Working on Wednesday: Lewis Logan Slater (1855 - 1905), Lawyer, Notary and More!

In the 1880 U.S. Census, 24-year old Lewis Logan Slater*, my maternal great grandfather, was a law student living in a hotel in Hillsboro, the county seat of Montgomery County, Illinois.

[Ancestry.com and The Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints. 1880 United States Federal Census [database on-line]. Provo, UT, USA: Ancestry.com Operations Inc, 2010. 1880 U.S. Census Index provided by The Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints © Copyright 1999 Intellectual Reserve, Inc. All rights reserved. All use is subject to the limited use license and other terms and conditions applicable to this site. Original data: Tenth Census of the United States, 1880. (NARA microfilm publication T9, 1,454 rolls). Records of the Bureau of the Census, Record]

[City of Hillsboro, Montgomery County, Illinois. Publisher: Brink, McCormick & Co., 1874.

Source: David Rumsey Historical Map Collection]

[View: Montgomery County Court House, Hillsboro, Illinois. Publisher: Brink, McCormick & Co., 1874,

Source: David Rumsey Historical Map Collection]

He was admitted to the bar in 1881 and moved to Kansas about two years later, probably along with his parents.

[Lewis Logan Slater, courtesy of Olive Kennedy]

1885 was a big year for Lewis--he was named postmaster for Severy, Greenwood County, in August and got married to Rufina Tomlinson in December.

["Postoffice changes in Kansas during the week ending Aug. 8, 1885, furnished by Wm. Van Vleck, of the postoffice department:"

The Daily Commonwealth (Topeka, Kansas), 11 Aug 1885, page 4.]

[Greenwood Co., Kansas. L.H. Everts & Co., publishers, Phila., Pa. (1887)

Source: David Rumsey Historical Map Collection]

In 1890 he was commissioned as a notary in Severy.

[The Topeka State Journal (Topeka, Kansas), 13 Aug 1890, page 8.]

His occupation is given as lawyer in the 1895 Kansas State Census and the 1900 U.S. Census. In the 1905 Kansas State Census he's listed as an attorney. On the 1903 Severy map below, he owned property on Main Street between Hobart and Severy, lots 5, 6, 7, and 8.

[Ancestry.com. U.S., Indexed County Land Ownership Maps, 1860-1918 [database on-line]. Provo, UT, USA: Ancestry.com Operations, Inc., 2010. Original data: Various publishers of County Land Ownership Atlases. Microfilmed by the Library of Congress, Washington, D.C.]

But there's more that we know about him from a private email from a Severy postal worker named Marcia Moore received by Christine several years ago. Ms. Moore was writing a history of the community and hoped to get a picture of Lewis Logan.

"He was a postmaster here, a schoolteacher (for a short time), the city attorney and the clerk of the school board in this district."

We were able to help her, thanks to Olive Kennedy who shared her treasure trove of Slater family photos and other records.

[Lewis Logan Slater, courtesy of Olive Kennedy]

He died in 1905, aged 49 years, 6 months, and 27 days, and is buried in Twin Grove Cemetery.

[Courtesy of Olive Kennedy]

*His parents were George W. and Sarah M. (Matthews) Slater.

© 2014 Copyright, Christine Manczuk, All Rights Reserved.