India Ada Melinda Agee

     India Ada Melinda Agee was born on 10 January 1884 at Floyd County, Virginia. She was the daughter of John Thomas Agee and Mary Gilham Epperly.

India Ada Melinda Agee married William Percy Pendleton, son of Joel H. Pendleton and Rosabell (--?--), on 23 July 1898 at Floyd County, Virginia.

India was enumerated with William Percy Pendleton on the census of 27 June 1900 at Burk's Fork, Floyd County, Virginia, as India A. Pendleton. She is a 16 year old white female born Jun 1884 in Virginian and has been married for 2 years. She has given birth to one child and one child survives. She can read and write. Both of her parents were born in Virginia.²

India was widowed by the death of William Percy Pendleton on 9 October 1903.

India Ada Melinda Agee married Aubrey Gordon Lewis, son of Martin Elkanah Lewis and Letitia A. Mason, on 16 March 1905 at Meadows of Dan, Patrick County, Virginia.

India was enumerated with Aubrey Gordon Lewis on the census of 25 April 1910 at Centralia, Lewis County, Washington, as India Lewis. She is a 26 year old married white female. She has been married 2 times and 5 years in present marriage. She has given birth to 3 children and 3 survive. She was born in Virginia as were both of her parents. She can read and write.³

India was enumerated with Aubrey Gordon Lewis on the census of 7 February 1920 at Camas Prairie Precinct, Klickitat County, Washington, as India Lewis. She is a 36 year old married white female born in Virginia as were both of her parents. She can read and write.⁴

India was enumerated with Aubrey Gordon Lewis on the census of 4 April 1930 at Bingen, Klickitat County, Washington, as India Lewis. She is a 46 year old married white female born in Virginia as were both of her parents. She was 21 years old at her first marriage. She can read and write and is retired.⁵

India Ada Melinda Agee died on 1 June 1966 at Bingen, Klickitat County, Washington, at age 82.

An obituary was in the Mt. Adams Sun: DEATH CALLS INDIA LEWIS WHO WAS GIVEN CHOICE OF LIVING IN BINGEN
Funeral services for Mrs. India Ada Lewis, 82, Bingen were held at 1 p.m. Tuesday, June 7 at Gardner's Chapel, White Salmon. The Rev. Kenneth Schellbach of Clatskanie, Ore. officiated. Burial was in Mt. Adams Cemetery, Glenwood.
Bearers were sons and sons-in-law: Clarence Lewis, Harold Lewis, Verley Woosley, Henry Ladiges, Wallace Davis and Maurice O'Grady.
India Ada Agee (who chose to live in Bingen because she loved it) was born Jan. 10, 1884 at Floyd, Virginia and was married to the late Aubrey Gordon Lewis on March 16, 1905 at Meadows of Dan, Va. where India's father owned a grist mill that is still in operation -- or was when Mr. and Mrs. Lewis celebrated their golden wedding anniversary in 1955.
In April 1908 Mr. and Mrs. Lewis left their home on the crest of the Blue Ridge Mts. and moved west to Glenwood Valley in Washington where "A.G." bought 80 acres of sagebrush and timber for the state for $1085 and sold it 40 years later for $16,000.
After freighting lumber and produce from Glenwood to Bingen from 1908-11, "A.G." moved his family to Centralia where he ran a store for three years before returning to Glenwood and building a house.
The following fall, he started a grocery and feed store in Glenwood which he operated until 1915 when the Lewis family moved to Bingen to put their children in a better school and started another grocery which he sold to Tom Norby in 1936 to return to his beef and dairy ranch in Glenwood.
When illness forced him to give up farming in 1948 "A.G." told India the she could choose their next place to live. She chose Bingen. After Mr. Lewis died on Feb. 2, 1960 she continued to occupy their home where she died of a heart attack Wednesday night, June 1.
She is survived by eight children, 17 grandchildren and 13 great grandchildren and one sister, Mrs. Frances Colburn of Meadows of Dan, Va.
Her children, in chronological order, are Nancy, Mrs. Walter Kidd of Portland; Clarence of White Salmon; Grace, Mrs. W.M. Davis, Glenwood; Harold, postmaster of Bingen, Edna, Mrs. Verley Woosley, Bingen; Russell, Spanaway, Virginia, Mrs. J. O'Grady, Hermiston, Ore; and Lorene, Mrs. Henry Ladiges, Jr., Glenwood.⁶