Kirby's Augusta - Disappearance of James Hamilton Lewis

Let me tell you about the most famous Augustan that you’ve probably never heard of.
James Hamilton Lewis (1863 to 1939) was a lawyer, a soldier and one of the few men in history to represent different states in Congress.

He was an Augusta contemporary of Woodrow Wilson.
He was a mentor to Harry Truman.
He made the cover of Life magazine.
Today, not only do few know who he is.
Nobody knows where he is.
Lewis’ beginnings were tragic. During the Civil War, his mother was pregnant with him when she left Augusta to go to Virginia and tend to his war-wounded father, Confederate Maj. John Cable Lewis. She died in Danville, Va., giving birth to a son who would never know her nor a father who didn’t recover enough to care for him.
This didn’t seem to stop young Hamilton, his friends called him “Ham,” who was brought back to Augusta and raised by relatives in the post-war South. He attended St. James Methodist on Greene Street and studied at nearby Houghton School.
He left Augusta for the University of Virginia, then went into law. He married Rose Douglas, of Sylvania, Ga., served in the Spanish American War, moved to Seattle, ran for Congress and won.

Then he moved to Chicago, ran for U.S. Senate, and won again – one of the few to be sent to Washington from two different states.

His debating skills were so formidable the nation’s newspapers (including this one) reported these clashes like boxing matches. His dress and sense of style were considered newsworthy and social WRITERS described his wardrobe in detail.
His photograph on the cover of Life magazine taken by the famous Margaret Bourke-White (Erskine Caldwell’s wife) is considered so iconic, it is sold today as a poster. When he died, his body laid in state in the U.S. Senate.
Not bad for an Augusta orphan.
He is often quoted for his advice to freshman senator Truman, who showed up awestruck in 1935.
“Harry, don’t start out with an inferiority complex,” Lewis said. “For the first six months you’ll wonder how in hell you got here. After that you’ll wonder how in hell the rest of us got here.”

When he died, his death was front-page news. He was buried in Arlington, Va., at a newly constructed mausoleum next to the famed national cemetery.
Then he seems to vanish, not only from the American political consciousness, but from his grave.

Political historians, the U.S. Senate history office, the Library of Congress, the U.S. Army and even the Illinois Historical Society don’t know where he is.
The mausoleum – despite several prominent burials – went out of business half a century ago. Many of its graves were moved to other sites in Arlington, but none have a record of Lewis.
Nearby Arlington National Cemetery might have found a spot for the war veteran and senator, but they have no record of him, either.

We may never find him, but let’s not forget him.
Few Augustans have brought us such fame.

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