Murel Lewis’s ancestry can be traced back to Samuel Guthrie
(born 1795/98, died after 1860) and his wife Nancy
(1797-1862). Both were recorded as being born in South
Carolina, having at least seven children in Georgia, and
settling in north Florida where they lived on farms in Alachua
County in 1850 and Clay County in 1860.
Their daughter Adaline/Adeline Guthrie (born 1832/34)
married John Samuel Chesser in Alachua County in 1852.
He was born in Liberty County, Georgia in 1825; some unsourced
family trees at Ancestry.com show him to be the son of Thomas
Samuel Chesser (1776-1849) and grandson of John Cheshire
(1745-1872).
John and Adaline Chesser settled on a farm in Putnam County,
Florida where they had eight children before John’s death in
1869. Their firstborn was Andrew Jackson Chesser (born
1855)
who continued to live with his widowed mother and seven siblings
after marrying Lottie Ann Woodland in 1877.
Lottie Ann was born May 26, 1861 in Green Cove Springs
(originally White Sulfur Springs), the seat of Clay County and
called the “Original Fountain of Youth.” She was the eldest of
three children of Ruthey/Ruthie Woodland, whom some
Ancestry.com
trees identify as Adaline Chesser’s younger sister
Ruthy Guthrie.
Supporting this is Ruthey Woodland’s living in the same
household as Adaline’s in the 1880 Putnam County census, along
with Lottie Ann’s younger brothers Samuel (born 1864/65)
and Abram/Abraham (1867-1944) from the 1870 Clay County
census. If Adaline and Ruthey were sisters, that would make
Andrew Jackson Chesser and Lottie Ann Woodland first cousins—but
Florida allows first cousins to marry.
At any rate the Chessers had seven children
between 1877 and 1898: Fanny Catherine
(1877-1965), Grover (1881?-1917), Ella Belle
(of whom more below), Jesse Finley
(1885?-1937?), George Madison
(1889/1894-1942), Ida (born 1891?), and Ollie Virginia
(1898-1986). After their father’s death on April 25, 1904
the family seems to have moved to Muscogee County, Georgia if
not its urban seat Columbus. None of them can be located there
(nor anywhere else) in the 1910 census; but by 1917 Lottie was
living at 1008 Webster[’s] Alley in Columbus.
Ella Belle Chesser was born August 19, 1883 in Green
Cove Springs and left school after second grade. In the absence
of any other documentation, we might surmise that she lived with
her widowed mother until January 16, 1918, when she married
Andrew Lee Lewis in Muscogee County.
Of Andrew Lewis’s background nothing whatsoever can be said,
apart from his being born in Texas to American-born parents
circa 1892.
The birthdate section on his gravestone was left blank—possibly
because he was so much younger than his wife; possibly because
no one knew it for certain. According to available censuses he
had “no schooling” and spent much of his life working as a truck
farmer.
In 1920 he, Ella, and nine-month-old son John Lewis lived
in DeSoto County, Florida near Zolfo Springs, shortly before
moving a few miles north to Wauchula. How long John lived we do
not know; the Lewises cannot be located in the 1930 census. A
different nine-month old son died on February 16, 1924 and was
buried in Wauchula’s New Baptist Cemetery; his first name is
illegible on the death certificate available at
FindaGrave.com.
Murel Calvin Lewis was born on February 15, 1921; his
first name would be variously rendered as Murrel, Murrell, and
Myrl. Unlike his parents, Murel got three years of high
school. In 1939 he was a charter member of Wauchula’s new
chapter of the Order of DeMolay, a fraternal organization for
young men “who acknowledge a higher spiritual power.” When
Murel registered for the draft in 1942, he was in Detroit
working for Briggs Manufacturing, which made automobile bodies
for Ford, Chrysler, Packard, and other lines.
His father’s death was reported
by the August 23, 1945 Fort Myers News-Press:
Foreman at Convict Camp Shoots Self
With Pistol
In an unexplained suicide, Andrew L. Lewis,
53-year-old road foreman at the state convict camp on Pine
Island road, shot himself through the forehead with a .38
caliber special pistol at 6:38 o’clock last night in the camp
guard shack. The prisoners and other guards were eating supper
in the mess hall some 350 feet away when the fatal shot was
fired.
County Judge Hiram Bryant, acting as coroner,
and Deputy Sheriff W.C. Mathis pronounced the death an apparent
suicide after investigating. Captain H.E. Whidden, in charge of
the camp, said that every other man was accounted for at the
time of the shooting.
Capt. Whidden and the investigating officials
were unable to find a motive for the suicide. Capt. Whidden
said Mr. Lewis, who had worked for them before at a Bartow
convict camp, came here two weeks ago from Wauchula and had
shown no sign of despondency or dissatisfaction with his work.
