LEWIS C. VANDEGRIFT was born in Delaware in St. George's Hundred, son of Leonard G and Hester Vandegrift, where his ancestors had lived since the earliest settlement of the country, on August 27, 1855. He attended the public school with regularity, and with the education there received, together with the assistance of private instructions during the last two years before leaving home, he was enabled, in the Spring of 1873, to enter Delaware College, and graduated with the class of 1875. After graduating, he returned for a post-graduate course during the year 1876, and afterwards taught school for a few months and then registered as a law student with Hon. George Gray. Mr. Vandegrift entered the Law School of Harvard University in the Fall of 1877, and graduated from there in June, 1880, having, in the meantime, during the November term of 1879, passed his examination and gained admittance to the Bar of this State. He first undertook the practice of law in January, 1881, in Wilmington, and during the first few months, in order to make both ends meet, did work for nearly if not quite all the Wilmington papers, besides writing for the Sunday editions of some of the Baltimore papers. The necessity for a divided interest did not, however, continue long, as Mr. Vandegrift quickly reached a self-supporting point in his practice. During the year 1881, he assisted the Hon. George Gray, then Attorney General of the State, in the prosecution of many of those charged with minor offences. The first case ever tried by Mr. Vandegrift was the first case tried in the then new Court House at Wilmington. In the latter part of 1881 he was invited by Edward G. Bradford, Esq., to form a co-partnership for the practice of law, and the invitation was accepted. The firm of Bradford & Vandegrift has continued uninterruptedly since the beginning of 1882, with increasing success, until at the present time it commands one of the best practices in the State. In politics Mr. Vandegrift is a Democrat, and has always taken an active interest in whatever appertained to the welfare of the State. He had held no political office until appointed in April last as United States Attorney for the District of Delaware. He was sent by his party as one of the delegates from this State to the National Democratic Convention which met in St. Lois in the Summer of 1888. No outside interest, however, has ever been allowed by Mr. Vandegrift to interfere with the practice of his profession, and with the duty he owes to those who trust him with their legal business, He is an indefatigable worker in the interest of his clients, and in return is held by them in the utmost confidence.

Source Page 220, History of Wilmington, compiled by Every Evening, Wilmington DE., 1894