Panel names new school

The wood-frame house is gone, replaced by the brick and mortar of Lewiston Elementary School.

But for Lou Ann Penland, the memories are still strong.

"There were a lot of Lewises in that area," said Penland, a former Lewis who is now the family's historian. "And, when they would have problems with the electricity going out, the people at Georgia Power would ask directions where to come. We'd say, 'Where all the Lewises live,' and they said, 'Oh, Lewiston."'

Penland's great-grandparents lived at the site on Hereford Farm Road where a school is now being constructed, and she lived in that same wood-framed house until she was 19.

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Members of the Columbia County Board of Education approved the name of the school at their meeting Tuesday night.

In naming the new school, Columbia County School Superintendent Tommy Price said he considered requests from the Lewis family who settled in that area, but was prohibited by board policy from naming a school after an individual. Instead, he looked at the geography for a name, and decided it would be appropriate to name the school after the Lewiston Community in which it is located.

"I was very well pleased," said Penland of the board's decision.

Penland said family records show her great-grandfather was born there in 1861, and his father settled in the area in the 1850s. The area was once called Sardis, but the name changed to Lewiston Community in the 1930s when Georgia Power ran electrical lines to that area.

The Lewis family also established Lewis Memorial United Methodist Church, which is located on the corner of Hereford Farm Road and Columbia Road, across from the school site.

Penland said it is fitting to have the school named after the family because her great-grandmother Lou Lewis was a strong advocate of education.

"My great-grandmother did not want her four sons to be farmers and she did everything she could to see they had the best education possible," she said.