A new episode of “Journeys with Local Historia” will premiere October 20 on public television, WPSU-TV. It’s about an early nineteenth century outlaw named David Lewis.
“We think he’s probably the most interesting outlaw in American History,” says historian Matt Maris of Bellefonte.
Maris is the founder of Local Historia, known for their walking history tours in central Pennsylvania towns and for their WPSU-TV show. Davey “Robber” Lewis, as the subject of their upcoming episode was sometimes called, lived in the early 1800’s.
Maris says the show will separate fact and fiction in the story of the outlaw.
“The episode does a great job of kind of myth-busting but also highlighting some lesser-known facts about this outlaw who’s often called the Robin Hood of Pennsylvania.”
Historian Dustin Elder of Tyrone is a co-owner of Local Historia, and co-hosts the program. He says the show will tour of some of the outlaw’s haunts that still exist today, to bring the legend to life.
“Basically every newspaper in Pennsylvania has some sort of David Lewis story from their community,” Elder says, “Whether he robbed someone there, or whether he gave to the poor there, or whether he was in a shootout there.”
“Journeys with Local Historia: David Lewis: The Robin Hood of Pennsylvania ” premieres Monday night, October 20 at 9:30 on WPSU-TV.
