Biography - Roscoe F. Lewis

Roscoe F. Lewis, mayor of Kenmare now serving for the second term, consented to fill this position only upon the urgent written request of fifty per cent of the voters, for his ambition is not in the line of office holding, as he has always preferred to concentrate his efforts upon his business affairs. He was for some time actively connected with the Kenmare Coal & Brick Company and is now extensively interested in lands. He was born near Marengo, Iowa county, Iowa, September 20, 1880. His father, Levi Lewis, is a native of Vermont and there remained until after he attained his majority. In the Green Mountain state he wedded Eliza Matteson, who was also born there, and in 1866 they left New England for Iowa, casting in their lot with the pioneer settlers of Iowa county. The father purchased land and began the development of a new farm which he continued to cultivate and improve until 1890. He then turned his attention to the insurance business, being elected one of the officers of an insurance company. He removed to Victor and became president of the Farmers Savings Bank at that place. He is still identified with banking interests in Iowa and Poweshiek counties of the state of Iowa and makes his home in Victor at the age of eighty years. His wife there passed away in 1908.

Roscoe F. Lewis spent the first ten years of his life on the old homestead farm near Marengo, Iowa, after which, following the removal of the family to Victor, he became a pupil in the city schools there, passing through consecutive grades to his graduation from the high school with the class of 1898. He then took up the occupation of farming on the old home place but in 1900 turned his attention to the insurance business, in which he engaged for two years. In 1902 he arrived in Kenmare, North Dakota, where he conducted a coal and brick business until January, 1906, when he again took up his abode in Iowa and engaged in the hardware trade, purchasing an interest in a store at Deep River. He conducted his mercantile interests there until January, 1910, when he returned to Kenmare, assuming the management of the Kenmare Coal & Brick Company. He continued active in that line until 1916, when he sold out. He is now concentrating his efforts and attention upon his landed interests and his official duties. He has made extensive investments in property and is now the owner of eighty-one quarter sections in Morton county, a part of which is under cultivation, while the remainder is in pasture, his holdings being used for farming and grazing purposes and embracing altogether about ten thousand acres.

On the 7th of July, 1903, at Victor, Iowa, Mr. Lewis was married to Miss Edna Rowland, a daughter of David and Virginia Eliza Rowland. Her father's birth occurred near Hagerstown, Maryland, and in that state he was reared and educated. Later he began farming in Iowa at an early period in the development of that state, carrying on agricultural pursuits at Victor until 1892, when he retired and has since enjoyed a well earned rest. His wife, however, passed away in Victor in 1900. It was in the schools of that city that Mrs. Lewis pursued her education, being a classmate of Mr. Lewis, and the friendship thus formed ripened into a love that was consummated in marriage. Thus they entered upon a most happy life and Mr. Lewis has never had occasion to regret that he chose "that old sweetheart of mine" with whom to travel life's journey. Their marriage has been blessed with one daughter, Beatrice Eliza, who was born in Kenmare, January 21, 1905, and is now studying music while attending the public schools.

Mr. and Mrs. Lewis are prominent and influential residents of their town, occupying a leading position in social circles. Mr. Lewis has served as treasurer of the Commercial Club and his political allegiance is stanchly given to the republican party. While he was managing the Kenmare Coal & Brick Company he was asked by his friends to become a candidate for mayor but refused. Still others asked him to accept the nomination but again he declined, and at length he was presented with a petition that was signed by fifty per cent of the voters, soliciting him to accept the office. He then consented to run, was elected in the spring of 1914 and gave to the city a progressive and businesslike administration, so that at the close of his two years' term he was reelected and is again the incumbent in the office of chief executive. Throughout the community in which he lives he is spoken of in terms of the warmest regard, high respect being entertained for him by all with whom he has come in contact. Anyone meeting him face to face would know at once that he is an individual embodying all the elements of what in this country we term a "square" man — one in whom to have confidence, a dependable man in any relation and any emergency. His quietude of deportment, his easy dignity, his frankness and cordiality of address, with a total absence of anything sinister or anything to conceal, foretoken a man who is ready to meet any obligation of life with the confidence and courage that come of conscious personal ability, right conception of things and an habitual regard for what is best in the exercise of human activities.

Extracted 12 Nov 2019 by Norma Hass from North Dakota History and People, published in 1917, volume 2, pages 416-417.