Elbert Sidney LEWIS

                   Birth, Marriage: Sister, Alice Lewis Heineken, and obituary.
Death: Sister, Helen Lewis Shell

   He was born near Roy's Creek near White Cloud. Attended school at Stony Point
near Reserve, and at Bellview southeast of Hiawatha. Until he was 25, he farmed
with his father. He first worked for the railroad with the Panhandle Division
of the Santa Fe, in Oklahoma. Later he returned to Kansas and worked for Bill
Longest as a dray driver in Effingham, Kansas. After his marriage he farmed
near Effingham until 1929 when he went to work for the Missouri Pacific
railroad, first on the section gang and then the bridge gang. In 1936, he was
thrown from a track motor car which ran over him. He was unable to work again
for three months. Between 1943 and 1945, he traveled the full length of the
Central Branch doing bridge and sign painting. In 1945 he returned to section
work until his retirement in 1959. He worked for the railroad for 30 years.
                  

                       Alice was born on a farm called Shore Place at White Cloud, Kansas the day after Christmas. She was never happy about that date. This was near the Kickapoo Indian Reservation. Her parents were older, having waited several years when her brother came along. She was born a year later and they had three more girls later. She was small, about five feet one inch tall and had light hair and grey eyes. She was somewhat of a tomboy, always loving to climb trees or up in the barn to look in bird nests. She had several scars from her adventures. She went to a rural school and finished the 8th grade. About 1901, the family moved to another farm, called the Hub Goodwin place. Later they lived at the Martin Evans place.
    Her mother was not too well after 1904. Alice was only nine years old, but was called on for much of the cooking, washing, cleaning, gardening and care of the two younger girls. When she was eleven, her folks moved to Hunnewell, Kansas, on the Oklahoma border. That proved to be a bad venture, as crops failed. They moved back to a farm southeast of Hiawatha. They were two miles from school, but she attended Belview School and Sunday School there, as well. After two years, they moved one mile north where she changed to LaGrange School.
    In the spring of 1913, her father bought a farm south of Everest, Kansas. When she was seventeen while they lived there, her youngest sister, Helen, arrived. Her mother was very ill and almost died before and after the baby was born a month early. Alice worked very hard to care for the family, her mother and the new tiny new baby. During that time her father was president of a farmers grange at Clear Creek School. She and her brother joined also.
    The Lewis family lived at Everest when WWI was declared. In 1918, that farm was sold and another purchased west of Effingham, Kansas. They did well there and bought their first car. Later her father sold that farm and bought a big house in Effingham, Kansas, across the street from the High School. During some of that time, she managed the household, and cooked for a well to do dentist's family in Hiawatha, Kansas. The only time she worked away from home.
    After she married in 1922 she became a farmer's wife near Valley Falls, Kansas. She came to California with Harry in 1937. In California after 1940, she worked very hard cooking meals and changing beds to help support her family when they took in young men for room and board.
    Later after Harry's death, she learned to drive a car at age 58 and worked in food services for Hughes Aircraft. She lived alone and was then able to take herself to the doctor, work and market.
    She was a very clean, bright, strong willed, hard working person. She loved to crochet doilies, make quilts, sew, and flowers, especially African violets. She was a member of the Methodist Church, but was baptized into the LDS Church on her birthday in 1953. She suffered with severe colon problems and had a colostomy in 1957. She had two other surgeries after that. In 1965 she sold her home in Inglewood and bought a small home in Fullerton, California. She died at Centinella Hospital in Inglewood.

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                   Birth, Marriage & Death: Alice Heineken,

   Marie was born 3 miles west of Reserve, Kansas. and was never really well
as a young person. She graduated from Atchison County Community High School in
the class of 1921. She taught at No. 60 school for two years. She was married
in the Methodist Church. She was in the Horton hospital for a month and then
taken to the A. G. Valentine home at Effingham, Kansas, where she died 10 days
later at age 35. She was a dutiful daughter, a kind mother and a loving wife.
                  

                       Merle lived most of her married life in the area of Valley Falls. She was very short, about four feet eleven and one half inches tall. She had very dark hair and eyes with fair complexion. Her hair was a beautiful white when she was older. She worked very hard as a farmer's wife and made a happy home for her husband and five children. She loved antiques, and in their later years they bought and restored items. In the 1960's they worked cleaning a church in Topeka. She suffered with migraine headaches. They made a few visits to California, but did not like to drive in the mountains. She cared for her husband in his illness until she was unable to continue and preceded him in death.

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                   Birth & Marriage: Sister, Alice Lewis Heineken.

   Helen was a premature baby born on a farm.  She was not expected to survive.
She grew to be taller than her other sisters, about 5 feet 4 inches and was
very slender as a young woman. She cared for her mother and mother-in-law when they were old and ill. She went to California with husband and son in 1940. She worked at Pacifica Hospital at Huntington Beach in the Pharmacy. As senior citizens, Helen and Todd volunteered for several years at LaPalma Intercommunity Hospital.