[2][4][5] In 1845, when he was seventeen years old, Lewis made a four-week trip to the Lake Superior region of the Upper Peninsula of Michigan with General John Stockton, a government mineral agent.

Lewis again traveled to Upper Michigan in mid-1847 to obtain samples of copper ore. On his return trip to New York City he met Horace Greeley of the New-York Tribune on journalism matters.

[2] Lewis stayed with Perry until mid-1848,[2] when he took a job in July at the Detroit Daily Commercial Bulletin, a newspaper that had started two months earlier.

Clemens in September of that year;[2] the weekly newspaper was published under his complete control until 1863, when he partnered with Major E. W. Lyon in its publication and their partnership continued until 1867.

[2] In December, Thompson bought out all the partners of the newspaper and he subsequently sold it to the Saginaw Enterprise Publishing Company.

[7] Lewis started several other Michigan newspapers including the Saginairian in 1869, the Mt Pleasant Journal in 1880, and the Bay City Daily Morning Call in 1881.