LEWIS, ASA M. (?–?). Asa M. Lewis, attorney and public official, was in Texas by September 9, 1839, when he was granted conditional title to a lot at Columbus in what is now Colorado County. The census of 1840 lists him as the owner of two slaves and a carriage. He served as Colorado County delegate in the House of Representatives of the Seventh Congress, 1843–44 (see CONGRESS OF THE REPUBLIC OF TEXAS). On April 14, 1844, he was selected by Congress as town commissioner of the new Washington county seat, Brenham, where he was a prominent attorney. His house was the second permanent building in the community and at the time the only structure fitted with glass windows. On July 24, 1845, he received title to a tract of land in Washington County. In 1850 Lewis ran unsuccessfully for state attorney general. On November 17, 1851, he was a principal speaker at a convention held in Austin to urge the legislature to encourage railroad construction. He addressed the Texas House of Representatives on the subject of the "Separate Nationality of the South" on June 12, 1858.
BIBLIOGRAPHY: Colorado County Historical Commission, Colorado County Chronicles from the Beginning to 1923 (2 vols., Austin: Nortex, 1986). Texas House of Representatives, Biographical Directory of the Texan Conventions and Congresses, 1832–1845 (Austin: Book Exchange, 1941).
