MONEY OPTIONS TRAPSHOOTING LEWIS CLASS

THE LEWIS​

Rather than start with the earliest money option of the many I have in my files, I thought perhaps providing a little history about the widely-known “Lewis Class” would attract more interest.

We’ve all played the “Lewis Class” option but few know any details of from where it came. Just a few years ago this money option had its birthday, hitting the century mark, but with no fanfare, no celebration and not even a salute and acknowledgment of its existence in our shooting magazines.

Yes, the so-called “Lewis Class” option has maintained its popularity for over 100 years without anyone offering a written tribute, informing the those in shotgun shooters of its origin.

So, who invented the “Lewis Class System” and
in what year was it first used?​

That’s a difficult question to answer due to a dispute that dates all the way back to 1914, some 4 years after the earliest known mention of this form of money option being used at tournaments in Western Pennsylvania. Sporting Life magazine was the first I’m aware of, to bring up the “Lewis system” when reporting on the tournament staged at the Herron Hill Gun Club, in Pittsburgh, Pennsylvania, on April 19, 1910, under the auspices of the Western Pennsylvania Trapshooters’ League. Contained in the notes of the shoot was the following : “The Lewis Class system worked fine, but this was a foregone conclusion, for we used it all last year.”

This would place the creation of the “Lewis” back to at least 1909.

Jimmy Lewis, a representative of the Winchester Repeating Arms Company, from Pittsburgh, PA, was given and openly accepted credit for this method of equalizing shooters of all levels of skill.

In March, 1912, Jimmy Lewis wrote a short article which Sporting Life titled :

WHAT TRAP SHOOTING NEEDS
Leading Sportsmen of Country Contribute to “Sporting Life’s”
Symposium of Opinions Regarding Upbuilding
BY JAMES LEWIS,
Winchester Company Lewis System Inventor.​

"To boom shooting I have always contended that "equal contributors should have an equal chance for results. To accomplish this result I worked out the Lewis Class System, which has been used with great success in the Western. Pennsylvania, Trap Shooters’ League, in many of the clubs through Western Pennsylvania and by the famous du Pont Gun Club, at Wilmington, Del. An equal amount of money or trophies, an equal number of moneys or trophies, an equal number of shooters are assigned to each class. One-fourth (if more than 20 shooters, one-third (if less than 20 shooters), of the shooters completing the program shall constitute a class.
Scores are arranged in numerical order and so divided. The division containing the high scores is Class A, next Class B, next. Class C, next Class D. Before this system was adopted in the W. P. T. S. L. the average amateur attendance was 16. For the past three years, since using this system, the average amateur attendance has been 61. I am in favor of any system which brings the shooters out. Believe me to be, with kindest regards, sincerely yours, JIM LEWIS.

James Lewis the Winchester Pro had been getting credit for crafting the Lewis System the past 6 years when all of a sudden, the authenticity of this claim was challenged by another shooter. In July of 1914 George S. McCarty submitted his written uncertainty of Mr. Lewis’s claim.

AMATEUR TAKES EXCEPTION
George S. McCarty Claims Lewis Class
System as Own.​

Philadelphia, Pa., July 21. – Editor "Sporting Life." – I am constantly receiving shooting programs in which a Lewis class system is used, and I understand that Mr. J. Lewis, who is associated with an ammunition company, claims to have originated this system. If I understand his plan correctly, I would state that he did not originate it, and to prove that I am correct in this statement, I herewith hand you program of the Pennsylvania State Sportsmen’s Association for 1909, held at Reading, Pa., and managed by Mr. J. Mowell Hawkins. The general plan of this program was drafted on my boat at North, Md., in 1908, by Mr. John W. Lewis, of Reading, and myself, and was refined and finished in Frank M. Eames’ office, with Charles Newcomb, Harry David, Frank Eames and myself present. You will find on page 13, a classification of shooters A, B and C, and a full explanation of these classes and how they were to be determined. This excerpt from the program follows:
Class "A" shooters to be determined as follows: To consist of ten high positions at the finish of the day’s program; for instance the program calls for 185 shots; say high score man 175, and they follow in order, thus: 173, 172, 172, 171, 170, 169, 168, 167, 167, 166, 165, 165, 165, 165, etc. It will be seen that Class "A" takes in the scores of 175 to 165, inclusive. Class "B" shooters are those whose scores are covered by the next ten scores below Class "A" and Class "C" shooters all below Class "B." The money in each class divided 30, 20, 10 per cent., high guns in said class.
Every man shooting for targets only has the same chance at this high gun purse. To participate shooter must put up $4.70. Contestants when making entry must enter for targets only or sweeps and can not change from one to the other after entry has been made.
How Mr. Lewis can claim to have originated this method of classifying shooters is a mystery to me. If he can show me a program previous to this one where anything similar to this was used, I shall be pleased to see it, and gladly apologize for this letter. Otherwise, I believe credit should be given for this idea to the people who first thought of and used it. I will also add that some of our ammunition friends criticized this program severely at the time, but now are using it and claiming to have originated it. If the powers that rule would give amateurs credit for the effort they have made in the past it to help solve the program question the target game would be farther along and a more attractive sport than it is at the present time. I might add further that I do not believe this method of division equitable and that shooters should be classified before they shoot. Under the above plan any man will fall down and take B money, which will cause dissatisfaction. Yours very truly, GEORGE S. McCARTY.

