Richard F. Lewis came to Alaska around 1894, following his graduation from Harvard Law School. He married in 1898 in San Francisco and brought his bride, Grace, to Juneau. They spent their time between Juneau and California. In 1900 he was among the group of Alaskans who lobbied successfully in Washington, D.C. to have Alaska's capital moved from Sitka to Juneau. He retired to Piedmont, California in 1952 and died in 1955.

Lewis was called upon in 1938 to assist the Alaska Commercial Company of San Francisco, a trading company operating in Alaska, in establishing its title to the wharf and other property at Unalaska. By 1938 the company had sold all of their Alaska holdings except their trading posts at Dutch Harbor and Unalaska to former employees who organized as Northern Commercial Company. Dutch Harbor and Unalaska had been part of their original purchase from the Russian American Company in 1867. With increased U.S. Navy activity in the area in the late 1930s, the company's officers were concerned that their property would be taken over for military use.

The Dutch Harbor and Unalaska properties and merchandise were sold in August 1940 to Northern Commercial Company. Two weeks later the Navy selected Dutch Harbor as its Aleutian Island headquarters. The trading post there ceased operations for the next two years. The Unalaska post, however, continued in operation, catering to the many civilian construction workers as well as military personnel and local residents.

Alaska Commercial Company operations were divided into four Districts: Kodiak, St. Michael, Unalaska, and the Pribilof Islands. Some of the existing records have been assembled by W.J. Erskine, a longtime company employee who purchased the Kodiak District property in 1911. The records for the Kodiak District collected by Mr. Erskine are held by the University of Alaska, Fairbanks and have been inventoried by Wendell H. Oswalt in ALASKA COMMERCIAL COMPANY RECORDS: 1868-1911. Records for the St. Michael District and the Pribilof Islands are scattered, some being held by Wilson F. Erskine and others by the Jackson Library, Stanford University. Most of the Unalaska District records have been lost or destroyed.