DEATH OF DR. LEWIS SHANKS. Seldom have we taken up our pen with more melancholy feelings than we experience in fulfilling the duty of announcing the death of one of of our oldest, most amiable, and most respected citizens--DR. LOUIS SHANKS. It was stated in our paper yesterday that the doctor was in a dangerous condition in consequence of having taken morphine, a deadly opiate, for quinine. On Wednesday morning at 8 o'clock, in consequence of illness, he took from medicine he had in the house, a dose from a paper marked "quinine." This drug and morphine are alike in appearance and similar in taste. After taking the medicine, the doctor experienced symptoms which led him to fear that it was not quinine, but morphine he had taken. On referring to the label, and finding it bore the word "quinine," he was satisfied for a short time that all was right, but the symptoms becoming unmistakable, he exclaimed: "I have taken morphine and it will kill me!" Medical assistance was at once obtained, and during the day, the most able medical gentlemen in the city exerted their utmost skill. Their efforts were in vain. The powerful narcotic had seized too firmly the springs of life, and at half-past seven o'clock in the evening, Memphis had lost one of its richest possessions--a good man. DR. SHANKS came to this city from Virginia, in October 1836. The place was then a little settlement, and, in the career which it ran until it has become a flourishing city, Dr. Shanks was ever ready with an earnest public spirit to encourage improvement and assist enterprise. At the time when new settlers began to seek a house in the prospering young town, and had to undergo those trials of health, and those discouragements to which new settlers are liable, he was obedient to every call of mercy and of duty. His advice, his sympathy, and his professional skill were freely lavished on the poor and the stranger. Many who are now wealthy and surrounded with the luxuries of life, can recall the time when dispirited by difficulties and distressed by sickness in their families, Dr. Shanks entered the door and with encouraging voice and kind attention to the sufferers, relieved anxiety, animated the drooping heart, and restored health. He was charitable on the christian model, doing good silently, like the dew which refreshes the parched herbage, but remains unseen until the rising sun transforms each modest drop into a sparkling gem. the kind heartedness that characterized his younger days was not extinguished by years. The sick soldiers lying in the hospital of the Southern Mothers, have experienced from him the same kindly attention he used to lavish, twenty-five years ago, on the poor Irishman shivering with ague in his rough shanty. The charitable disposition of Dr. Shanks was coupled with warm and consistent piety. He was a devout member of Calvary Church, of which he was senior church warden many years, and p to the time of his death. His pastor mourns his loss as one of the treasures of his flock. As a physician, the deceased took a pride in his profession, and actively engaged in establishing the Memphis Medical College. He was, at the time of his death, a trustee of the city hospital. For some years he was Alderman of the First Ward. He had suffered severely by casualties before the tragic incident that robbed him of his life. About twenty years ago, while mixing some acrid preparation in a mortar, the mortar was overturned and some of the liquid flew into his eye, destroying the sight. About two years since he lost his only son, who accidentally shot himself withe a pistol. DR. LEWIS SHANKS is gone from amongst us, but his memory will long survive. We have never known a more general expression of sorrow than we heard in every part of the city yesterday, when it was reported that a man so widely loved, so affectionately venerated, was no more. To him may be applied the words of Job, "When the ear hard him, it blessed him; and when the eye saw him, it praised him; because he delivered the poor that cried, and the fatherless who had none to help him. The blessing of him that was ready to perish came upon him, and he caused the widow's heart to sing for joy." When the spot for the remains of Dr. Lewis Shanks are moldering to dust is pointed out to the inquiring stranger, it will be with the remark, "Here a just man sleeps!" (Published by The Memphis Daily Appeal, Memphis, TN, Friday, October 18, 1861.
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Suggestions received 02/02/2019 from Find A Grave contributor Christopher Gadsen (49576146):
Change first name from from Lewis to Charles
Change middle name to Lewis
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Suggestions received 07/05/2022 from Find A Grave contributor Vickie Elam White (47009015):
Change first name from Charles to Lewis
Change middle name to (empty) from Lewis
Change 1st wife to Mary Crab Thomas, died in VA in 1833
Change 2nd spouse to Mary Crabb Shanks (1812 - 1866)
---Suggestion received 07/07/2022 from Find A Grave contributor Vickie Elam White (47009015): Mary Shanks (37731861) - She was his second wife, also named Mary. She was NOT Mary Crabb Thomas, who died in Botetourt County in 1833 and is buried there.
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PLEASE NOTE:
---NAME INSCRIBED ON TOMBSTONE IS "DR. LEWIS SHANKS"
--ALTHOUGH I ADDED MARY CRABB SHANKS TO THE 2ND SPOUSE FIELD, IT STILL APPEARS AS LISTED BECAUSE THE 1ST SPOUSE IS NOT LINKED.
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From search of online burial records of Elmwood Cemetery (https://www.elmwoodcemetery.org/Search) on May 5, 2023:

DR. LEWIS SHANKS (service 10/18/1861) - Chapel Hill, Plot 85, Grave 7
Other Plot Occupants:
COL JAMIES A. LOUDEN (service 5/18/1932)
VIRGINIA L. LOUDEN (service 7/16/1873)
MS. VIRGINIA L. LOWDEN (service 7/16/1873)
CHILD OF D SHANKS (service 5/24/1856)
CHILD OF D SHANKS (service 5/28/1856)
CHILD OF D SHANKS (service 5/24/1857)
CHILD OF D SHANKS (service 11/25/1856)
MRS M SHANKS (service 3/9/1866)