Alexander Lewis was a wholesale goods, insurance, and real estate businessman and mayor of Detroit, Michigan

Detroit, Michigan

Detroit is the major city among the primary cultural, financial, and transportation centers in the Metro Detroit area, a region of 5.2 million people. As the seat of Wayne County, the city of Detroit is the largest city in the U.S. state of Michigan and serves as a major port on the Detroit River...

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Early life

Alexander Lewis was born on October 4, 1822 in Windsor, Ontario

Windsor, Ontario

Windsor is the southernmost city in Canada and is located in Southwestern Ontario at the western end of the heavily populated Quebec City – Windsor Corridor. It is within Essex County, Ontario, although administratively separated from the county government. Separated by the Detroit River, Windsor...

 (then called "Sandwich"), the son of Thomas and Jeanette Velaire Lewis. Alexander Lewis came to Detroit on May 1, 1837, to work as a clerk at E. W. Cole & Co. He ramained at E. W. Cole & Co. for two years, then spent two years at the druggists G. & J. G. Hill, and then moved to Pontiac, Michigan

Pontiac, Michigan

Pontiac is a city in the U.S. state of Michigan named after the Ottawa Chief Pontiac, located within the Detroit metropolitan area. As of the 2010 census, the city had a total population of 59,515. It is the county seat of Oakland County...

. Lewis returned to Detroit in 1843 to start a forwarding and commission service with his brother Samuel and Horace Gray. In 1845, Lewis started another forwarding and commission service with H. P. Bridge under the name of Bridge & Lewis.

Business and politics

Lewis remained with Bridge & Lewis until 1862, when he established a flour and grain business. This he built into one of the largest and most prosperous enterprises in the city. Lewis retired in 1884 to look after his various property interests and real estate. Lewis was also a director of the Detroit Fire & Marine Insurance Company, a director of the Detroit National Bank, president of Detroit Gas Light Company, and in 1862 president of the Detroit Board of Trade.

Lewis served as Police Commissioner from 1865 to 1875 and was elected mayor of Detroit in 1876 as a Democrat

Democratic Party (United States)

The Democratic Party is one of two major contemporary political parties in the United States, along with the Republican Party. The party's socially liberal and progressive platform is largely considered center-left in the U.S. political spectrum. The party has the lengthiest record of continuous...

. He was also a member of the Detroit Library Board of Commissioners from 1881 - 1888, and, with Thomas W. Palmer

Thomas W. Palmer

Thomas Witherell Palmer was a U.S. Senator from the state of Michigan. He is considered to be one of the most significant figures in the history of Detroit, Michigan....

, established the Michigan Society for the Prevention of Cruelty to Animals

Society for the Prevention of Cruelty to Animals

The Society for the Prevention of Cruelty to Animals is a non-profit animal welfare organization originally founded in England in 1824 to pass laws protecting carriage horses from abuse. SPCA groups are now found in many nations, where they campaign for animal welfare, assist in cruelty to animals...

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Family and later life

Lewis married Elizabeth J. Ingersoll in 1850; the couple had 13 children, of which 8 lived into the 1890s: Ida Frances (Lewis) Healy, Edward L. Lewis, Josephine (Lewis) Carpenter, Hattie I. (Lewis) Currie, Harry B. Lewis, Julia Velaire (Lewis) Penrose, Marion Marie (Lewis) Muir, and Alexander Ingersoll Lewis.

Around 1900, Lewis built a home in Grosse Pointe Farms, Michigan

Grosse Pointe Farms, Michigan

Grosse Pointe Farms is a suburban city bordering Detroit located in Wayne County in the U.S. state of Michigan. It ranks as the 76th highest-income city in America. The population was 9,479 at the 2010 census. It is bordered by Grosse Pointe on the west, Detroit on the north, Grosse Pointe Woods...

, which is now the parish house for the Saint Paul Catholic Church

Saint Paul Catholic Church (Grosse Pointe Farms, Michigan)

The Saint Paul Catholic Church Complex is located at 157 Lake Shore Rd. in the Detroit suburb of Grosse Pointe Farms, Michigan. The group includes a French Gothic style church, a Neo-Tudor rectory, a Colonial Revival parish hall, a Neo-Tudor school building, and an Elizabethan Revival convent...

. The complex was designated a Michigan State Historic Site in 1992 Alexander Lewis died on April 18, 1908.