/page/n36
[x] The Bench and Bar of St. Louis, Kansas City, Jefferson City, and Other Missouri Cities, (St. Louis, MO: H.C. Cooper Jr. & Co., 1884), 17, information courtesy of Archive.org, accessed on June 26, 2019, available from https://archive.org/details/benchandbarstlo00compgoog/page/n36
[xi] The Bench and Bar of St. Louis, Kansas City, Jefferson City, and Other Missouri Cities, (St. Louis, MO: H.C. Cooper Jr. & Co., 1884), 17, information courtesy of Archive.org, accessed on June 26, 2019, available from https://archive.org/details/benchandbarstlo00compgoog/page/n36
[xii] Truman A. Post, reporter, Reports of Cases Argued and Determined in the Supreme Court of the State of Missouri, Vol. 57, (St. Louis, MO: W.J. Gilbert, 1875), Judges of the Supreme Court, During the Time of These Reports page.
[xiii] The Bench and Bar of St. Louis, Kansas City, Jefferson City, and Other Missouri Cities, (St. Louis, MO: H.C. Cooper Jr. & Co., 1884), 18, information courtesy of Archive.org, accessed on June 26, 2019, available from https://archive.org/details/benchandbarstlo00compgoog/page/n38 See also: Horace W. Fuller, ed., The Green Bag, Vol. III, (Boston, MA: The Boston Book Company, 1891), 160.
[xiv] Horace W. Fuller, ed., The Green Bag, Vol. III, (Boston, MA: The Boston Book Company, 1891), 160. See also: The Bench and Bar of St. Louis, Kansas City, Jefferson City, and Other Missouri Cities, (St. Louis, MO: H.C. Cooper Jr. & Co., 1884), 18, information courtesy of Archive.org, accessed on June 26, 2019, available from https://archive.org/details/benchandbarstlo00compgoog/page/n38
[xv] Missouri General Assembly, “Missouri Constitution, 1875,” Article V, Judicial Section 12, pages 14 and 15 of 34, image courtesy of Missouri State Archives, Missouri State Constitutions, 1820-1945 Digital Database, accessed June 28, 2019, available from http://cdm16795.contentdm.oclc.org/cdm/compoundobject/collection/p16795coll1/id/249/rec/4
[xvi] Missouri General Assembly, “Missouri Constitution, 1875,” Article V, Judicial Sections 15 and 16, page 15 of 34, image courtesy of Missouri State Archives, Missouri State Constitutions, 1820-1945 Digital Database, accessed June 28, 2019, available from http://cdm16795.contentdm.oclc.org/cdm/compoundobject/collection/p16795coll1/id/249/rec/4
[xvii] Missouri General Assembly, “Missouri Constitution, 1875,” Article V, Judicial Section 16, page 15 of 34, image courtesy of Missouri State Archives, Missouri State Constitutions, 1820-1945 Digital Database, accessed June 28, 2019, available from http://cdm16795.contentdm.oclc.org/cdm/compoundobject/collection/p16795coll1/id/249/rec/4 See also: The Bench and Bar of St. Louis, Kansas City, Jefferson City, and Other Missouri Cities, (St. Louis, MO: H.C. Cooper Jr. & Co., 1884), 18, information courtesy of Archive.org, accessed on Jen 26, 2019, available from https://archive.org/details/benchandbarstlo00compgoog/page/n38
[xviii] The Bench and Bar of St. Louis, Kansas City, Jefferson City, and Other Missouri Cities, (St. Louis, MO: H.C. Cooper Jr. & Co., 1884), 18, information courtesy of Archive.org, accessed on Jen 26, 2019, available from https://archive.org/details/benchandbarstlo00compgoog/page/n38
[xix] “Edward A. Lewis,” Missouri, Death Records, 1850-1931, information courtesy of Ancestry.com, accessed on June 24, 2019, available from https://ancestry.com Paper copy of document in permanent file in law library.
Biographical information authored by Mr. Maxwell Beffa, 2019, University of Missouri-Columbia.