“I talked to him myself yesterday, last night
and this morning, explaining what I wanted done,” said Capt.
Whidden. “As far as I could determine he acted perfectly
normal.”
Mr. Lewis had been working a crew of convicts
near Punta Gorda
all day. Upon returning to camp, he remained in the guard shack
when the other guards and prisoners went to supper. The shot
rang out while the group was seated at the mess tables and Capt.
Whidden and two trustees rushed to the guard quarters to
investigate. There was no note or other explanation for the
suicide. Mr. Lewis was said to be in good health.
Capt. Whidden said Mr. Lewis was survived by his
wife who lives near Wauchula and a son who is in the navy. The
body was taken to the Lawrence A.
Powell funeral home.
A day later the News-Press added that Andrew’s body had
been sent to Wauchula for funeral and interment.
Following her abbreviated attempt to live with Murel and Martha
in Michigan, the widowed Ella Belle moved in with her sister
Ollie’s family in Columbus, Georgia. The
May 9, 1949 Columbus Ledger reported:
Mrs. Ella Lewis,
66, died Sunday [May 8th] at 3:05 a.m. at Bush hospital after an
illness of two weeks. Mrs. Lewis was making her home with a
sister, Mrs. A.L. Aderhold, 2064 Tenth avenue. She was born in
Green Cove Springs, Fla., August 19, 1883, a daughter of Mrs.
Lottie Ann Woodland Chessin [sic] and the late Andrew
Chessin. She was a member of the Rose Hill Baptist church.
Surviving are a son, Murrell [sic] Lewis, Miami; her
mother, who lives in Columbus; two sisters, Mrs. Aderhold,
Columbus, and Mrs. W.M. Lockhart, Sioux Falls, S.D., and several
nieces and nephews. Services will be held at Colonial funeral
chapel at 5 p.m. Monday. The Rev. A. Judson Burrell, pastor of
the Rose Hill Baptist church, will conduct the service. The
body will be shipped Monday night to Wauchula, Fla., where
burial
will be held in New Hope cemetery.
(No indication whether the eight-months-pregnant Martha attended
this funeral.)
Ella Belle’s mother followed less than a year later, as reported
by the January 7, 1950
Columbus Ledger-Enquirer:
Mrs. Lottie Ann Chesser,
88, widow of Andrew L. [sic] Chesser, died at her home,
2064 Tenth avenue, Friday [January 6th] at 11:30 a.m. She had
been sick for eight weeks. Mrs. Chesser was born at Green Cove
Springs, Fla., May 26, 1861. She had lived in Columbus for 30
years and was a member of the Rose Hill Baptist church.
Surviving are two daughters, Mrs. Fannie Lockhart, Sioux Falls,
S.D., and Mrs. A.L. Aderholt, Columbus; three grandchildren, 10
great grandchildren, and several nieces and nephews. Funeral
will be held Saturday at 3:30 p.m. at the Rose Hill church. The
Rev. A. Judson Burrell, pastor, will conduct the service.
Burial will be in the
Double Churches cemetery.
Martha’s divorce from Murel was finalized in Dade County,
Florida in early 1950. On April 23rd of that year Murel married
Martha Jean Converse (1926-2006) of Putnam, Connecticut.
A year later they had a daughter, Joann/JoAnne Lewis Pituch
(1951-2013).
Meanwhile Martha Ehrlich Lewis had made no attempt to keep in
touch with Murel after she left Miami; but around 1953 he
contacted her, saying his second marriage was not working out
and he wanted to get back together. She did not take him up on
it, and she did not hear from him again.
Murel apparently mended fences with Jean; they had two more
children, Mark Calvin Lewis (born 1956) and Dale Lewis
(lived only two days, 1957). The Lewises lived in various
Florida locales—Lake Forest in 1953 and 1956, West Hollywood in
1957 and 1966, Martin County in 1986, Greenville in 1989, and
Monticello in the 1990s. Murel made the news on March 15, 1994
when he testified before the state Senate Education Committee in
favor of a bill that would allow prayer in schools. He wound up
in Hernando County’s Weeki Wachee Acres, where he died on
February 19, 2011, four days after his ninetieth birthday.
His grave marker at the Florida National Cemetery in Bushnell
notes his Navy service in World War II and adds
the lord is your keeper.
A few years before Murel’s death, his firstborn Sherry Renée
tracked him down and (after convincing him she was his daughter)
tried to establish a relationship. She found the experience
disillusioning and said the best thing Murel had ever done was
not be part of her growing up.
Notes
