James Lemmon - Lancaster, TX - American Revolution Patriot Graves on Waymarking.com

James Lemmon was born around 1765, as the son of Captain Robert Lemmon of the Baltimore County Militia. In his early teens, James ran messages between George Washington's camp and the other colonial commanders.

The Dallas Morning News on June 27, 1948, published a biography of James Lemmon:

The story of James Lemmon is a straw in the wind of the story of Texas. But you have to go back a lot further to get it, back to around 1752 when a young Virginia major and his militia were sent to tell the French commanders at Venango and Fort La Boeuf in Northwest Pennsylvania to get out. The young major was named George Washington. In his command were two Scotch-Irishmen recently of County Tyrone, Ireland - Robert and John Lemmon.

In 1754 they went back with Major Washington when he was sent to rout the French at Duquesne, where Pittsburgh is now, and failed. They went back with him and Braddock the following year.

The Lemmon family settled down near Haggerstown, Maryland after the Indian War, carved farms out of the wilderness, grew restive at the annoyances an inept Parliament and tyrant put on Americans. In 1765 when Patrick Henry and George Washington were eloquently protesting the stamp tax, a son, James Lemmon, was born to Robert Lemmon.

James Lemmon grew up on resentment. When he was five years old, people talked of five Bostonians killed by the Red Coats who had been quartered among them. When he was eight, nearby Baltimore forced the captain of the "Peggy Stuart" to burn his ship and tea cargo. A great deal of the time he heard mentioned George, George, George - George Washington. Then when he was ten, war was declared and their George Washington was put in command.

Father Robert Lemmon was made a captain of Maryland Militia, Uncle John Lemmon was made a captain in the Virginia Militia and young James Lemmon fretted. "When could I go to war?" he asked. Like all of the Lemmon family, he was big for his age.

In 1777, when he was twelve, he went with "Uncle George" when George Washington needed friends. General Washington's soldiers had been driven back through New Jersey where the colonials refused to sell to his hungry ragamuffins the beeves they kept for the pursuing General Howe and the British soldiers.

At Brandywine, Captain John Lemmon was killed. General Howe and the British then captured Philadelphia where during the winter of 1777-78 the British were dined by the Tory sympathizers while General Washington's tatterdemalion starved and suffered at Valley Forge.

James Lemmon, according to his great, great granddaughter, lived and starved with "Uncle George" and was also a messenger between the commander and other Colonial forces. It was safer for a boy than for a man and all loyal men were desperately needed.

But in a year, a tall boy became a tall man and was now big enough to handle a rifle. James Lemmon became a private in Captain George Wall's company in the 4th Virginia Regiment. Later he would serve under leaders whose men harried Cornwallis in the low countries. These men were Colonel William Harden and General Francis Marion, the Swamp Fox.

When Cornwallis had been trimmed down to size and had been hemmed in on the narrow peninsula at Yorktown, and the French fleet had sailed up to prevent a British escape, and Washington and Lafayette attacked from the front, James Lemmon was there. And no one was happier when Cornwallis surrendered and his "Uncle George" was vindicated through victory in the American Revolution.

In December 1783, James Lemmon was paid 19 pounds, 11 shillings and 8 pence for his services during the American Revolution. James Lemmon, the veteran soldier of the Revolution, was still only in his teens.

Three years later, his father took the family to another new land, the place the Indians called "Kentucke", meaning bloody ground. There the Lemmons carved another farm out of the wilderness.

Around 1800, James Lemmon married Sarah Carr and took his new bride into New Indiana where he cleared another farm and helped bring civilization to the area. Seven children, including three sons, were born to Sarah and James Lemmon. Their names were John, George and Hardin and the boys were named after the early heroes of James Lemmon - John Lemmon, his uncle who was killed at Brandywine, George Washington, his commander and Colonel William Hardin under whom he served in the low countries (Carolinas).

In 1815 after his wife, Sarah, died, James Lemmon sold his farm and moved further west to Illinois, taking all of his children with him. There he found abundant land and established another farm. Soon, he married Amy Rawlins, with whom he fathered eight more children, including Francis Marion Lemmon, named after another of his favorite generals, the Swamp Fox of South Carolina.

In 1844, James Lemmon was aging and his hair had long ago turned white. At that time, a cousin of his wife, decided to come to Texas and join the Peters Colony in the Dallas area. He asked Robert Allen Lemmon, a young son of James, to help him with the caravan when it moved across the country. When young Robert Allen Lemmon saw the rich black land in the Lancaster community, he quickly filed his claim. Unfortunately, young Lemmon had no money, he was too young and he had no family to justify the homestead claim of 640 acres. The determined Robert Allen Lemmon walked back to Illinois to try to persuade his aged father to again sell his farm, move to Texas and take out the land grant in his own name.

James Lemmon, the white bearded warrior who had fought the Red Coats and the redskins, who had carved three farms out of the wilderness of Kentucky, Indiana and Illinois, who had two wives and had fathered fifteen children still had one more fight in him. And so in 1845, and nearly eighty, James Lemmon sold his farm in Illinois and moved to Texas, then a new and savage Republic of Texas. He is reported to have brought with him in his leather bound trunk several letters from General Washington. None of these letters has been found in recent years.

Three miles south of Lancaster, amid the rolling plains of the great and fertile black lands, James Lemmon stopped for the last time and, again, helped bring civilization to another great wilderness.

In late June 1858, as his new country sizzled with heat, James Lemmon became ill. On July 4th, the anniversary of his country's birth, he had a spell and shortly after noon, James Lemmon passed to his eternal reward.

On July 5th he "was neatly and carefully buried" in Edgewood Cemetery just south from Lancaster.

Patriot Name: James Lemmon Type of Service Provided: Messenger for George Washington Cemetery Name: Edgewood Cemetery Text of the Grave Marker: A child of the revolution James Lemmon Died July 4.1858. Aged 89 years. Amy Lemmon, his wife, buried in Myrtle Cemetery, Ennis, Ellis Co. Tex. Grave Marker Type: Original marble marker Historical Background: SAR Patriot #: P-235358 James Lemmon, the son of Captain Robert Lemmon, was born about 1765 in Hagerstown, Maryland. Apparently, James followed his father during the Revolutionary War and was a messenger. "It was safer for a boy than for a man."

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