Rev. Charles M. Lewis was born in Madison county, N. Y., Oct. 27, 1818. His father was a member of the Free-Will Baptist Church of Unadilla Forks. At the age of twelve years he went to live with Amos Burdick, on Plainfield Hill, where he laid the foundation of his deep spiritual character. The next year he made a profession of religion, and joined the First Brookfield Church, and in his earnestness and zeal thereafter, followed the sermon on Sabbath day with a stirring exhortation. January 6, 1839, in his twenty-first year, the Brookfield Church licensed him to preach, and though his early education was limited to the common school and one term in the Cedarville Academy, he was thoroughly versed in God's Word, and developed almost an apostolic eloquence. In the spring of 1839 he was settled at Verona, where he was soon after married and ordained, and then began that blessed series of revival services by which so many hundreds were led to Christ and gathered into our churches. His great power lay in that winning manner in addressing the ungodly, in his marvelous power in prayer, and his burning earnestness and simplicity in public exhortation. He loved souls, and could therefore win them. He was much upon his knees, and therefore seemed above all others to prevail in prayer, while his public exhortation seemed set on file of the Holy Ghost. His last, and in some respects his grandest, work was at the First Alfred Church, where he gathered in a great harvest of souls, and developed the activities of the Church in so many ways. He gently passed into the other life Feb. 17, 1883.
