Payton & Mae Lewis is reported to have 12 children, five are remembered on one grave marker as dying in infancy.
Today's blog is a combination of photos, newspaper clippings, a mystery and part of my personal family history.
(Click on clippings to get a readable view of the news stories)
Body found about one mile south of Vincennes, Indiana on the Illinois side of the Wabash River on the bank. "The cause of death is unknown." He had been dead for several months with identification made by means of a knife & coin purse found in his pockets.
My 3rd. Great Grandfather was Joseph O. Lewis (Margaret Mattingly - my 3rd. Great Grandmother). Payton Lewis was a half brother to my 2nd. Great Grandmother Susan Apalone Lewis who married Arthur Sylvester Mays. He was basically lost to my line of this family. We had no idea what happened to him or where he lived. An email from someone lead me to these news clippings in the Princeton, Indiana public library. Hazelton is not but a short drive from Evansville, yet no one seemed to know anything about him. I suspect his mysterious death with unanswered details may have lessened the talk of him within the family with some thinking that he may have committed suicide.
