History of Saginaw county, Michigan; together with ... portraits ... and biographies ... History of Michigan ...

HISTORY OF SAGINAW COUNTY.

469

He set the first type in the Macomb Statesman office,
then edited by the late Hon. John N. Ingersoll, proprietor. In
1838 he was folder and carrier for the Mt. Clemens Patriot.
He made the journey to Lake Superior with the late Gen. John
Stockton, U. S. Mineral Agent, in 1845. Four weeks were whiled
away in making the trip from Detroit to Copper Harbor. Returning, he went east, taking a 500-pound box of black oxide of copper
through from Detroit to New York, and later took a 1,360 pound
specimen block of "chunk" oxide of copper, out of the Mine
river, near Copper Harbor, from New York to Boston, personally
supervising its removal from the house of Phelps, Dodge & Co. to
the Sound steamer. During the winter of 1845-'6 and the spring
of 1846 he was clerkjn the general store of D. Shook, Mt. Clemens.
He again visited Lake Superior in the spring of 1846, where he remained exploring and keeping location all summer. He carried
on that trip a letter of introduction frorm Hon. Geo. C. Bates to the
late Horace Greeley of the New York Tribune, and met with the
kindest treatment from that celebrated journalist, who was standing
at his desk writing when Mr. Lewis entered the office.
He returned to Lake Superior in the spring of 1846, where he
remained until November, when he entered the employ of the late
Thomas M. Perry, of the Mt. Clemens Patriot, as apprentice, and
immediate successor of Charles S. Leonard, now of Knight &
Leonard, job printers of Chicago. He continued with Mr. Perry
until the summer of 1848, when he again entered commercial life
at Mt. Clemens.
In July, 1848, he took a position on the Daily Commercial
Bulletin, then just started in Detroit by the late Col Munger and
George W. Pattison, who is still living. IHe helped to put in type
the first news of a Presidential election that ever came by telegraph
-that of Gen. Zachary Taylor, in 1848. He worked in the State
printing office for Mnnger & Pattison at Lansing during the winter
of 1848-'9. He entered on the publication of the Macomb county
Herald, a weekly Whig newspaper, in May, 1849, which he continued until May, 1851.
As one of the Deputy Marshals of the county he took the census
of eight towns in Macoimb county in 1850, being well qualified
for this position, as he had assisted his father in taking the State
census in 1845. In the spring of 1851 he started the Port Huron
Qommercial, as a Whig journal, changing it subsequently to a
Democratic newspaper. This he published until the spring of
1855. In September, 1855, he bought the Peninsular Advocate,
a Democratic paper, published at Mt. Clemens, and continued it
until the summer of 1859. This paper was continued as a weekly
under his exclusive control until 1863, when Mr. Lewis became
associated with Maj. E W. Lyon in its publication. He continued
with Major Lyon until 1867, when B. M. Thompson bought an
interest. In March, 1868, the Daily Courier was started by Geo.
F. Lewis, E. W. Lyon, B. M. Thompson and Joseph Leeman, and