REV. LEWIS A. ATKINSON was born in Gallia County, Ohio, Apr. 24, 1821.  He spent his boyhood and earliest manhood in school and at work on the farm.  When eight yeas of age he united with the Methodist Episcopal church, of which he remained a faithful and consistent member until death.  He was converted in 1843, and on Sept. 18 of the same year was licensed to exhort.  Just thirty-nine years from the day he took out his first paper  of authority to preach, God gave him a call to a better country.  He received license as a local preacher May 9, 1846, and the same year he joined the Ohio Conference and entered upon the active work of the ministry.  He was married to Miss Amanda Long, Nov. 13, 1850.  He continued in the work of the ministry until bodily affliction compelled him to retire from the active work.  His ministry was very earnest and very successful.  His energy was greater than his strength, so that he was compelled to give up the regular ministry while yet comparatively in early years, though he never ceased to preach when he could.  He had been in nearly every neighborhood in Southern Ohio, and it is estimated that he has buried 300 people.  He received authority to solemnize marriages in Scioto County, Ohio, Oct. 24, 1848.  There is no record to show how many people he joined in marriage up to the time he entered the army, but the papers that he has preserved show that since the war he has joined in marriage 216 couples. In 1862 he enlisted in the army in defense of his country.  Through all the years of his army life no braver man stood on the battle-field than he.  Through all these years of trying army experience no man maintained a higher character as a devoted, consistent Christian than did he.  On Sept. 20, 1862, Governor David Tod appointed him First Lieutenant Company K, Ninety-first Ohio Volunteer Infantry.  Just twenty years from the day of his appointment he was buried.  Jan. 3, 1864, he received his appointment as Captain of Company G, of the same regiment.  He passed unharmed through all the battles of his regiment except the last two.  He was dangerously wounded in the battle of Winchester, Va., Sept. 19, 1864.  He came home about two weeks after he received his wounds, suffered extremely for five weeks, went back and received his discharge Feb. 3, 1865, and returned home.  Sixteen months later he had a relapse and was confined to his room one year.  He was Auditor of Jackson County from March, 1867, to March, 1869, and his political and official character was without a stain.  In 1872 he had another relapse from which he did not recover for about thirteen months.  Sunday, Aug. 13, 1882, he had another relapse, and after the most intense suffering died from the effects of his wound, Sept. 18, 1882, at Jackson, Ohio.  Before going into the battle in which he was wounded he called his soldiers to order and offered up a prayer to God in their behalf.  Before the battle closed he fell, bleeding and maimed, and eighteen years from the very day of his wounds he lay shrouded in his coffin.  July 20, 1882, just two months before his burial, his friends, to the number of about 300, gathered at his home, and gave to him and his wife the pleasant surprise of their presence, accompanied by presents to the value of $300, as tokens of their esteem and love.  The only time during all his last sickness, when his intense suffering seemed to relax, was for about five minutes, which he spent in expressing his high appreciation of the recent ovation given by his friends and neighbors.  This was to him the crowning event of his life and seemed to him in a great measure to repay him for the sacrifices and devotion of years gone by.  Mr. Atkinson had a deep Christian experience, and a consistent life which commanded the confidence of all who knew him.  His whole life was a grand testimony to his integrity and nobility of character.  He was always on the right side of any great moral question.  A man of strong convictions, he was unswerving in his fidelity to the truth.  In him was no guile or hypocrisy.  Although he is gone, his influence still lives and can only be measured by eternity itself.  In the language of another: "Lewis A. Atkinson, the Christian husband and father, the Christian citizen, the Christian minister, the Christian public officer, the Christian soldier and the Christian sufferer is at rest."
Source: History of Lower Scioto Co., Ohio - Publ. Chicago: Inter-state Publishing Co. 1884 - Page 543