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Daniel Webster Lewis came to Arkansas from Frankfort, Kentucky, where he was born about 1851. He studied law under a white lawyer and a white judge in Marion (Crittenden County), Arkansas, and was reportedly admitted to practice about 1873 by the local circuit court. As of 1880, Lewis was 28 years of age and also identified as a merchant and justice of the peace. Another source states that he was elected judge of the Crittenden County probate court in 1882 and served until 1888. He served as a Crittenden County state representative in the Arkansas General Assembly in the 1883 session. He was an active Mason. He was married to Adline and had sons. He died in 1932.
Sources: Judith Kilpatrick, “(EXTRA)Ordinary Men: African-American Lawyers and Civil Rights in Arkansas Before 1950,” 53 Ark. Law Rev. 299, 302 n7, 307, 308 n 47, 330, 339 (2000); Blake J. Wintory, African-American Legislators in the Arkansas General Assembly, 1868-1893, LXV Ark. Hist. Q. 385 (Wint 2006);