Lewis George Ward was born in Washington, Paulding County, Ohio. By 1880, he and his family had relocated to Friendship, Emmet County, Michigan. There, he met Ella Alzina Thompson, and they married 31 March 1894 in Boyne City, Charlevoix County.
The Wards would, by 1920, be living upstate New York. Good friend Byron Halsted, a lumberman, learned of a sizable amount of timberland and a sawmill for sale, in the town of Bleecker, and needed someone he could trust to manage the office and take care of the books--that was Lew-- and the two became partners.
The mill was very successful, and Lew's wife Ella helped run the boarding house and cooked for the men who worked in the lumber camp. When their only son, Thompson, known as Bert, got out of the army in 1919, he joined his parents in Bleecker and took a job in the mill. The future seemed bright. Until the fire.
Lewis and Ella lost nearly everything when the Halsted mill burned. The family, now including Bert's wife Vera, moved to Stony Creek Station, a tiny logging community deep in the Adirondack mountains along the Hudson River with idyllic views. The remote town's only link to civilization was the train that went through town four times a day.
Using what meager savings they had left after the mill fire, Lew and Ella rented and stocked a small general store. While Ella and Bert's wife Vera ran the little shop, Lew and Bert worked in the Gardner mill in Stony Creek Station; its main products included ax handles and furniture pieces, but their best seller was broom handles--Lewis even patented an ingenious machine for making them with the Canadian patent office. But the demise of the lumbering industry in New York was inevitable, and it was indeed building its last; hardwood was becoming scarce, and people were increasingly importing from foreign competition. The mill closed, and yet again, Lewis had to reinvent the future for his family.
Ella and Vera's experience running the small general store in Stony Creek Station gave the family its next opportunity. They moved to Guilderland, New York, with Lewis and Bert forming Lewis G. Ward & Son, a general store, about ten miles west of Albany on Schoharie Turnpike, later known as Route 20. They sold meat, groceries, hardware, work clothes, feed, seed and fertilizer. It was a solid foundation for the Wards, and did a solid business.
Lewis, however, would not live to see its most profitable days. He died after only a few years, at just 58, leaving his family a solid and successful business they would continue to run for another generation.
Lewis was a direct descendant of Mayflower passengers John Howland, Elizabeth Tilley, John Tilley, Joan Hurst Rogers, Isaac Allerton, Mary Norris, and Mary Allerton. John Howland, aside from being the assistant governor of Plymouth Colony, was famous for falling overboard in a violent storm during Mayflower's Atlantic crossing. He miraculously grabbed hold of a sail line that was dragging in the water, and was saved. Lewis's direct descendants can apply for membership in The Mayflower Society.
The Wards would, by 1920, be living upstate New York. Good friend Byron Halsted, a lumberman, learned of a sizable amount of timberland and a sawmill for sale, in the town of Bleecker, and needed someone he could trust to manage the office and take care of the books--that was Lew-- and the two became partners.
The mill was very successful, and Lew's wife Ella helped run the boarding house and cooked for the men who worked in the lumber camp. When their only son, Thompson, known as Bert, got out of the army in 1919, he joined his parents in Bleecker and took a job in the mill. The future seemed bright. Until the fire.
Lewis and Ella lost nearly everything when the Halsted mill burned. The family, now including Bert's wife Vera, moved to Stony Creek Station, a tiny logging community deep in the Adirondack mountains along the Hudson River with idyllic views. The remote town's only link to civilization was the train that went through town four times a day.
Using what meager savings they had left after the mill fire, Lew and Ella rented and stocked a small general store. While Ella and Bert's wife Vera ran the little shop, Lew and Bert worked in the Gardner mill in Stony Creek Station; its main products included ax handles and furniture pieces, but their best seller was broom handles--Lewis even patented an ingenious machine for making them with the Canadian patent office. But the demise of the lumbering industry in New York was inevitable, and it was indeed building its last; hardwood was becoming scarce, and people were increasingly importing from foreign competition. The mill closed, and yet again, Lewis had to reinvent the future for his family.
Ella and Vera's experience running the small general store in Stony Creek Station gave the family its next opportunity. They moved to Guilderland, New York, with Lewis and Bert forming Lewis G. Ward & Son, a general store, about ten miles west of Albany on Schoharie Turnpike, later known as Route 20. They sold meat, groceries, hardware, work clothes, feed, seed and fertilizer. It was a solid foundation for the Wards, and did a solid business.
Lewis, however, would not live to see its most profitable days. He died after only a few years, at just 58, leaving his family a solid and successful business they would continue to run for another generation.
Lewis was a direct descendant of Mayflower passengers John Howland, Elizabeth Tilley, John Tilley, Joan Hurst Rogers, Isaac Allerton, Mary Norris, and Mary Allerton. John Howland, aside from being the assistant governor of Plymouth Colony, was famous for falling overboard in a violent storm during Mayflower's Atlantic crossing. He miraculously grabbed hold of a sail line that was dragging in the water, and was saved. Lewis's direct descendants can apply for membership in The Mayflower Society.
