The Dawson news. (Dawson, Ga.) 1889-current, 1910-03-02
$40, 900, 900 AN esdi'sasa4s1T'aA
,,,rCuELL MOTOR CAR co. AND
,crcuELL-LEWIS WAGON co.
Something of the Rise and Success
Of the Men Who Head Great
enterprise of the Northwest.

- the Men Who Head Great
Enterprise of the Northwest.
when the $1O,00O,00O amalgama-
..on Of the Mitchell Motor Car Com
INV and the Mitchell-Lewis Wagon
ron,ranv. both of Racine, Wis, re-
oon+lv was effected William Lewis re-
4,rod as head of both corporations to
oooort the post of chairman of the
%oord of directors of the new combl-
notion. after having rounded out a
half century of active life spent IN
manufacturing. .
Mr.. Lewis is succeeded as chief
executive Of the $10,000,000 BUSH
ness by his son, Captain William
Mitchell Lewis, long one of the ag-
ornssive factors of the Mitchell Motor
Far Company, a former Yale athlete
and veteran of the Spanish-American
war and republican candidate for gov
ornor of the state of Wisconsin
unanimously favored among the men
actively engaged in the gubernato-
rial campaign in the Badger State.
With the executive reins left in such
capable and time-tried hands Mr..
Lewis, senior, has decided to reward
himself with a rest earned by long
devotion to business, and will sail in
Nav with his wife for an extended
tour of Europe.
The name of William TurnOr Lew
is is indissolubly linked with more
than fifty years of remarkable
achievements in the manufacturing
history of Wisconsin. The character
and energy of this remarkable man
not only has made him a central fig
ure in the agricultural wagon line,
but has placed him in the front rank
of motor car builders who were first
to see the possibilities of the medium
priced automobile and the demand
that would be the reward of those
who pioneered against the pressure
of motor car impOrtations and the
unsettled conditions of the domestic
manufacturing interests.
Mr. Lewis came to Racine in 1855,
and early caught the infectious fever
of the times-the exploitation Of the
telegraph. While pursuing his stud
les he gave thought to the growing
possibilities Of electric cOmmunica-
ton, and in 1860 applied himself to
mastering all the intricacies of the
telegrapher's duties. He studied the
Morse code as he later studied eco
nomic and manufacturing problems,
and while the civil war was on in
dreadful earnest took his brothers
place as local manager of the West
ern Union.
Wisconsin had sent thousands of
her young men to the battlefelds of
the south. The telegraph office was
the place of Racine's condensed mis-
cry. The weeping of widows who re-
ceived the fateful kilograms from Mr.
Lewis decided the young man upon
another field of endeavOr He ap-
Piled for the place of military tele-
grapher, and was assigned to the
Fifteenth Army Corps under General
MCCOOk, and was stationed at an i'm
portant military post at Gainesville,
Ga He worked six months there,
and was present at the surrender of
Atlanta.
Contracting a serious malarial dis
ease Mr.. Lewis obtained a furlough
and returned to Racine in the fall of
1854. Grant and Lee at Appamattox
put an end to the need of his further
services with the army, and Mr.
Lewis crowned his domestic life soon
after by marrying the daughter of
Henry Mitchell, the veteran wagon
manufacturer-the man whose wag-
ons hauled the supplies that provis-
Toned the garrison at Fort Dearborn,
the citadel of Chicago.
Mr.. Mitchell had engaged in the
wagon building industry as early as
1884. His sOn-in-law turned his at
tention to the Mitchell wagon works,
and proudly points to the remarkable
TACT that he has been continuously
associated with that business for for
ty-siX years in the same plant in Ra-
cine and upon the same site. He
watched the interests develop from
an annual volume of 100000 to ST.
22VO,OOO, the amount of business of
inc Mitchell-Lewis Wagon Company
in 1909.
Mr.. j. II. Fulford of Dawson is
agent for the Mitchell car, his terri
Tory embracing Terrell, Sumter Ran
Qolph Dougherty and other counties
IN this section