Copyright USGenNet Inc., 2018 All Rights Reserved USGenNet Data Repository Please read USGenNet Copyright Statement on this page: Transcribed and submitted by Linda Talbott for the USGenNet Data Repository http://www.us-data.org/ =========================================================================== Formatted by USGenNet Data Repository Chief Archivist, Linda Talbott All of the above information must remain when copied or downloaded. =========================================================================== Chicago Tribune July 4, 1914 VETERAN LAKE CAPTAIN DIES Career That Took ANDREW DAVIS All Over the World Ends. LIFE ADVENTURE FILLED. Most of His 83 Years After He Was 13 Spent on the Water. The death of CAPT. ANDREW LEWIS, veteran lake captain, world adventurer, and naval veteran of the civil war, at his home at 2164 Milwaukee avenue late Thursday night brought to an end a career as strange and as interesting as the most fantastic bit of sea fiction. CAPT. LEWIS was born on the island of Gothland in the Baltic sea in 1831. His parents died when he was 9 years old and he was apprenticed to the captain of a ves- sel by his sisters. He ran away from the ship on account of repeated floggings, found his way home, and lay down to die in the snow on his mother's grave. A nobleman passing in a sleigh picked him up almost frozen and cared for him until he was 13, when he ran away to sea. Stockholm Houses Taken to Frisco. After sailing along the South American coast on trading vessels for several years he shipped from Stockholm, Sweden, on a ves- sel laden with houses which were to be set up in San Francisco. He made the voyage around Cape Horn and assisted in erecting the houses, which had been built in Stock- holm and then knocked down. He was shanghaied from San Francisco in 1849 aboard a vessel bound for Liverpool and took part in one of the most peculiar voyages ever made. He and another boy of his own age were the only two experienced seamen on the ship besides the officers. The rest of the crew were farmers, tailors, shoemakers, and carpenters who had been shanghaied. Takes Land to Vote Against Slavery. From Liverpool he went to Boston, then to New Orleans, and sailed up the Mississippi to St. Louis. He then went up the Missouri river to Fort Leavenworth and took up a home- stead several miles inland as a qualification to vote against slavery. A band of rangers burned his house and drove him away. He then went to St. Paul, Minn., and took a pre- emption on a farm fifty miles west of Minne- palois (sic), where he spent three years among the Chippeway Indians. While seeking employment as a ship carpenter he landed in Mobile, Ala., in 1861 while the confederates were drafting men. He shipped on a vessel for Cherbourg, the last boat to leave the port under United States clearance papers until after the war. He returned to Boston and went to Buffalo via the Erie canal, where he enlisted in the navy. He served during the war on the gunboat Stars and Stripes with the Carolina squadron. Comes to Chicago for Bride. After receiving his honorary discharge as a noncommissioned officer he came to Chicago and married Miss ANNA WAHLSTROM, who died fourteen years ago. He was captain of several lake ves- sels for many years until his advanced age necessitated his retirement. He was a member of the Western Association of California Pioneers, of which J. M. STUDEBAKER of South Bend, Ind., was president, and GEORGE W. HOTCHKISS of Evanston was secretary. The organization was disbanded three years ago on account of the decrepitude of the surviving members, whose average age was 87 years. During his life CAPT. LEWIS passed through several shipwrecks and circled the globe three times. He is survived by a son, OSCAR A. LEWIS, and a daughter, Miss LOTTIE LEWIS, with whom he resided. The funeral services will be held to- morrow afternoon at 3 o'clock in Graceland chapel. =========================================================================== If you've reached this file through a SEARCH, you can access more of our growing collection of FREE online information by going to the following URL: http://www.us-data.org/ ===========================================================================