Lewis George Ward was born in Washington, Paulding County, Ohio. By 1880, he and his family had relocated to Friendship, Emmet County, Michigan. There, he met Ella Alzina Thompson, and they married 31 March 1894 in Boyne City, Charlevoix County.
The Wards would, by 1920, be living upstate New York. Good friend Byron Halsted, a lumberman, learned of a sizable amount of timberland and a sawmill for sale, in the town of Bleecker, and needed someone he could trust to manage the office and take care of the books--that was Lew-- and the two became partners.
The mill was very successful, and Lew's wife Ella helped run the boarding house and cooked for the men who worked in the lumber camp. When their only son, Thompson, known as Bert, got out of the army in 1919, he joined his parents in Bleecker and took a job in the mill. The future seemed bright. Until the fire.
Lewis and Ella lost nearly everything when the Halsted mill burned. The family, now including Bert's wife Vera, moved to Stony Creek Station, a tiny logging community deep in the Adirondack mountains along the Hudson River with idyllic views. The remote town's only link to civilization was the train that went through town four times a day.
Using what meager savings they had left after the mill fire, Lew and Ella rented and stocked a small general store. While Ella and Bert's wife Vera ran the little shop, Lew and Bert worked in the Gardner mill in Stony Creek Station; its main products included ax handles and furniture pieces, but their best seller was broom handles--Lewis even patented an ingenious machine for making them with the Canadian patent office. But the demise of the lumbering industry in New York was inevitable, and it was indeed building its last; hardwood was becoming scarce, and people were increasingly importing from foreign competition. The mill closed, and yet again, Lewis had to reinvent the future for his family.
Ella and Vera's experience running the small general store in Stony Creek Station gave the family its next opportunity. They moved to Guilderland, New York, with Lewis and Bert forming Lewis G. Ward & Son, a general store, about ten miles west of Albany on Schoharie Turnpike, later known as Route 20. They sold meat, groceries, hardware, work clothes, feed, seed and fertilizer. It was a solid foundation for the Wards, and did a solid business.
Lewis, however, would not live to see its most profitable days. He died after only a few years, at just 58, leaving his family a solid and successful business they would continue to run for another generation.
Lewis was a direct descendant of Mayflower passengers John Howland, Elizabeth Tilley, John Tilley, Joan Hurst Rogers, Isaac Allerton, Mary Norris, and Mary Allerton. John Howland, aside from being the assistant governor of Plymouth Colony, was famous for falling overboard in a violent storm during Mayflower's Atlantic crossing. He miraculously grabbed hold of a sail line that was dragging in the water, and was saved. Lewis's direct descendants can apply for membership in The Mayflower Society.
The Wards would, by 1920, be living upstate New York. Good friend Byron Halsted, a lumberman, learned of a sizable amount of timberland and a sawmill for sale, in the town of Bleecker, and needed someone he could trust to manage the office and take care of the books--that was Lew-- and the two became partners.
The mill was very successful, and Lew's wife Ella helped run the boarding house and cooked for the men who worked in the lumber camp. When their only son, Thompson, known as Bert, got out of the army in 1919, he joined his parents in Bleecker and took a job in the mill. The future seemed bright. Until the fire.
Lewis and Ella lost nearly everything when the Halsted mill burned. The family, now including Bert's wife Vera, moved to Stony Creek Station, a tiny logging community deep in the Adirondack mountains along the Hudson River with idyllic views. The remote town's only link to civilization was the train that went through town four times a day.
Using what meager savings they had left after the mill fire, Lew and Ella rented and stocked a small general store. While Ella and Bert's wife Vera ran the little shop, Lew and Bert worked in the Gardner mill in Stony Creek Station; its main products included ax handles and furniture pieces, but their best seller was broom handles--Lewis even patented an ingenious machine for making them with the Canadian patent office. But the demise of the lumbering industry in New York was inevitable, and it was indeed building its last; hardwood was becoming scarce, and people were increasingly importing from foreign competition. The mill closed, and yet again, Lewis had to reinvent the future for his family.
Ella and Vera's experience running the small general store in Stony Creek Station gave the family its next opportunity. They moved to Guilderland, New York, with Lewis and Bert forming Lewis G. Ward & Son, a general store, about ten miles west of Albany on Schoharie Turnpike, later known as Route 20. They sold meat, groceries, hardware, work clothes, feed, seed and fertilizer. It was a solid foundation for the Wards, and did a solid business.
Lewis, however, would not live to see its most profitable days. He died after only a few years, at just 58, leaving his family a solid and successful business they would continue to run for another generation.
Lewis was a direct descendant of Mayflower passengers John Howland, Elizabeth Tilley, John Tilley, Joan Hurst Rogers, Isaac Allerton, Mary Norris, and Mary Allerton. John Howland, aside from being the assistant governor of Plymouth Colony, was famous for falling overboard in a violent storm during Mayflower's Atlantic crossing. He miraculously grabbed hold of a sail line that was dragging in the water, and was saved. Lewis's direct descendants can apply for membership in The Mayflower Society.
