This photograph from the Carleton Kelsey Collection shows Dr. Morley Brown Lewis (1869-1955) and his wife, Mary Robina Law Ettershank Lewis (1870-1958). A notation on the reverse indicates this image was captured in 1947 while the couple enjoyed Thanksgiving in Westhampton Beach. Kelsey saved a letter with this image, which he received from their son Arnold Meredith Lewis (1904-1994), sharing details about Arnold's parents.
Morley B. Lewis was born May 27, 1869, in Yarmouth, Nova Scotia, Canada, to Thomas McGill Lewis (1836-1909) and Jane Hunter Flint (1843-1920). At age 12 he left Yarmouth and traveled to Ontario, where his brother, presumably Gordon T. Lewis (1862-1945), was teaching. After hospitalization for typhoid fever, Lewis showed interest in the medical field. By 1891, Morley made his way to the United States, where he worked as a door-to-door salesman for a home remedy book, "The Cottage Physician," in Clinton County, N.Y.
He attended Baltimore Medical College, eventually graduating in April 1896. Two months later, he married a teacher from Ontario, Mary R. Ettershank, in Amagansett, with whom he raised three children. After the wedding, the couple rented a cottage and started his medical practice in East Hampton, which allowed frequent visits with his brother, the Rev. Gordon T. Lewis of Sag Harbor. According to Arnold's letter to Kelsey, Dr. Lewis delivered two of his own children, along with all eight of his grandchildren. Arnold was the exception, delivered by Dr. David Edwards.
Dr. Lewis eventually moved to Sag Harbor in 1909, where he continued practicing medicine, after a brief three-year absence. He helped many East End patients, while also actively serving in official positions such as Suffolk County coroner and president of the Village of Sag Harbor. Dr. Lewis is also recognized as an original co-founder of Southampton Hospital. He died on Dec. 3, 1955, at 86 and is buried at Cedar Lawn Cemetery in East Hampton.
Mayra Scanlon is a librarian and archivist for the East Hampton Library's Long Island Collection.
