Great great uncle Edwin Lewin

[Lisa in California]

Have you found obituaries for Edwin Lewin and/or his children?  Sometimes noteworthy items were included in obituaries, especially if the "item" occurred in the same locality as the person's death.  (I hope that makes sense.)

[LFS]

Thank you Lisa for the suggestion - something I do all the time for Uk deaths - I had not really been aware of Findagrave for instance, but realise I need to push that particular boundary a little more, and not just look for the deaths. 
I'm very grateful for your help.
Derby Girl

[Lisa in California]

If you haven't tried this already...

San Angelo appears to be the largest town/city near Miles, Texas.  You might try writing to the library, to either try to obtain an obituary for Edwin; or, to explain the family story that he may have started the bank.  They may be able to give you online places to research the bank.
http://www.tgclibrary.com/genealogy.asp#Genealogy Databases

Be careful of any "hidden" costs, though.  They do mention a fee for printouts, but after quickly scanning the page, I don't see other costs.  A couple of years ago, when researching in California for my husband's ancestor, I didn't notice the fine print and did end up paying a fee for the library's services (which was understandable, given the time spent to help me). 

You might consider mentioning that you don't live in the states (I'm guessing that you live in the UK); they may understand the difficulty you encounter researching in a different country and possibly may try to provide as much information as possible, since you cannot visit and use their resources.

http://chroniclingamerica.loc.gov/
Newspaper link - I briefly looked earlier and didn't see anything, but I could have missed obituaries or bank information.

[LFS]

Thanks very much Lisa
Yes, I do live in the UK. I will have to think about the next steps - and thank you very much for the advice.
Best wishes
Derby Girl

[ShaunJ]

have his birth as 22nd September 1837.

Ancestry has his death certificate, with a birth date of 12 September 1837.

[ShaunJ]

I see that in 1885 they were resident in Rocky Creek, in Brown County.

https://goo.gl/Uap7Ch

[ShaunJ]

Edwin, wife Eliza, and daughters Edith & Frances are in Brown County in the 1900 census. Edwin is a farmer (a bit of a change from being a barristers clerk in London).

Son AH Lewin is with the Robinsons in Miles in 1900.

[LFS]

Thank you very much ShaunJ - it looks to me as if son in law Henry Wilks and son Arthur started the bank in that case, as we never seem to see Edwin in relation to it.  Mind you, I wonder how they got started as a bank - I have a notion of storekeepers offering credit and so on, and developing into a bank, rather than waking up one day and saying, let's start a bank.  And yes, barrister's clerk to farmer does seem a bit of a jump - though I suspect quite a few pioneers made a similar jump. Edwin seems to have done well out of it.  That's really helpful, and has cleared up the problem as I see it.  Thank you very much for that - another family legend adjusted!
Derby Girl

[Lisa in California]

Edwin, wife Eliza, and daughters Edith & Frances are in Brown County in the 1900 census. Edwin is a farmer (a bit of a change from being a barristers clerk in London).

Son AH Lewin is with the Robinsons in Miles in 1900.

I know very little about Texas (especially during the late 1800s), but there's the possibility that Mr. Lewin started with a "farm" and with time he could have acquired a lot of land and possibly raised cattle.  He could have made a lot of money in this adventure.

A 1906 New York passenger list (the Baltic arriving 16 November 1906) shows Edwin and Eliza, ages 69?, final destination Miles, Texas.
Occupation:  "none" is crossed out and it looks like Cattle? (dealer?) is written above.  Apologies if that is not what is written.

He could have provided some of the money to get the bank started, if he actually did work with cattle and was able to make a good living.