Born in
Ridgeway, Wisconsin, of Welsh descent, Lewis began wrestling professionally winning a 64-man tournament in Montana in May 1882. He returned to Wisconsin and defeated Ben Knight for the Wisconsin Heavyweight Championship in a Mineral Point match on March 20, 1883. Moving to Madison in 1885, he later defeated several international wrestlers, including Andre Christol,
Tom Cannon, and
Matsuda Sorakichi. Defeating
Joe Acton in
Chicago, Illinois, for the American Catch-as-Catch-can Championship on March 14, 1887, he later unified the
World Catch-as-Catch-can and
American Greco-Roman Heavyweight Championship in a best-of-five match against
Ernest Roeber in
New Orleans, Louisiana on March 3, 1893 (he also had defeated him for the "Collar and Elbow Championship" on May 18, 1890). After defending the title for over eight years, Lewis lost the
American Heavyweight Championship to
Martin Burns, whom he had previously defeated in his debut match in 1886. In the 1880s he fought in
Cornish wrestling challenge matches against various opponents. He lost a protracted series of matches in 1883 and 1884 against
Jack Carkeek. As with most wrestlers at this time, he fought in mixed style challenge matches for significant prizes. For example, in 1892, in Chicago, he beat the
Cornish wrestling champion Jack King in a 5 styles match (
Greco-Roman,
Catch as catch can, American side hold,
Cornish and
Collar-and-elbow) for $500. In Chicago on June 20, 1898, Lewis faced
Yusuf İsmail, a 300 lb wrestler known as
the Terrible Turk, with a claimed record of 115 wins and no losses across Europe. The match took place in front of a reported audience of 10,000, for a purse of $3,500 and the “championship of the world”, and the strangehold was barred. Within three minutes, İsmail as able to get Lewis into a stranglehold so the fall was awarded to Lewis. After being cautioned a second time for the strangehold, İsmail won the second and third rounds in six and seven minutes respectively, though the method was reported to be a strangehold again, which was barred. Afterwards Lewis was quoted as saying, “I was licked. The Turk is the better man.” This was İsmail's last match as he died at sea the next month. Lewis died of cancer in
Dodgeville, Wisconsin on November 3, 1919. ==Championships and accomplishments==