History of Lee County, Illinois - Bushnell Historical Society

HISTORY OF LEE COUNTY 427
lie was admitted to the bar, since wliieli time he has engaged in
practice in Amboy. Here he has been accorded a liberal and dis-
tinctively representative clientage, and his devotion to his clients'
interest is proverbial. That he has prospered as the years have
gone by is indicated in the fact of his investments in real estate.
These have been most judiciously made, and he is now the owner
of the postoffice building and several other business blocks of the
city.
In Ogle county, Illinois, December 21, 1870, Mr. Lewis was
married to Miss Margaret M. Hayes, a daughter of Mr. and Mrs.
Hiram Hayes and a granddaughter of Captain Cameron, who was
killed by the Driscoll bandits, when he was acting as captain of
the \'igilance committee. Both Mr. and Mrs. Hayes have passed
away and are laid to rest in White Rock cemetery in Ogle county.
Mr. and Mrs. Lewis have become the i)areuts of six children:
Benjamin D., a salesman residing at home; Ada E., the wife of
John H. Heil, principal of the Morgan Park school of Cook
county; Fred E., a carpenter of Amboy; Paul R., wlio was court
reporter with Judge Bond, afterward in the naval department
and later chief law agent with the Morgan Railroad System, but
who died in March, 3904; Ethel E., wlio died at the age of sixteen
years, and Stella B., who died in Roekton, Illinois, in 1873, when
but two years of age.
In politics Mr. Lewis is a stalwart republican and has been
clerk of Amboy township since 1895. He has practically had
charge of township affairs since 1878, acting at all times as
attorney in such matters. He was postmaster of Amboy under
Benjamin Harrison. No citizen of the community is more publicspirited
or more loyal to the welfare of tlie district. Mr. Lewis
is a member of the Knights of Pythias lodge and is faithful to the
teachings and high ideals of that organization.
MODEST L. GEHANT.
The name of Gehant is a familiar and respected one in Lee
county, a number of representatives of the family having spent
their entire lives within its borders and being here successfully
engaged in general agricultural pursuits. Modest L. Gehant, of
this review, is a worthy native son of the county and the owner
of a well improved farm of one hundred and thirty-one acres on