George F. Lewis

George F. Lewis (June 7, 1828 – May 30, 1890) was a nineteenth-century American journalist and proprietor of several newspapers. He was also mayor of Saginaw, Michigan.

Lewis was born in Harvard, Massachusetts, on June 7, 1828. He had a sister and a brother. He moved with his family in 1835 to Mount Clemens, Michigan.

Lewis was a newspaper delivery person for the Mt. Clemens Patriot when he was ten years old. As a pioneer journalist he helped set the printing of the Macomb Statesman newspaper when it was first published in 1838 at the printing office of John N. Ingersoll, the proprietor and editor.

Lewis made a four-week trip in 1845, when he was seventeen years old, to the Lake Superior region in the Upper Peninsula of Michigan with General John Stockton, then a government mineral agent. Lewis on the return trip took specimens of copper ore to Boston and New York City for examination of value. Lewis journeyed again to Upper Michigan in the summer of 1847 for getting copper ore samples. On that return trip in the autumn to New York City, he met Horace Greeley of the New-York Tribune.

Lewis went again to Copper Harbor in Michigan's upper peninsula at Lake Superior in the spring of 1847 where he remained until November. When he returned Lewis was hired by Thomas M Perry of the Mt. Clemens Patriot as an apprentice journalist. He stayed with Perry until late spring of 1848. Lewis then took a position in Detroit at the Detroit Daily Commercial Bulletin in July, which newspaper had just started a couple of months before. He helped set up the printing that reported the news for the first time by telegraph of a presidential election result – that of General Zachary Taylor winning in 1848. Lewis worked in Michigan's government printing office at the state capital for Munger & Pattison during the winter of 1848–1849. He started the weekly newspaper Macomb County Herald in 1849 and worked there until 1851.

Lewis started the Port Huron Commercial newspaper in 1851. He continued publishing it until April 1855. He bought the Peninsular Advocate newspaper of Mt. Clemens in September of that year. He published the weekly newspaper under his complete control until 1863. At that time he partnered with Major E. W. Lyon in its publication and continued with him until 1867. Then B. M. Thompson became another partner and the three of them ran the publication. The Saginaw Daily Courier was then started in March 1868 by Lewis, Lyon, Thompson and Joseph Leeman. In December Thompson bought out all the partners of the newspaper and subsequently sold it to the Saginaw Enterprise Publishing Company.

Lewis started several other Michigan newspapers including the Saginairian in 1869, the Mt Pleasant Journal in 1880, and the Bay City Daily Morning Call in 1881.

Lewis was one of the Deputy Marshals of Macomb County, Michigan, when he took the census of eight towns in 1850. He had assisted his father in 1845 in taking the Michigan census, so had experience in this skill.

Lewis was a historian of the Saginaw Valley in the state of Michigan. He was mayor of Saginaw, Michigan, from 1877 to 1879.

Lewis died May 30, 1890.