Alexander Lewis (October 4, 1822 – April 18, 1908) was a wholesale goods, insurance, and real estate businessman and mayor of

Detroit Detroit ( , ; , ) is the largest city in the U.S. state of Michigan. It is also the largest U.S. city on the United States–Canada border, and the seat of government of Wayne County. The City of Detroit had a population of 639,111 at t ...

, Michigan.

Early life

Alexander Lewis was born on October 4, 1822, in

Windsor, Ontario Windsor is a city in southwestern Ontario, Canada, on the south bank of the Detroit River directly across from Detroit, Michigan, United States. Geographically located within but administratively independent of Essex County, it is the southe ...

(then called "Sandwich"), the son of Thomas and Jeanette Velaire Lewis. Alexander Lewis came to Detroit on May 1, 1837, to work as a clerk at E. W. Cole & Co. He remained at E. W. Cole & Co. for two years, then spent two years at the druggists G. & J. G. Hill, and then moved to Pontiac, Michigan. Lewis returned to Detroit in 1843 to start a forwarding and commission service with his brother Samuel and Horace Gray. In 1845, Lewis started another forwarding and commission service with H. P. Bridge under the name of Bridge & Lewis.

Business and politics

Lewis remained with Bridge & Lewis until 1862, when he established a flour and grain business. This he built into one of the largest and most prosperous enterprises in the city. Lewis retired in 1884 to look after his various property interests and real estate. Lewis was also a director of the Detroit Fire & Marine Insurance Company, a director of the Detroit National Bank, president of Detroit Gas Light Company, and in 1862 president of the Detroit Board of Trade. Lewis served as Police Commissioner from 1865 to 1875 and was elected mayor of Detroit in 1876 as a

Democrat Democrat, Democrats, or Democratic may refer to: Politics *A proponent of democracy, or democratic government; a form of government involving rule by the people. *A member of a Democratic Party: **Democratic Party (United States) (D) **Democratic ...

. He was also a member of the Detroit Library Board of Commissioners from 1881 to 1888, and, with

Thomas W. Palmer Thomas Witherell Palmer (January 25, 1830 – June 1, 1913) was a U.S. Senator from the state of Michigan. He is considered to be one of the most significant figures in the history of Detroit, Michigan. Palmer was born in Detroit, where his m ...

, established the Michigan

Society for the Prevention of Cruelty to Animals A Society for the Prevention of Cruelty to Animals (SPCA) is a common name for non-profit animal welfare organizations around the world. The oldest SPCA organization is the RSPCA, which was founded in England in 1824. SPCA organizations operate i ...

Family and later life

Lewis married Elizabeth J. Ingersoll in 1850; the couple had 13 children, of which 8 lived into the 1890s: Ida Frances (Lewis) Healy, Edward L. Lewis, Josephine (Lewis) Carpenter, Hattie I. (Lewis) Currie, Harry B. Lewis, Julia Velaire (McMillan) Penrose, Marion Marie (Lewis) Muir, and Alexander Ingersoll Lewis. Through his daughter Julia, Alexander is the great-great-grandfather of Baroness

Sybille de Selys Longchamps Baroness Sybille de Selys Longchamps (born 28 August 1941) is a Belgian noblewoman. She is the former mistress of King Albert II, with whom she has a daughter, Princess Delphine. Born in Uccle, De Selys Longchamps is the daughter of Count Mic ...

, the mother of

Princess Delphine of Belgium Princess Delphine of Belgium (''Delphine Michèle Anne Marie Ghislaine de Saxe-Cobourg''; born 22 February 1968), known previously as ''Jonkvrouw'' Delphine Boël, is a Belgian artist and member of the Belgian royal family. She is the daughter ...

(''Delphine Michèle Anne Marie Ghislaine de Saxe-Cobourg''; born 22 February 1968), known previously as ''

Jonkvrouw (female equivalent: ; french: Écuyer; en, Squire) is an honorific in the Low Countries denoting the lowest rank within the nobility. In the Netherlands, this in general concerns a prefix used by the untitled nobility. In Belgium, this is the ...

'' Delphine Boël, is a Belgian artist and member of the

Belgian royal family Belgium is a constitutional, hereditary, and popular monarchy. The monarch is titled king or queen of the Belgians ( nl, Koning(in) der Belgen, french: Roi / Reine des Belges}, german: König(in) der Belgier) and serves as the country's he ...

. She is the daughter of King

Albert II of Belgium , house = Belgium , father = Leopold III of Belgium , mother = Astrid of Sweden , birth_date = , birth_place = Stuyvenberg Castle, Laeken, Brussels, Belgium , death_date = , death_place = , signature = Albert II of Belgium Signat ...

with Baroness Sybille de Selys Longchamps, and the half-sister of King Philippe of Belgium. Before 1 October 2020, she belonged to the Belgian titled nobility and was legally

Boël. On that date, she was lawfully recognised as Princess of Belgium with the style " Her Royal Highness". Around 1900, Lewis built a home in

Grosse Pointe Farms, Michigan Grosse Pointe Farms is a city in Wayne County in the U.S. state of Michigan. The population was 9,479 at the 2010 census. As part of the Grosse Pointe collection of cities, it is a northeastern city of Metro Detroit and shares a small wester ...

, which is now the parish house for the Saint Paul Catholic Church. The complex was designated a Michigan State Historic Site in 1992. Alexander Lewis died on April 18, 1908.

References

{{DEFAULTSORT:Lewis, Alexander 1822 births 1908 deaths Businesspeople from Ontario Mayors of Detroit Politicians from Windsor, Ontario 19th-century American politicians