Stevenson "Steve" Paul Lewis

Birth: 12/2/1892, Toledo, OH

Address: 2094 Surrey Rd., Cleveland, OH and various other family addresses, including Sharon, PA, and Quincy Ave., Platt Ave., Rosemont Rd., and S. Woodland Rd. in Cleveland, OH; 1900 Census and several thereafter showed a servant living in the family home

Demographics: draft card not found; other sources indicate he was Caucasian, a native-born citizen, and a graduate of Shaw High School, Cleveland, OH and the University of Wisconsin, Madison, WI (Class of 1917)

Appearance: Height 5'9", Eyes blue, Hair light

Draft Date/Enlistment Date/Rank: Draft date not known; Enlistment date 12/15/1917; Rank 2nd Lieutenant (posthumously promoted to 1st Lieutenant) and awarded the Silver Star

Service Number: not found

Deployment: not found 

Action: 2 Lt FA Dec 15/17 fr ORC; 1 Lt FA Oct 31/18. Btry E 124 FA to disch. AEF. St Mihiel; Meuse-Argonne. AEF Dec 15/17 to death. KIA Oct 31/18 Romagne France. Grave 10 AEF Cem Remonville. 6 mos Amer Am Fld Serv in France. Awd SS, Under Act of Congress approved Mch 3/25 (Public Resolution 64 68th Congress) this Officer was posthumously promoted to 1 Lt of Fld Arty by the President to rank as such fr Oct 31/18.

Death: October 31, 1918 at age 25; cause of death Killed in Action by a stray enemy shell

Burial: buried in 2 different locations in 1918 and 1919 in the American Cemetery, Romagne-sous- Montfaucon, Meuse, FR; 7/25/1921 remains disinterred and prepared for shipment to U.S. arriving Antwerp, Belgium 8/12/1921; 9/1/1921 remains shipped from Antwerp to Hoboken, NJ aboard SS Cantigny arriving Hoboken 9/12/1921; 9/27/1921 remains shipped to Cleveland, OH arriving 9/29/1921 to the care of Norman S. Lewis, father, 18301 S. Woodland Rd., Cleveland (Shaker Heights), OH; 9/30/1921 final burial with full military honors at Lake View Cemetery, 12316 Euclid Ave., Cleveland, OH, Lot 23 Section 2; name also inscribed on the Shaw High School WWI Memorial at Lake View Cemetery

Next of Kin: Norman S. Lewis, father, 10600 Quincy Ave., Cleveland, OH

Additional Information: The Lewis family had several addresses in Cleveland, including those recorded above, Rosemont Rd., and one in Sharon, PA, where they lived for a period of time. In March, 1917, when he was a student at the University of Wisconsin in Madison, WI, Stevenson Paul Lewis applied to travel to France to be an ambulance driver.

Father: Norman Stanley Lewis (1864-1926), born Wakeman, Huron County, OH, a descendant of early settlers of Huron County and English ancestors, occupation Secretary and Treasurer of National Malleable Casting Co., Cleveland, OH (founded in Chicago in 1873 and began operating in Cleveland in 1891 as manufacturers of metal for the railroad and other transportation industries); Mother: Grace C. Chatterton Lewis (1866-1944), born Ohio of English and Scottish ancestry; Siblings: Margaret Edwards Lewis Atwood (1897-1982) and Janet Lewis Kiloh Edwards (?-?), who named a son Stevenson Lewis Edwards, presumably after her brother who died in WWI.

Additional Details of this soldier's life are included in a biography of his father, Norman Stanley Lewis, as posted on the father's findagrave.com website and quoted in part as follows:

"First Lieutenant Stevenson P. Lewis was born in Toledo, Ohio, December 2, 1892, and was killed by a stray enemy shell on October 31, 1918, while engaged in laying a regimental barrage for an attack upon the Germans the following day. His whole military career was brilliantly courageous. Graduating from the University of Wisconsin with the class of February, 1917, he went to France in March following, to enlist in the French Army. Assigned to Sanitary Section No. 17, as an ambulance driver, he was stationed at Verdun through the last fighting in that sector, and was awarded a War Cross and cited for bravery. After the termination of his term of enlistment as an ambulance driver, he entered the United States Army and was commissioned second lieutenant, taking his training at the French Artillery Training School at Saumur, in France, and was assigned to the 124th Field Artillery, United States Army. To him it was accorded the distinction of being selected to carry the plans from headquarters to the line for the St. Mihiel engagement. Leaving headquarters he rode through the rain five miles in advance to the line, and witnessed the beginning of that historic engagement. It was in the Argonne offensive that he received his death wound from the wandering shell, engaged in performing his duty to his regiment, his country, and humanity, as he would have chosen. After a temporary interment in the Argonne battlefield, Lieutenant Lewis' body was brought back to Cleveland to be buried with full military honors in beautiful Lake View Cemetery, September 30, 1921. Death came to the young man on the eve of his promotion and prevented his signing the papers which had come through to him, making him first lieutenant. By act of Congress a posthumous appointment of the commission as first lieutenant has been granted him.The sad death of his son played no small part in hastening the death of the father His faithful heart could not forget his love in the boy and pride in his accomplishments..."