Geer Cemetery-James E. R. Lewis

Mr. James E. R. Lewis was born 160 years ago on November 22, 1861.

Shared from: Friends of Geer Cemetery in Durham, NC
Monday Nov. 22, 2021

James E. R. Lewis was born 160 years ago today according to his grave marker at Geer Cemetery.

A single document names his parents as William Lewis and Mary Washington, but we know little of their fate or their son’s early years. James lived much of his life in Norfolk, Virginia, by the dawn of the 20th century a rapidly growing port city with a sizable African American population.

He appears in city directories there 9 times between 1895 and his death, generally on or near Church St - a neighborhood dubbed the Harlem of the South for its bustling Black cultural life before it was largely razed during urban renewal.

Lewis’ Durham connection came through his wife, Lola Allen Lewis, whom he married in St. Joseph AME Church in the spring of 1902.

James was 40, a dozen years older than his bride. Lola was the eldest daughter of the prominent carpenter, Richmond Allen, and had worked as a maid in the house of Durham magnate George Washington Watts.

Among the witnesses at the wedding were Edian Markham - considered the founder of St. Joseph and an early organizer of the Hayti community.

The newlyweds settled in Lewis’ hometown of Norfolk, where he took work as a porter and bellman at one of the hotels.

Having likely been a mentor to her younger siblings in the years after their mother’s death in the 1890s, it is little surprise that Lola hosted two brothers at the couple’s Norfolk home.

The 1910 census shows Marcus Lafayette Allen living there and working as a barber, while Theophilus Allen was a bellman – perhaps employment arranged at the same hotel where their brother-in-law had been established.

The household would be broken by James’ death in February 1912. Lola and her family likely ensured his burial in Durham, where she returned to her earlier employment with the Watts family.

Her father and her employer both died the same week in March 1921. Lola continued to work for Watts’ widow, Sara, moving with her to Charlotte after she remarried former Gov. Cameron Morrison.

It was there that she passed away in 1938, her will ensuring her remains would lie alongside her husband and other loved ones in Geer Cemetery