Early life He was born on a farm near
Auburn, New York. He left school at 12 to work in a cotton factory. He later worked at a hoe, axe and scythe factory and returned to school. He had to work hard at his own studies to stay ahead of his pupils. Severe illness obligated him to give up the school after a year, and he never returned. Apparently a lack of funds prevented him from finishing the course there, and upon leaving he immediately opened up a medical practice in
Port Byron, New York. In 1848, he opened a practice in
Buffalo, New York. became well-known and profitable. Helen worked with Lewis on his publications, writing her own column on dress reform and woman's health.
Lectures From 1852 till 1860 Lewis was engaged in lecturing on hygiene, temperance and physiology. He began by lecturing on health topics in schools, and then in 1853 gave his first public lecture, addressing the topic of “The Influence of Christian Women in the Cause of Temperance”. This lecture stemmed from his experience in joining an organization called “The Sons of Temperance”: he had met indifference when he brought up the topic of having women in the organization. In 1856 he visited
Paris for a short time to obtain material for his physiology lectures and used the opportunity to attend clinics in some of the city hospitals. The Walters Art Museum. Evening classes in gymnastics were organized in
West Newton,
Newtonville,
Newton,
Newton Upper Falls, and
Watertown. The new system was introduced in a normal school in
Framingham, the Concord Hall school and schools in Boston. A public gym for men, women and children opened at 20 Essex Street in Boston. A lecture at a conference in Boston in August 1860 brought the new system to the attention of educators from across the United States.
Girls' school For three years, 1864–1867, Lewis ran a school for girls at
Lexington, Massachusetts, in which
Theodore Dwight Weld was a leading teacher, and
Catharine Beecher was for a time one of the lecturers. In September 1867, the school building was burned, and, although temporary quarters were at once secured in a summer hotel at
Spy Pond, the project was abandoned at the close of another year. The number of pupils rose to 140 in the third year, drawn from all over the country, and nearly 300 were enrolled during the whole period. Lewis claimed that, as a result of them, more than 17,000 drinking establishments were abandoned in Ohio alone in a period of two months. Most of the saloons that closed as a result of prayer vigils opened again a few days later to meet the public demand for alcoholic beverages. ==Family==