Mr. James Lemmon was honored on March 19, 2023 by a ceremony which celebrated his life, including his service during the American Revolution, the War of 1812 and as a pioneer of the Republic of Texas.
James Lemmon, son of Robert Lemmon, was born near Hagerstown, Maryland. As a youth of only twelve years, he served as a messenger boy during the American Revolution, a role deemed safer for children than for adults. He carried dispatches from the camp of General George Washington to that of Captain Robert Lemmon (his father) and to other officers. He resided in Washington’s encampment at Valley Forge and was known to address the General affectionately as “Uncle George.” Toward the close of the conflict, James enlisted in the Continental Army as a private and served until the conclusion of the war.
Mr. Lemmon was married two times. In 1800, he first married Sarah Carr. The couple resided in Bowling Green, Kentucky, until Sara’s death in 1815. Thereafter he removed his family to Indiana, where he later married Amy Rawlins. About 1834, attracted by the prospect of free land, they settled in Greene County, Illinois, where they lived as neighbors to Roderick Rawlins.
In 1844, Roderick Rawlins relocated his entire family from Illinois to Texas and established residence in Peters Colony upon a land grant situated partly along Ten Mile Creek in what is now the southern portion of Dallas County. Requiring assistance in conveying his large household to Texas, Rawlins was accompanied by the young Robert Allen Lemmon (son of James Lemmon) and by Carlos Wise, both neighbors and friends of his own son, Alexander. These two youths were so favorably impressed with Texas that they selected adjoining tracts of 640 acres each, adjacent to the Rawlins grant, and returned on foot to Illinois to bring their parents.
Robert Allen Lemmon returned in August 1845 accompanied by his father, James Lemmon; his mother, Amy Rawlins Lemmon; and his younger brother, Jackson Lemmon.
James Lemmon, a citizen of the Republic of Texas, died on 4 July 1858 at his home three miles below Lancaster, on the Dallas–Ellis County line. He was interred in Edgewood Cemetery, Lancaster, Texas, near the site where the Rawlins caravan had encamped upon its arrival in Peters Colony in 1844.
James Lemmon is among the few soldiers of the American Revolution buried in Texas and is the only such veteran interred in Dallas County.
—Adapted from information attributed to The Dallas Morning News, 1948
