Edwin Lewis, merchant, attorney, and land speculator, was raised in North Carolina and conducted business in Savannah, Georgia, before moving by 1803 to the eastern portion of Mississippi Territory that became the state of Alabama in 1819. The new town of Franklin was laid out in 1807 on land of his in Washington County on the Tombigbee River near Saint Stephens, where he had formerly had a store. Lewis served as deputy marshal of Mobile County in 1819, was commissioned a justice of the peace there in 1820 and 1823, and was authorized to construct a turnpike near Mobile in 1821. Over an extended period continuing as late as 1829, Lewis presented formal complaints against public officials and sought recognition of various land claims (Terr. Papers description begins Clarence E. Carter and John Porter Bloom, eds., The Territorial Papers of the United States, 1934–75, 28 vols. description ends , 5:282, 6:265–7, 18:401–5; Madison, Papers, Pres. Ser., 3:21; Clay, Papers description begins James F. Hopkins and others, eds., The Papers of Henry Clay, 1959–92, 11 vols. description ends , 4:701; Jacqueline Anderson Matte, Doris Brown, and Barbara Waddell, comps., Old St. Stephens: Historical Record Survey [1997; rev. ed. 1999], 29–32, 101–2; Harry Toulmin, comp., A Digest of the Laws of the State of Alabama [Cahaba, 1823], 422, 424, 773–4; JHR description begins Journal of the House of Representatives of the United States description ends , 8:26, 10:55, 128–9, 11:133 [18 Nov. 1811, 14 Dec. 1815, 2 Jan. 1817, 12 Jan. 1818]; Mobile Gazette & Commercial Advertiser, 15 Dec. 1819; A-Ar: index to the secretary of state’s commissions and civil appointments register; Jackson, Papers description begins Sam B. Smith, Harold D. Moser, Daniel Feller, and others, eds., The Papers of Andrew Jackson, 1980– , 10 vols. description ends , 7:768–9).