Born in New Jersey, Lewis and a friend, Lucius Allen, traveled across the continent in 1851 to open a dry goods and grocery store in what was then a frontier town of about 800 people living along the west bank of the Willamette River.

Married to Clementine Couch, daughter of another prominent Portland pioneer, Lewis fathered 11 children and after 1881 lived in a large, elegantly furnished house within walking distance of his office.

[2] By 1860, Allen had moved to San Francisco, a seaport city about 600 miles (970 km) south of Portland, where the company bought most of its supplies.

Within 10 years, this group of dedicated Front Street merchants and their families would dominate the economic, political and social life of Portland.

All became warm and lasting friends with Ladd, the former teacher and railroad agent, first among equals... With Benjamin Stark and John H. Couch, who became Lewis's father-in-law, they formed Portland's earliest Establishment, one of merchant-entrepreneurs.

[6] In 1891, Lewis was named to the original Port of Portland Commission, established by the Oregon Legislative Assembly to oversee the maritime commercial and shipping interests of the city.

Roughly 30 years later, after a public library opened in Portland in 1891, members of the Cicero Lewis family were among its largest donors.

[5] The Lewis property, facing 19th Street, included stables, a greenhouse, and a sweeping drive leading to a carriage porch.

Their very large house was built in a stick style that was "rather simple for its period", but its interior featured tall windows, a massive staircase, front and rear parlors, a reception room with a marble fireplace, and tall mirrors in elaborate frames, as well as "rare woods, marble mantels, brocaded walls [and] fine lighting fixtures" throughout.