General Notes

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Mrs. Dixon Hall Lewis
Mrs. Susan E. (Elmore) Lewis
May 29, 1889 Page 8, Col. 1
Montgomery Advertiser
"Death of a distinguished lady in Texas.
Mrs. Susan E. Lewis died at the home of her son Capt. D. H. Lewis in
Waverly, Texas, on the 16th instant in the 84th year of her age.  The
following interesting sketch of her life is from the Galveston News:
Mrs. Lewis was the daughter of General Elmore of South Carolina, a
Revolutionary Soldier.  Her brother, Franklin Elmore, succeeded John C.
Calhoun in the United States Senate after the latter's death, but only
survived that illustrious statesman a few months.  Her brother John A.
Elmore was a most distinguished lawyer at the Montgomery, Ala. Bar.
Another brother, William A. Elmore, was Supt. of the New Orleans Mint
during Mr. Buchanan's administration.  Her eldest sister married Benjamin
Fitzpatrick, who was three times Governor of Alabama and was United
States Senator from that state at the time of the Secession.
Deceased was the widow of Dixon H. Lewis, a distinguished member of the
United States Senate from Alabama, and chairman of the Finance Committee
of that body at the time of his death, which occurred in New York.
Perhaps no woman in modern times has seen more of life in all of its
vicissitudes or known intimately more distinguished people then Mrs.
Lewis.  Her husband was the intimate and trusted friend of John C.
Calhoun and James K. Polk and a contemporary of Webster, Clay, Benton,
Cameron, and Lincoln.
During the entire life of her husband, which extended for a period of
twenty-seven years, she was his trusted counselor and friend.  She never
saw him or his party defeated in all of this stormy period, beginning
with Nullification and ending with the annexation of Texas, the close of
the Mexican War and the adding of the Pacific Slope to the National
Union.  During her residence at Washington, she was a friend of Mrs.
Polk, who still survives her.  In 1854 she moved from Alabama to Texas
with her only surviving daughter, Mrs. Laura A. Scott, and her two sons,
F. M. and D. H. Lewis.  During the War Between the States, her younger
brother, Col. H. M. Elmore commanded a Texan Regiment on the Southern
side, and her three sons all enlisted for the war in the same cause. The
one was killed at the Battle of the Wilderness, the other two still live.
The life of this woman was spent in unostentatious deeds of good.  She
was always wise, modest, discreet, and her death was as her life.  Like
Caesar, she had always desired a speedy death rather than lingering
tortures of disease, and her wishes were granted by nature.  In the full
possession of all her faculties at the ripe age of 84, death called, and
found her prepared and ready to join the innumerable throngs of saints,
heroes and martyrs who had gone before.  Her life was noble - her death
accorded with her life."
Note: Susan is buried in Old Waverly Cemetery which is located of Hwy 150
west of New Waverly in Old Waverly Community. When the county lines were
drawn in 1867, it placed the cemetery just over the line in Walker Co.,
TX. It is also the resting place for  a great number of San Jacinto Co.
residents, who lived across the county line.  It is reached via
all-weather dirt road
Mrs. Dixon H. Lewis: of Lowndes County later moved to Polk County Texas.
Died with cholera, together with 40 or 50 of her slaves." See: The
Democrat: Huntsville, Alabama.