In responding to Mr. McCarty’s claim, Mr. Harry Brooks writes that Jimmy Lewis did in fact originate the system and it was adopted by the Western Pennsylvania Trapshooters’ League back in 1908, about the same time McCarty and his friends were working on their option to returned money back to shooters in lower classifications.

SHOOTER REPLIES TO M’CARTY
Pittsburgh Sportsman Declares Jim Lewis Discovered Disputed System.​

Pittsburgh, Pa., August 8. – Editor "Sporting Life." – It is about time that some one of the trap shooting covey took up this argument of Mr. McCarty’s, in which he claims to be the originator of the class system and has several times of late brought the matter to the shooters’ attention in various publications. The various articles have not been answered. Mr. McCarty, you have attacked Mr. Lewis, who is the originator of the Lewis Class System and brought this system before you. For one, I want to see Mr. Lewis get the credit. He is too good a sport to get in an argument of this kind. His disposition and nature will not permit him to go on record through several magazines. His business has nothing to do with the argument. You set forth the fact that the Reading program of 1909 is the proof. This shoot was held in June, if I am not mistaken. If this is a fact and you make claim to this particular point, what would you say if I could show you a program issued by the, Western Pennsylvania Trap Shooters’ League of a shoot that was held by the Pittsburgh Gun Club with the Lewis Class System in April, 1909? It’s a tough proposition to get back into ancient history and find a program. According to the Sporting Bible of the Western Pennsylvania Trap Shooters’ League, in the year of 1908, at the annual meeting the Lewis Class System was adopted. On the minutes of this meeting we find a resolution passed and adopted, with Louis Lautenslager in the Chair, and the following true sportsmen present: Elmer Shaner, Luther Squier, A. H. King, Billy Patterson, Chas. Grubb, J. S. Connelly, Edw. Hickey, L. B. Fleming, H. B. Pierce and dozens of others whom I cannot recall at this writing. You have about as much chance to work the Lewis Class System or drop for place as you have of getting a rattlesnake out of a badger hole. James Lewis is to be highly praised for his system. You cannot dispute that the poorer, or, rather, the 60 per cent. shooter, gets as much pleasure out of the game as the 90-mile-a-minute boy. In fact, from observation I find the boys at the head of Class C or Class D are a little more appreciative than you or I, and, believe me, they love the gun and the woods as well as anyone. Look at the big attendance at the shoots with the Lewis Class System. This is a proof that this system has virtues. Mr. Lewis has worked on this system year after year. It has taken time and study to" bring this system up to a higher plane, where the same would be more in accordance to the shooters’ ideas. Mr. Lewis is to be highly complimented for the class system, as well as for his good
judgment in not putting himself on record regarding this controversy. Don’t you think it is very possible for two minds in different sections of the country to be working out a problem of the same nature at, per chance, the game time?. I believe Mr. McCarty had in mind some sort of a system, but the same was brought out later than, that of James Lewis.
HARRY E. BROOKS.

George S. McCarty never responded to this dispute again publically. The “Lewis Class System” continued to be reported time and time again as the creation of Jimmy Lewis. Mr. McCarty maintained his fine reputation as a great trap shot, guardian of the sport, and would later serve as Delegate, Eastern Zone Vice-President and our second ATA President. His integrity was beyond question of the highest level. He spent months away from his family, overseeing the construction of the old club house and shooting grounds when the Amateur Trapshooting Association made the decision to settle in Vandalia, Ohio in 1923.

When Luther J. Squier, general Sales Agent for the DuPont & Hazard Powder Co. and inventory of another money option died in 1933, Lewis wrote the following about his old friend :

“He was the first professional to envision the need of reforms in the purse divisions if trapshooting was to survive. Did he blindly grouse and criticize. No. He peeled his coat and worked out the Squier Money Back System. Assailed from every angle he fought and strove until he put it across and secured for the majority of shooters the first reduction in the cost of tournament attendance.
When in 1907, I created the Lewis Class System, Luther opposed it as he thought my plan to make the ninety percent of the shooters who could not break 90 % contestants instead of contributors, was too radical.
When he saw it bring to the Western Pennsylvania League an attendance unequaled in trapshooting history of one day shoots, he became one of my most enthusiastic and loyal pluggers for the system in spite of the fact that he knew it meant the passing of his own.”

As far as history is concerned, Jimmy Lewis, the Winchester Rep, continues to maintain recognition as the creator of the Lewis System though he admitted many times that he worked on it with Luther J. Squier. The year of creation . . . . . circa 1908.

Here is the explanation of the Lewis Class System by Jimmy Lewis, which appeared in the April 1, 1939 issue of Sportsmen’s Review:

Enjoy Our History !

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