Researching Thomas Lewis

He was born in Locust Gap, Pennsylvania, and worked in the mines as a boy. He later helped found the United Mine Workers in 1890.

He first ran for the presidency of UMWA in 1898 against John Mitchell, but withdrew before a vote could be taken. He became vice president of District 6 under William Green. When Mitchell fell ill in 1907 and was unable to control the UMWA convention, Lewis led an attack on him and won the presidency. He fought off challengers in 1908, 1909 and even Green himself in 1910, although he was forced to rig elections in the latter two campaigns.

Although Lewis stacked the organizing staff of the Mine Workers with his political supporters and turned the union's journal into a propaganda organ supporting his presidency, he did not retain leadership of the union after he signed regional wage agreements in 1909 and 1910 without the consent of the affected district presidents. He was defeated in 1910 by John P. White. He ran again for the presidency of the union in 1912, but lost.

After leaving the union, he became an anti-labor consultant for coal operators in West Virginia, published a coal operators' trade journal (the Coal Mining Review), and helped found the National Coal Association. According to Winthrop Lane, Lewis also served as Secretary of the New River Coal Operator's Association. He died in Charleston, West Virginia, in 1939.

Born in Fairfax, Virginia, Lewis served with the Eleventh Virginia during the Revolutionary War and retired with the rank of colonel in February 1781. Lewis had also served in the Virginia House of Burgesses and was on the Committee of Safety of the Colonies.

After moving to Kentucky, Lewis served as a delegate to the convention in Danville that adopted the first Constitution of Kentucky in 1792. He also represented Fayette County in the first Kentucky State Senate.

According to historian and author Benjamin F. Van Meter, Lewis was "possessed of considerable means when he came to Kentucky, consisting of money, slaves and livestock. He made extensive investments in lands, and soon became one of the influential and wealthy men of this region of the country. He was a very intelligent, enterprising old-fashioned Kentucky gentleman, who kept his well-trained body-servant close at hand wherever he went; was noted, like most of the gentlemen of this region and of Virginia in that day, for hospitality and high living."

Born in Worcester, Lewis attended elementary school before becoming a bricklayer. He moved to Bristol in about 1896, when he became involved in the trade union movement and joined the Bristol Socialist Society. In 1904, he was elected as treasurer of the local branch of the Operative Bricklayers' Society (OBS). He also became active in the Labour Party, for which he was elected to Bristol City Council in 1910, serving until 1920. At the 1918 United Kingdom general election, he stood as the party's candidate in Bristol South, taking second place with 31.8% of the vote.

In 1911, Lewis became president of the Bristol OBS, but resigned from the union in 1914. Instead, he joined the Dock, Wharf, Riverside and General Labourers' Union, which was growing rapidly in the city, becoming its full-time Bristol District Organiser. Until 1917, he also served as the secretary of Bristol Trades Council. This was a difficult period for the council, which was divided on its approach to World War I, ultimately deciding to oppose conscription but otherwise take a neutral position. In 1922, the Dockers' Union became part of the new Transport and General Workers' Union, Lewis becoming the financial secretary of its number 3 area.