Background
He was born in Salem, Iowa. He was the son of William Lewelling, an abolitionist and Quaker minister who died soon after making an empassioned speech in Indiana. After the accidental burning to death of his mother in 1856, he lived with his older sister and struggled to gain an education.
Education
He attended Knox College (Illinois), the Eastman Business College and Whittier College. He graduated from the Whittier College in 1867.
Career
Lewelling worked at various jobs until the Civil War broke out in 1861. He enlisted in an Iowa regement, but since he was underage, he was discharged. He was employed by a bridge-building corps around Chattanooga, Tennessee.
Employed by the Freedman"s Aid Society in 1865, he taught at a Negro school at Mexico, Missouri.
He was known as an excellent lecturer and frequently gave public recitals of poetry. He founded and edited the "Des Moines Capital", an "anti-ring" Republican newspaper from 1880 to 1882.
When Lewelling moved to Wichita, Kansas He broke with the Republican party and was swept into office as a third-party candidate in the gubernatorial election of 1892. The Democrats endorsed his candidacy and he was elected.
Lewelling presided over a state that was largely in the control of the Populist Party.
However, the state legislature was split, the Senate controlled by the Populists and the House by the Republicans. Despite both groups meeting in the same chamber at different times, conflict occurred and led to the "Legislative War", until the Kansas Supreme Court decided in favor of the Republicans. Lewelling died in Arkansas City, Kansas, and is interred at Maple Grove Cemetery in Wichita.
Politics
People"s Party, Republican Party.
Membership
Lewelling attempted to recognize only the Populist members of the House.