CHARLES B. LEWIS won fame as an American humorist under the name of "M. Quad."  It is said he owes his celebrity originally to the fact that he was once mied up in a boiler explosion on the Ohio river, and the impressions he received from the event he set up from his case when he was in the composing room of an obscure Michigan paper.  His style possesses a peculiar quaintness, and there runs through it a vein of philosophy.  Mr. Lewis was born in 1844, near a town called Liverpool, Ohio.  He was, however, raised in Lansing, Michigan, where he spent a year in an agricultural college, going from there to the composing room of the “Lansing Democrat.”  At the outbreak of the war he enlisted in the service, remained during the entire war, and then returned to Lansing.  The explosion of the boiler that “blew him into fame,” took place two years later, while he was on his way south.  When he recovered physically, he brought suit for damages against the steamboat company, which he gained, and was awarded a verdict of twelve thousand dollars for injuries received.  It was while he was employed by the “Jacksonian ” of Pontiac, Mich., that he set up his account of how he felt while being blown up.  He says that he signed it  “M Quad,” because “a bourgeoise em quad is useless except in its own line—it won’t justify with any other type.”  Soon after, because of the celebrity he attained by this screed, Mr. Lewis secured a place on the staff of the “Detroit Free Press,” and made for that paper a wide reputation.  His sketches of the “Lime Kiln Club” and “Brudder Gardner” are perhaps the best known of his humorous writings.
Source:  Biographical Memoirs of Wyandot Co., Ohio - Published 1902 - Page 193